Reviewed on PC
Games can always launch in a disastrous state, and Overwatch 2 is no exception. For the new free-to-play competitive shooter to release in the state that it was on October 4th was enough to piss me off and everyone else. Long server queues, that extremely dumb postpaid phone number requirement (which we understand the purpose of, but it could've still been done better) - all of those problems contributed to a terrible first impression of OW2.
An Abysmal Launch Worthy of the Worst
A lot of games have had dismal launches over the years, and we're still not able to forget how bad it used to be. Batman Arkham Knight for PC, Assassin's Creed Unity, and the ever-polarizing Cyberpunk 2077 are among the numerous disastrous game launches I can recite off the top of my head. And I'd gladly put Overwatch 2 on that list - by a mile.
Look, a ton of things can go wrong if you want to change a lot with your original game. I imagine Activision Blizzard knew the risks and was prepared for it too. But perhaps a few shortsighted decisions also found their way into the plans as a handful of the problems OW2 had at launch were perfectly avoidable. Now look, negativity sells; we get it. So let's go on a long rant about the sad state of the game during the first part of this Overwatch 2 review. Are you ready? Here we go.
First off is something that might've struck a nerve with Overwatch 1 veterans like me. My biggest question is, why are some heroes locked at the select screen behind the battle pass or in-game challenges? This is even more annoying for those who actually bought the first game. It's so nonsensical. The better option would've been to lock the three new heroes (Kiriko, Sojourn, and Junker Queen) behind the pass and those in-game challenges, not the other ones that I've been playing for years. Make the new players earn them if they want to play them, and don't lock me out of heroes I've spent hundreds of hours on. What if my Main was among those which were locked?
Secondly, the server issues. OH GOODNESS, the server issues. People who wanted to play Day One were just hit by one problem after another when it came to merely connecting to the game servers. In my personal experience, server problems kept kicking me out of the game even if I had a connected Battle.net login. I had to re-login numerous times, and there were also instances when the login page wouldn't even accept my credentials despite my typing them correctly. What. The. Flark.
These issues basically almost took away all the enjoyment for me, but I'm glad it didn't. To give you an idea of just how bad it is, imagine having 400-500 players always ahead of you in the queue, just waiting to get in-game before Overwatch 2 even launches. Perhaps this is the one biggest problem going free to play - it's just open freaking season. If the game is sold retail, this won't happen, in my opinion. But I digress.
That's beside the fact that on Day One, that stupid postpaid phone number requirement basically locked me out and kept me from playing the game for days. Now, I get that Activision Blizzard just wanted to ensure that cheaters wouldn't destroy the game for everybody. But come on - I've been a model citizen ever since the first Overwatch. No cheating, no hacks, nada. And you're going to flag me for not having a post-paid mobile number? Are you kidding me? This game is supposed to be free-to-play, yet you will force me to pay for one?
Now, granted that the number requirement has been waived for those with connected Battle.net accounts, which means that it is still required for total newbies coming into the game. It's also probably an excellent filter to keep out undesirables just looking to sow discord. But with this, Activision Blizzard needs to learn its lesson.
Last but not least, in-game glitches are still present as of this writing. And these glitches can be absolutely game-breaking, more so if you're playing a ranked match where the stakes are high. During my playtime, a stupid, extremely annoying bug forced me to play a RANKED MATCH with the entire screen freaking blurred. What. the. Actual. Flark. I had no choice but to leave in the middle of the match because there was no way in the nine circles of hell that I was going to try and play with this crap. I took the damn suspension because I simply had no gosh darn choice. This is absurd, immensely anger-inducing, and absolutely, sickeningly inexcusable. Here's how it looks:
Overwatch 2 is fun when it works but absolutely horrendous when it doesn't. And for a free-to-play game, that's basically inexcusable.
Some Positivity Out of All The Trouble
Now, to say that this Overwatch 2 review is only going to focus on the bad would be a horrible generalization. I did have fun playing the game, all things considered. It managed to retain the charm that the original from 2016 had. This is the same kind of charm that captivated me (a gamer with a massive preference for single-player, story-heavy/driven games) to try out a competitive, multiplayer-only first-person shooter.
Gameplay is indeed far more fast-paced. As a D.Va/Reinhardt main, I struggled a bit with the increased game speed because Tanks aren't supposed to feel "quick." But eventually, I gained my bearings and started winning games. As for DPS, playing Damage this time also feels a bit better than the original game. I can't pinpoint the exact reason why, but it feels like DPS gameplay is snappier than I'm used to. And I'm okay with that.
Heroes might've had technically tiny changes, but these changes can be felt immensely in-game. A few cooldowns have been reworked that allowed for faster-paced gameplay with notably slower heroes (again, Tanks), with things like Reinhardt's shield being bumped down 300 points to 1200, forcing Rein players to push forward more and hold the fort down less. The same effect is present with the two-shot Firestrike this time around. This might make them "less tanky" in a grander sense, but I digress. I do believe, though, that this "push forward more" aspect of Tanks lends itself beautifully to specific game modes (which we'll talk about in a bit).
Nevertheless, perhaps I should be thankful that I am a Tank main because of the state of the queueing in Overwatch 2 these days. Everybody still wants to play DPS, especially in comp. I guess there's really nothing surprising there. But if you've always stylized yourself as a DPS main, you're out of luck when queueing for games, and you'll have to either wait for way too long - or try an unfamiliar Tank or Support role and get your bum handed to you.
When it comes to Competitive play, it really is still the same old stuff with a bunch of teammates just refusing to do their freaking roles and just Leeroy Jenkins-ing their way to try and get wins. But perhaps the newly introduced Push mode is probably the most "engaged" game mode for Overwatch 2, as it consistently has me on the edge of my seat whenever I'm in one - competitive or unranked. Push mode battles are tense but in a good way, and what makes it even better is that your teammates are actually quite invested in it, too - something that you'll rarely see in traditional game modes. There's far better team play in push mode, and that's one of the things that makes it great.
To cap things off on the gameplay side, the biggest omission, in my opinion, is the single-player PvE story mode. It was one of the major showcases back in the original 2019 reveal at that year's BlizzCon. I did learn that PvE is supposed to start next year, so I'll be patient about that.
Business As Usual
As previously mentioned in this Overwatch 2 review (and in all related marketing for the game), Activision Blizzard's revamped hero shooter is free-to-play. But a multi-billion-dollar company still has to make its money somehow, which is where the paid extra content comes in. Courtesy of the Battle Pass, you can unlock select Skins, Emotes, Weapon Charms, and other items by paying real-world money for them - by design.
I never really cared much for skins as a player, so the fact that you'll have to either buy them with real money or grind for an inordinate amount of time doesn't concern me a lot. It's the nature of free-to-play games, and Blizzard's still gotta make its money somehow. I'm also not too invested in the Battle Pass grind, so I'll leave this up to you to decide whether paying for the Premium is worth it or not.
Final Verdict
Does it change a ton of things from the original? No. not even close. But the thing is, I might not be too keen on that because the original game's formula was pretty good. Blizzard didn't reinvent the wheel much for this one, and that's okay - an insanely massive change could've alienated the original players who bought the game back in 2016. Blizzard obviously doesn't want to lose that install base all for the hope of attracting new players into the game.
I do feel that deactivating the original game is the best decision Blizzard made regarding Overwatch 2. Perhaps this could lead to something akin to the release of the World of Warcraft classic within the modern WoW, like an in-game "overwatch classic" mode that brings back the 6v6 open queue battles. I'm not holding my breath for this, though, as 5v5 definitely feels different from 6v6. Dare I say, it does feel better.
