Overwatch took the gaming world by storm when it launched in 2016 thanks to its balanced roster of unique heroes and awesome objective-based first-person shooter gameplay. The game’s popularity has continued over the years thanks to a wealth of new content such as characters, maps, cosmetics and game modes that complemented the great foundation. However, as content for Overwatch dried up, public interest soon followed. Overwatch 2 is the resurrection of one of the best multiplayer games of the last generation, featuring a 5v5 format, a free-to-play structure and a ton of new content. The result is an action-packed and fun advancement of the popular hero shooter franchise that feels less revolutionary and more iterative than expected.
The core gameplay feels familiar and fresh at the same time. Capturing an objective with a coordinated attack, or activating your ultimate ability during a crucial last-second dash to ensure victory is just as breathtakingly exciting as ever. The way the heroes interact with each other – both in gameplay and personality – creates water chilling moments that I imagine will tease with my fellow players for years to come. The mechanics and gameplay remain mostly intact, but developer Blizzard made various changes to the core formula to deliver something that changes the flow of battles.
The new 5v5 format is perhaps the most significant change in Overwatch. Now traditional team comps fall on a tank, making its role as a damage sponge and utility player more important than ever. With Doomfist now being a tank and Orisa reworked to be more offensive, you now have a wider range of choices in this category. Outside of tank play, this 5v5 format opens the door to faster lightning bolts and ensures that every player has more meaning in every match. This shift is particularly evident in Push, the new game mode where players escort a robot to the other team’s spawn point. This mode is fast-paced and can quickly swing the other way, fitting perfectly with the new 5v5 format.
If you’re jumping into Overwatch 2 for the first time, you can expect a ton of new content right from the start: three heroes, six maps, one game mode, and more than 30 skins. The new heroes and maps are excellent additions to the existing lineups; Squire Queen and Sojourn are impressive in combat, but Kiriko remains one of my favorite support heroes to this day, with her formidable healing and buffing abilities and deadly kunai attack. When you combine these new characters with the revamps of longtime favorites like Orisa, Doomfist, Zarya, and Bastion, the roster feels refreshed and the meta is turned on its head.
Whenever a former premium title becomes free to play, players are rightly wary thanks to predatory monetization schemes that permeate the category. While players should still approach Overwatch 2’s free-to-play transition with caution, Blizzard is keeping the paywall-locked content. Best of all, players no longer have to cross their fingers to get anything other than duplicate cosmetics in their loot boxes.
Now Loot Crates are replaced with an in-game shop and Battle Pass, which progresses by completing in-game challenges. These goals range from winning a game as a healer to using a specific character’s ultimate three times. Some challenges update daily, others weekly, and others seasonally, so you’ll always have new goals to aim for. Every time you complete a challenge, you gain experience for the next level.
Progress accumulates steadily regardless of whether you pay the $10 (or equivalent in-game coins) for the boosted Premium Battle Pass. However, it’s disappointing that you have to reach level 55 of the free Battle Pass to unlock this season’s new hero. If you buy Premium, the hero joins your roster at level 1. The rest of the rewards are cosmetic, but with so many exclusive Premium Pass rewards, non-paying players may have limited satisfaction with this new structure. And with seasons lasting nine weeks, those who buy each Premium Battle Pass for $10 will dwarf the $60 MSRP of the original Overwatch in just over a year.
While I’m certainly skeptical about this new system, for now the structure seems like a reasonable alternative to the previous framework. Thanks to a glimpse of the content on the horizon, Blizzard has impressive plans for its resurgent hero shooter, and I like the existing challenge system. What I love most, though, is the intent behind unlocking rewards, which is a stark contrast to Overwatch 1’s loot box system.
Those who never played the first Overwatch face additional hurdles, such as the need to unlock the original heroes by playing a set number of games. Blizzard is pitching this as a way to ward off scammers since it’s now free to open a new account. But it ultimately feels like a penalty for not paying the price for the first game. The silver lining is that this drip-feed approach could bring new players on board without overwhelming them with lots of characters to learn. However, it feels steep to require players to complete up to 130 games to unlock the full roster. Luckily wins count double towards this number and you can use the original heroes in custom games. Plus, if you enjoy Overwatch 2’s moment-to-moment gameplay as much as I do, these unlock requirements will fly by. Still, I’m glad I didn’t have to complete them as a returning player.
Overwatch 2 doesn’t flip the formula in the way you’d expect from a long-awaited, numbered sequel. But through various clever tweaks, it’s a well-rounded evolution of the experience I’ve invested over a thousand hours into since 2016. I may never recreate the magic of those first few years in Overwatch, but Overwatch 2 is a huge step in restoring confidence in the franchise and makes me think it’s time to add a few hundred more hours to my favorite team-based shooter put.
