While I predominantly play single-player video games, there is an exclusively multiplayer video game that I’ve been playing and enjoying for years now, Overwatch. As you can imagine, I was quite excited about the eventual release of Overwatch 2 but, as the years went on, the fanbase, which includes myself, began to become more and more weary as Overwatch languished with little to no new content and the release date of Overwatch 2 seemed to be increasingly nebulous with an expected 2021 release passing by with only rumours circulating. However, the launch of Overwatch 2 finally came a few weeks ago and so, as a longtime player of Overwatch, I thought it might be interesting to share my own thoughts.
The first thing that I have to specify is that, as of this article, I can only share my thoughts on the launch of Overwatch 2 rather than the whole game of Overwatch 2. If you’re wondering why this is the case, it’s important to know that Overwatch 2 as it stands now is, for all intents and purposes, an early access game that has yet to deliver much of the content that was announced with Overwatch 2 such as PvE story missions, hero missions, customisation and leveling. Therefore, I can only examine Overwatch 2 as it stands today and not what it may be in a year or two from now.
Let’s start with my thoughts on the most fundamental shift in gameplay, the change from 6v6 to 5v5. Overwatch originally consisted of six players on each team, two tanks, two damage and two support. This has been changed in Overwatch 2 so that there is only one tank per team, hence it is now five players per team. As someone who ended up playing a lot of the tank role in the original Overwatch, mainly because I filled for teams and tanks were the least popular role, I was quite disappointed at this but it isn’t quite as bad as I expected it to be. I do feel like tanks are more like overpowered damage characters now but many of them remain incredibly fun to play and, for the moment at least, I can live with this change.
Besides that, I do really enjoy the new game mode that was added, Push, which has each team working to guide a robot to push a barricade towards the enemy’s spawn room. There is a very nice flow of back and forth that’s ultimately very satisfying. Having said that, it’s important to note that a game mode called Assault, also known as 2CP, was removed from the most of the gameplay modes in Overwatch 2. The reason for this is pretty clear, Assault was the least popular game mode in the original Overwatch and many fans rejoiced when it was announced that it was being removed from the lineup. I actually enjoyed 2CP myself so I’m glad to see that it’s occasionally available in the arcade but I personally wouldn’t mind seeing it rejoin the quick play and competitive someday.
I’m also enjoying the new characters that have been introduced to Overwatch 2. While playing the beta, I found myself continually playing Junker Queen as I love how aggressively she plays and her wound mechanic which deals a small amount of extra damage to enemies hit with certain abilities that also provide some small healing to herself. Kiriko, the newest hero, is also a really fun character to play who can provide moderate healing while also dealing large damage when hitting the opponent’s critical spots and being highly maneuverable by being able to climb walls and teleporting to allies. Sojourn is the new character that I’ve spent the least time playing due to me usually playing either tank or support but Sojourn is still quite fun with a unique mechanic where her rapid fire shots build up a charged shot that can be devastating when hitting a critical spot. She’s also got some very nice maneuverability as well so I would say all of the new heroes are great.
Now we get to arguably the most controversial aspect of Overwatch 2, the monetisation. Overwatch originally had an upfront cost to purchase and was also supplemented by loot boxes that contained cosmetics. However, this model eventually proved to be archaic compared to many other modern games and Overwatch 2 has instead gone free-to-play while also introducing a shop and a battle pass. The fact is, I knew the original monetisation of Overwatch wasn’t enough as I was able to get practically everything for every character without ever spending anything on microtransactions. This new model would be fine were it not for a few critical issues. First, the new currency, Overwatch Coins, is obscenely difficult to earn through gameplay and it would cost an obscene amount of real world money to unlock all that I’ve already unlocked through playing the original Overwatch. The Battle Pass itself seems to be mostly OK, excluding the fact that you can apparently earn currency in other game’s Battle Passes but not in Overwatch 2, but their decision to lock new heroes behind the Battle Pass, even though they’re available in the free version at tier 55, is extremely frustrating as Blizzard is actively using heroes to pressure people into buying the Battle Pass to get access immediately. While I acknowledge that it’s not as bad as it could’ve been, I am still opposed to this practise.
As I said before, it’s still early days for Overwatch 2 and much of the content that I’m looking forward to is to come later. However, the game in its current state is still very enjoyable and, outside of the new form of monetisation, I’m not too bothered by any of the current changes. Let me know your thoughts on the launch of Overwatch 2, which aspects of Overwatch 2 you like and dislike, any hopes you have for the future of the game and any additional information you might have on the topic.
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