Overwatch 2 launched last night, and I managed to get a few games in (while spending most of my time watching my computer attempt to re-connect to their overloaded servers). This complicated mess of a game has spurred a massive amount of discourse online, so I felt it was only right that I add my own two cents into the vat of opinions.
Overwatch: Origins Edition
Let's go over the basics first. In 2007, Blizzard started work on "Project Titan," a massively-multiplayer-online first-person-shooter of sorts, tied to a whole new setting and set of characters– the first original project from Blizzard in decades. After six years of development hell the game was canned, but from the ashes came Overwatch, headed by one of the project's members, Jeff Kaplan. Overwatch is a class-based first-person-shooter, meaning you and your teammates compete against the enemy team by playing one of many characters ("classes") who wield unique weapons and abilities. Teamwork is key, and the composition of your team's characters is just as important.
Having grown up playing Team Fortress 2, a class-based shooter from Valve, I was immediately interested in Overwatch. While Blizzard tended to specialize in more competitive gameplay experiences– games like StarCraft, Hearthstone, and World of Warcraft which require a bit more investment from the player –I was hungry for a fresh class-based shooter with a whole lot of polish. Team Fortress 2, while still up and running (and now free-to-play), had become bloated and barely supported over the years. While I wasn't about to throw myself into the ranked-competitive scene and study the metagame, Overwatch scratched the itch and delivered a satisfying, original experience.
The original Overwatch cost $40 when it launched in 2016. It released with 21 heroes to play as, and 12 maps to play on. Over time, we got 11 more heroes and 18 more maps– about two heroes and four maps each year, all at no additional charge. The game's extra revenue came from loot boxes, a controversial type of microtransaction that has faded in popularity as various governments weigh the possibility of regulating them. Loot boxes are effectively gambling– you could pay about $1 per loot box, and you'd have a chance to open a common/rare/epic/legendary variant of a player icon/skin/emote/spray/voice line/victory pose/highlight intro. Similar to a booster pack for trading cards! Unlike most games however, you also had the chance of earning these through regular gameplay– loot boxes were handed out after playing enough games and leveling up, and you could also earn credits to spend on specific individual items (though some were only available for purchase during seasonal events).
The Vision for Overwatch 2
In 2019, Blizzard announced Overwatch 2, originally envisioned with two distinct features. Firstly, an overhaul to the existing player-versus-player game mode(s)– Teams of five rather than six, drastically less shields and stuns, faster movement and passive heals for certain classes, etc. Tons of small changes with wide-reaching implications. These changes would carry into the original Overwatch too- Existing players wouldn't have to pay anything to keep up with the overhaul and incoming improvements.
The real meat-and-potatoes of Overwatch 2 (and the reason it earned its "sequel" status rather than a free major update) was the exclusive player-versus-environment mode. Players could team up to fight against bots, rather than other players– akin to Left 4 Dead or even TF2's own Mann vs. Machine mode. The original Overwatch actually offered a handful of these experiences, but they were limited to seasonal events and played pretty similarly to existing game modes. The new Overwatch 2 PvE would consist of Hero Missions and Story Missions, where various items could give heroes new temporary abilities, and players could unlock upgraded skills ("talents") to use in future missions.
What happened next? A dizzying array of cataclysmic events, employee incompetence, and crap communication. First came COVID-19, which obviously resulted in a dramatic and immediate change to everyone's personal and work lives. Around this time was when Overwatch received its last new hero, along with just two new Deathmatch maps over the following year. In April 2021, Jeff Kaplan unexpectedly left Blizzard– the latest in a string of big-name departures over the year. Two months later, Activision-Blizzard was slapped with a massive sexual misconduct lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, primarily focused on the "frat boy" culture of Blizzard. Six months after that, Microsoft agreed to purchase the entirety of Activision-Blizzard for an earth-shattering $68.7 billion. All the while, Overwatch 2 was only slated to release "when it's ready," and development had all-but-halted on updates to the original Overwatch.
What We Got
In March 2022, Blizzard realized they had dropped the ball– The original Overwatch wasn't getting any new patches, but players were also in the dark regarding any progress or updates on Overwatch 2. They announced a beta for Overwatch 2, which launched the next month, and that the PvP mode would be launching separately from the much-touted PvE mode (now slated to release "starting in 2023"). However, the biggest change was announced in June 2022– Overwatch 2 was going to launch as a free-to-play title, where the old loot box revenue stream would be replaced with the latest trend: battle passes and a seasonal model.
