Overwatch 2 is the latest in a string of bad game releases – and I’m not even talking about queuing

“Heroes don’t die.” That is OverwatchThe little mantra – if you or your teammates were ever the main force of Mercy, you’ve probably heard it a million times. It’s also become the game’s de facto catchphrase in a way: No matter how many times Blizzard slows down the drip-feed of new content, it always comes back. Often accompanied by a loud bang. Like a true hero, Overwatch — or at least the original Overwatch — never bows its head.

Until its own creator shows up and puts a bullet in its head. In order for a new hero to rise, the original hero must die. So Blizzard stood on top of its favorite creation, put icy steel on its forehead, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. In theory, something reborn from the ashes would be harder, better, faster, stronger…but in reality, it’s just a pale imitation of the past.

Overwatch 2, let’s face it, it’s a shocking release. If you’ve only spent a fraction of a second online in the past week, you’ve seen stories about queuing. Blizzard noted that many of the login issues came down to DDoS attacks on its servers. Fast forward 48 hours, however, and little has changed. As I write this, I have the Xbox version of the game open, and I’ve grown from 400 people ahead of me to 300, 800, and now 1600.

As a Brit, this chaotic queue really makes me sick. I know it’s not easy to launch a live service game in this day and age – GamesRadar put out a really good article explaining why a few years ago, look at games like Anthem, Apex Legends and Diablo 3. I sympathize, but I have no sympathy; Blizzard is one of the biggest developers in the business. If it can’t be done right, what chance does anyone else have?

Then the whole SMS crashed. What started out as a brilliant idea to prevent smurfing, griefing, and other esports-related words ending in -ing, locking players into one phone number without accepting prepaid calls or VOIP, ended up being a proper cluster . As Kotaku rightly points out, this is discriminatory and shortsighted. Blizzard has now half reversed that decision, but it’s still not ideal — it still means players can’t get into the game.

What do you get when you finally get the game? In my opinion, this is a game with a ripped soul. Blizzard took a lot of things from the game that made the original interesting, unique and interesting to give us a “smoother” experience… but all that did was produce a myriad of Overwatch clones that were more inspired by the original, rather than the actual thing itself.

Back in 2016, there was nothing quite like galloping across the map as Mercy, say, healing and empowering your teammates and firing a few shots with your pesky little pistol. Soften up some goals, fly to safety, heal your Winston, then revive your team before a well-timed, sensible push for victory. your reward? Your icon will catch fire. You’ll be visibly prominent on your team and the game will say “Hey, look at this guy – they know what they’re doing!”

“Fire” is both a motivator and a handy UI tool to tell you who is contributing to a goal. Blizzard is apparently considering a “revamp” of the fire mechanism, but we haven’t heard anything since May 2022. Considering the characters still have lines to say when you’re going to catch fire, it feels like there’s a hidden one measuring it somewhere, and the player just can’t see it. Um.

While catching fire in a live match is a great thing, there is immediate feedback in a live match, and the summary screen you’ll get complicates things even further. Head over to the results page and see that the medal is in your favor – even if you lose! – is another great game design by Blizzard. It exploits the “one more fight” mentality. If you get the silver badge for healing here, next time you can easily get gold… right? correct? ! At least that wrap-up page—you can praise Reinhardt for saving your ass in the pit at point C and encouraging positivity and teamwork—is still there.

Between a botched launch (without any of the PvE content we promised when we announced the game in 2019), some puzzling design decisions, and the fact that many console players still don’t have access to the game, Overwatch 2 is crowned champion 2022 Worst launch of the year (so far). Nor am I the only one who thinks so. Behind the design changes, UI tweaks, confusing battle pass, and dodgy publisher decisions, there’s still a great game here. Overwatch has always been great. Even going to 5v5 won’t change that.

But this isn’t the first service game — and it won’t be the last — to suffer this fate at launch. Check out the likes of Destiny 2, Street Fighter 5, Final Fantasy 14 – three very different games that prove it can launch like a wet fart in a pool and still save some Respect and etiquette. There’s also Rainbow Six Siege and Warframe.

But can Overwatch 2 reverse this lethargic launch? Critics say Blizzard has more chances to update its monetization plans than the studio offers something really new, is it possible for the game to – again – come back from the ashes and declare, no, actually “heroes don’t die”? Maybe. However, Overwatch 2 is also very likely to suffer the same fate as Battlefield 2042, where a poor launch will bury the game forever, no matter how hard it is to recover.

As a big Overwatch fan, I really hope Blizzard can leave some magic behind this disappointing sequel.