Overwatch 2 garnered worldwide success after hitting 25 million downloads in the first 10 days, but was it deserving of the hype?
With this new title, Blizzard Entertainment takes a different angle on the first person shooter genre by introducing a unique cast of over 35 heroes, each with their own separate abilities. The core of the game is built around these heroes and how the player utilizes their strengths to win matches.
The game has undergone drastic changes since the time of its predecessor. Since the sequel to Overwatch was announced more than three years ago, millions of players have experienced changes including adjustments to team sizes, the transition to a live service model and more content overall. The game is now free to play and can be downloaded on PC or console at any time.
With its various gameplay elements, Overwatch 2 does plenty to stand out from its competitors.
The main competitive mode places a player into a team of five. If a player wants to maximize their chances for success, they will need to work with their team to complete the assigned objective. A team has heroes falling under one of three different roles: tank, damage and support.
Tank heroes hold the front line and create space for their teammates with their resilience and crowd control abilities. Heroes under the damage role naturally have high damage output and must look for a chance to eliminate players on the enemy team. Supports exist to keep the team alive and provide utility..
Heroes and roles add a layer of complexity to the game, allowing it to rise above the standard aim and shoot mechanics of other competitors. Since each hero comes with their own unique kit and playstyle, there is an opportunity for anyone to find their niche.
Senior Bennett Brown has been busy climbing the ranks in Overwatch 2. “Overwatch is unique because it isn’t completely reliant on mechanical skill unlike other first person shooter games of its era,” Brown stated. “Teamwork, timing, awareness, communication and strategy are the necessities to win; pure aim is just the cherry on top. The maps, gamemodes and hero design is essentially flawless, it’s undeniably a fleshed out experience.”
Each match is assigned an objective. ‘Escort’ requires one team to move a payload through three separate checkpoints while the enemy team tries to stop them. ‘Control’ requires teams to fight for control over a capture point. In ‘Hybrid,’ the team attacks a capture point, then escorts a payload.
‘Push’ is an objective that requires both teams to fight for control over a large robot pushing a barricade around a set track. The team who pushes their barrier the farthest wins the match. A colorful palette of maps are available to play these objectives, ensuring that no two matches are ever the same.
There is also an abundance of different modes for bringing your favorite heroes into battle, each with their own list of ways to play. ‘Quick Play’ offers the traditional Overwatch experience without any stakes, while ‘Competitive Play’ offers players from around the world the opportunity to compete for a spot on the leaderboard. For a change of pace, consider trying ‘Arcade’ to play in matches with features such as reduced ability cooldowns or exclusive objectives. If none of these sound appealing, players can create their own modes and rulesets From casual modes to enjoy with friends to high stakes competitive matches, there is never shortage of ways to play.
The game is set to receive regular updates at the start of every season, and promises new heroes, maps, objectives and more. Blizzard will continue to provide content for the game for years after its release.
Brown has experience with this content model in video games. “Live service is a blessing and a curse. Without it, the game becomes stale, but lackluster updates can cause community outrage,” he stated.
Brown also believes that the company can provide more for its players. “It’s unreasonable to expect a complete game overhaul every month, but it’s also not unreasonable to suggest that Overwatch can put out more for the player. But as long as Overwatch is making money and retaining players, it’s fair game whatever they do,” he clarified.
With this type of content plan, Blizzard created a solution to the constant cost of development. Despite the game being free to play, Overwatch 2 never falls short on ways to get players to part with their money.
A substantial amount of cosmetic items are available to the player in the shop. These items do not alter gameplay in any way but are visible to other players during matches. Some cosmetics include skins, emotes, weapon charms, voice lines and other decorations.
Each season, the player can purchase a $10 ‘Battle Pass,’ which contains an exclusive mythic rarity skin, a highly valued cosmetic that takes fashion to the next level. In order to receive all of the advertised items, players must gain enough experience to progress through each tier, up to 80 in total. Experience can be gained through challenge rewards or completing matches. Although the Pass offers rewards for players who don’t pay, they are meager in comparison to the premium.
One key criticism is that the game locks new hero releases behind the later tiers in the free battle pass track while letting those who pay the $10 fee unlock them immediately. Season 2 will require players to level up all the way to tier 45 to unlock the latest hero, ‘Ramattra,’ if they choose not to pay for the premium Battle Pass. Placing a lock at such a high tier will force players to log onto the game every day to earn daily and weekly challenge rewards, or face the possibility of missing out when the hero is enabled in competitive game modes.
Items offered in the store are anything but cheap. The game uses ‘Overwatch Coins’ for its premium currency, with each coin valued at one cent. Legendary skins have seen prices of around or higher than 1900 coins ($19) per skin, an incredible amount considering the sheer quantity of heroes and skins available. Moving forward, the player will need to consider their purchases carefully.
The shop also offers various bundles that are seemingly always offered at a discount. A player will never see the original price of the bundle, only the discounted version, which begs the question of whether or not there was a discount being offered in the first place. Blizzard explains how prices are calculated through disclaimers in each bundle, but fails to clarify why the discounted price suspiciously seems to be the intended price.
Brown has seen the monetization strategies firsthand. “Overwatch players shouldn’t care as much about cosmetics as they do, but to each their own. I personally really dislike how new characters are locked behind a paywall, considering Blizzard’s status as a billion dollar company. But, greed in the gaming industry has been the norm for a long time, and it’s not going to change soon,” he said.
Although every game needs to make a profit, there is no denying that the monetization in Overwatch 2 is aggressive. If the company removed the locks on new hero releases and provided more opportunities for players to earn premium currency through playing the game, a middle ground can easily be achieved.
Setting monetization aside, the fast paced and immersive gameplay overshadows many of the negatives. Many smaller issues such as heroes with over performing kits or the lacking information about the ranked system can be fixed with minor adjustments to and number changes.
Gameplay and features are important, but so is performance. Expect consistent frame rates across the board for most modern graphics cards. In most cases, optimizations are implemented well and the visuals look appealing even on the lowest settings.
A common discussion involves whether or not Overwatch 2 is different enough from its predecessor to be labeled a sequel. Although there are vast improvements to the gameplay as a whole, it remains difficult to justify the sequel namesake. A better description would be a large content update, though it is no use arguing over these semantics when the game is finally receiving regular updates after years of stagnation.
Overwatch 2 is a unique take on the FPS genre and offers a colorful cast of heroes to complete fast paced team objectives. Being free to play allows anyone to download and experience the game for themselves, even if its cosmetics are on the expensive side. Overall, this title is worth a try, and can easily provide hundreds of hours of content to fill your time.