It's no secret that cost-of-living has skyrocketed in recent years, making gaming-related expenditures a luxury. While "boxed" games (like the original Overwatch) continue to sell well, the free-to-play market has exploded, with several of the most popular games copying this model– League of Legends, Fortnite, and Genshin Impact have raked in ludicrous amounts of cash while launching free-to-play, and games like PUBG: Battlegrounds, Rocket League, and Fall Guys have transitioned to free-to-play models with major success. It's no surprise at all that Blizzard would like to follow suit and attempt to emulate their prosperity.
The New Revenue Model
But making the game completely free means that Blizzard needs to find alternate avenues of soaking up revenue, hence the seasons / battle pass. Every nine weeks, a new season will begin, with a new battle pass to compliment it. During these nine weeks, you'll need to earn experience points (XP) to level up through the battle pass– 10,000 XP for each of the battle pass's 80 levels. You earn XP by completing daily/weekly/seasonal/lifetime/hero challenges, which you're intended to earn throughout normal gameplay. (You also get a pithy amount of XP just for completing any individual match.) However, you'll only earn an item every five levels– unless you plan on spending $10 for the season's premium battle pass, which grants you a new unlock with every level, plus a 20% XP boost for the season, and instant access to the new hero.
Oh yeah, that's right. We'll be getting a new hero every two seasons, and that new hero will be locked behind the battle pass– In this season's case, Kiriko unlocks at level 55. This is the real twist of the knife– Skins and other items are really just for showing off to other players, but heroes can modify your actual gameplay experience. It inches dangerously close to the pay-to-win line, where players could find themselves performing better in-game after spending real money. One of Blizzard's main goals throughout Overwatch 2's development was to squash hard-counters– heroes who are designed specifically to counter another individual hero –so it's likely that these new heroes won't be absolutely crucial to winning a game, but it's a bridge too far for many players.
To be clear: Premium battle pass owners still need to grind through all 80 levels to earn all the seasonal content (though you can instantly jump through the first 20 levels for an additional $12). New heroes don't have to be unlocked to be used in the practice range, custom game modes, Mystery Heroes, etc. Also, if you played the original Overwatch on any platform, all your skins and coins carry over (and any unopened loot boxes are automatically opened for you)– plus, the game sports cross-play and cross-progression, so you can boot the game up on any platform, game with anyone on any platform, and anything you earn will be tied to your one Blizzard account.
The last piece to touch on here is the shop. Oh yes, beyond just the battle pass, there's also a shop of rotating items available for purchase. In the original Overwatch, you'd earn credits through regular gameplay, which you could spend on any skin you hadn't yet received via loot boxes– though some skins were only available for purchase during seasonal events. While your old credits carry over to Overwatch 2, and some skins are available for purchase using them, there isn't any way to earn more; Instead, you earn Overwatch Coins by completing those weekly challenges. You can earn 60 coins each week, so up to 540 a season– which isn't quite enough for the 950-coin premium battle pass. You can either save your coins to pick up every other premium battle pass (which fits with the "new hero locked behind the battle pass every two seasons" model), or you can spend them on whatever items might be made available in the shop (which refreshes its offerings every six days).
Can you blame players for being frustrated? After a multi-year content drought in the original Overwatch, we finally get Overwatch 2 with an aggressive battle pass model, no meaty PvE mode, and seemingly minor tweaks to the existing PvP. Previously, spending $40 meant you'd be able to earn any skin or item you'd want just by playing the game– Not every single item, mind you (though only the craziest people are determined to obtain literally every unlockable in a game like this), but nothing was off-limits due to an arbitrary time or monetary constraint. Now, $40 will get you, what, potentially four new heroes and a smattering of random skins? Other new skins have to be bought with coins, which you have to pay real money for beyond the 60 you could work to earn each week, and they have to be made available in the rotating shop– Plus, what about items you unlock in the battle pass? If I don't play for a whole season, will those battle pass items become purchasable in the store some day? And how does someone earn access to a hero if they miss out on that season?
And, look, I don't personally care all that much about cosmetics. Normally, I wouldn't really pay any attention to the battle pass at all. But there's some substantial content here, and it seems to be purposefully obfuscated to try and push you closer to just giving in and spending $10 on the premium battle pass. Putting heroes behind a fear-of-missing-out paywall or hefty time investment is extremely dangerous for the health of the game and its playerbase. Even cosmetics are tough to obtain, with or without spending real-life money. Requiring players to complete a litany of challenges to earn anything at all means your team is more likely to be thinking about their dailies than actively working to win the game. It seems like a small sliver of the entire experience, but it has major ramifications, even if you don't care about skins.
The Actual Gameplay Itself
So, what about the rest of the game? I'm a pretty casual player, so I'm really not all that familiar with the "meta" of Overwatch and Overwatch 2. I find myself reading a lot of comments online where people complain about this or that about either game, and I think, "Huh. I have absolutely no idea what they're talking about." I've only been able to play about six games of Overwatch 2 (and, uh, I lost the first five. Haha.), so here's just an overview of what I've observed so far.
First, some favorite arcade modes have now been promoted to legit default modes. You can choose to role queue– you'll be locked into playing only tank/damage/support roles, but at least your team will be evenly composed (and you might earn some extra XP in the process) –or you can join open queue and play as any hero you wish (and change mid-game, too!). Mystery Heroes and Deathmatch are also legit modes now– so if you play any of these, you'll earn XP towards your battle pass. This is all great stuff.
The three new heroes are all pretty neat. Sojourn plays like a Tribes: Ascend character, sliding around with a punchy gun that charges up as you hit players; She's likely a lot of fun. Junker Queen plays kinda like Roadhog, with a weapon that can be used to drag players towards her, but it comes with a passive heal, which is interesting enough. Kiriko is a mobile healer who can also easily deal a decent amount of damage with her kunai. I didn't get to playing them much in quickplay, but they all seemed unique and fun while practicing.
One thing that legitimately pisses me off: They removed the end-game accolades screen, probably one of my favorite aspects of the original Overwatch. When a game ended, you'd see a lineup of the winning team's characters, then you'd watch the "Play of the Game," then you'd get to vote on one of five cards; Each card listed something like "Spent X amount of time on the objective" or "Delt X amount of damage," and you'd see folks from either team. It was a great way to cool down after an especially frustrating match; When you got your butt kicked by the enemy Roadhog, at least you'd be able to end the game, see how good of a match they had, and vote on their card to give them a pat on the back. You'd also get to see how well you did, and it'd compare that to your previous stats– Like, "Oh, this might not have been my best game ever, but at least I healed more than my average" or something similar.
All that is gone now– After the "Play of the Game," they just show you how much XP you've earned towards your battle pass, then it's on to the next one! I hate, hate, hate this change; It makes games feel so much more frustrating when there's less downtime between matches and no opportunity to shake hands. You don't even have the opportunity to say anything to your team once the "Play of the Game" is over! Endorsements are still around, but they're also still shoved away in some menu somewhere– It'd be nicer if they at least put them front-and-center after a match is over.
There aren't a ton of new maps, but the new maps are huge and beautiful. I especially enjoy the new Push game mode, which works like a tug of war– There's a giant robot in the center of the map, and teams have to fight for control of the bot. When your team is in control, the robot pushes a barricade towards your finish line; When you aren't, you're fighting to regain control and send the robot back towards your team's barrier. Whoever's barrier is furthest along by the end of the game wins! It's fun, it's fresh, and it requires good teamwork. So it's a hoot!
The new HUD is fine. The new graphics look, uh, about the same. I really enjoyed how efficiently the last game ran on my machine; There's some nice bonus settings that let me tweak my experience a little more, but I haven't gotten to fully grasp everything quite yet. The game kinda crashed after tweaking with a few of them, which was a tad annoying for a launch-day experience.
Plus, on top of all of this, there's been some
signature Blizzard launch day strife as servers were totally overloaded all throughout the afternoon. I spent hours waiting in line to log in, with constant disconnects and restarts. Once I did get in, I only ended up getting booted out of one match because of a server disconnect, but trying to log back into the game put me back in the queue. Even the following day, getting into the game still isn't a guarantee. But this is apparently
the result of several DDoS attacks, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
In The End
At the end of the day, nothing quite scratches my class-based shooter itch like Overwatch. Overwatch 2 has some great, solid changes for the better– but there's also a ton of crap changes that make the experience worse. I don't really care about the fact that this sequel doesn't bring much new content to the table, because I do think that the overhauled PvP experience is for the better. I appreciate that going free-to-play lowers the barrier for entry, and cross-play/cross-progression will certainly result in a healthier player base going forward. But the battle pass is a rude awakening for players who are used to the previous title's full-fat experience, and I'm not hedging any bets that Blizzard will listen to the community and change things for the better– Kind of a Halo: Infinite scenario in that regard. I'll keep playing for the time being, but the new slew of microtransactions will definitely make me and my friends less interested in sticking around for future seasons.
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