He's dead, Jim.
I legitimately can't believe it, Blizzard actually went ahead and "released" the exact same game that they'd compartmentalized and destroyed over the last six years with less features, a board-room bland UI, and a predatory battle pass. There is almost too many issues when it comes to Blizzard's decision making process in the last decade plus that even pointing them out becomes a chore, there is quite literally a surplus of awful, and Overwatch 2 is no exception.
I was a competitive player when Overwatch first released, and the game was a catalyst for me becoming a more social person as I met and befriended a completely new circle of people as well as for taking games much more seriously. I put hundreds upon hundreds of hours playing casual, custom, and competitive matches to hone my skills as both a single player and teammate. As the years went by, Blizzard did their best to make that experience that I had molded, a chore. The balancing team released meta-destroying characters and refused to change the game, more or less saying "deal with it" as the consensus of the beloved Overwatch took a nose dive. What people had fallen in love with, myself included, with Overwatch in 2016 was a completely new hero shooter experience that emphasized teamwork and jubilee. Time progressed and the experience of playing Overwatch became an experiment. Additions to maps and characters were lazy at best and boring, communication to the playerbase was insulting, the company did its best to ruin its internal image by doing a complete disservice and committing to horrendous acts upon its female employees, and they removed features from the Overwatch that gave it the identity it held. I didn't want to gloss over the treatment of women at Activision-Blizzard, as it is completely deplorable. Moving Overwatch to a five player team felt like a decision for decision's sake rather than actually investing in making the gameplay fun or invigorating. It felt like a corporate "what-if" scenario to throw at players to make them feel like "OOOH AHHH something new!" rather than put content in the game that would be genuinely interesting or engaging. Moving away from the open queue to a role queue that made it nigh impossible to play as a DPS further cemented the downfall of Overwatch from an acceptance standpoint. How does Blizzard expect working adults or anyone with a time constraint to wait anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes to find a match? In my previous days, when the game was still a little fresh, you could pop in and play as whichever character, and that was beautiful! If I wanted to play a ranked game, I could jump on and pick my Hanzo within a few minutes, play the game and be on with it.
I enjoyed each role in the first few years of Overwatch, playing at nearly the highest tier as both a tank and a healer, and near that as a DPS. I'm experienced in every role and I would like to think that made me a good well rounded player, yet having a queue and rank devoted to each seperate role enforced that I would never commit to the grind, because I simply couldn't afford the time for what was becoming such a middling gameplay experience. How is it that a game like Halo Reach, a game that I frequent, has aged better than Overwatch? Well you can abandon any of the incomprehensively poor gameplay decisions that Blizzard has made with OW in favor of a completely free, cosmetic only, not even available to purchase with a seperate currency, cosmetic pass for items not available in the original game. Overwatch, victim of a poorly designed ever changing meta, cannibalized itself by never having a gameplay identity that felt reliable. Reach fundamentally today is still the Reach it was back in 2010 from a matchmaking standpoint. Playing Overwatch now after the six years have passed since its original release feels like you've landed on the Planet of the Apes. Gone is the joy, gone is the happiness, gone is the gameplay loop that once took the world by storm, and now you have... role queue's, a poorly optimized engine, a few new characters which have boiled down the competitive and casual experience, an eyesore UI that robs the game of its flare, and a battle past thrust into the player as soon as they load up the game.
You know what's crazy? I've basically gone this entire "review" without mentioning Overwatch 2, and that's because it doesn't exist. Overwatch 2 is legitimately Overwatch again. It's the same exact game. Nothing is new, I figured that with the release of this game I'd be getting a plethora of new characters and maps, but that was not the case. Remember back in the day when Super Smash Bros Brawl came out and you cracked the game open, ran through the gambit and unlocked freaking Sonic and Solid Snake? That's what a new title based on heroes should feel like. In Overwatch 2 you load into the game, should you have an account from the first Overwatch, and you have all the characters, the same ones from Overwatch and/or the Overwatch 2 beta, which again is just Overwatch with a new character. How is this excused? How was Blizzard able to craft this update as a new game and how are journalists and consumers even treating this like its a second game? I'm at a loss for words at the predatory greed that Blizzard continues to embark itself on, between WCIII, Diablo Reforged, and Overwatch 2, Blizzard has done nothing but demonstrate that they do not care for their consumer base, just for their coffers.
I remember having the physical copy of Gameinformer two years ago, long before GI got culled in the same style of corporate greed as Blizzard, that went into extreme depth detailing the story and narrative experiences of Overwatch 2. Can you recall that adding a story to go along with these heroes was the entire reason that this game was coming out? Probably not! Blizzard went into depth about the mission structure and RPG elements of Overwatch 2 as its selling point, giving some love back to the players who requested more out of the attractive new IP. Not often does a company like Blizzard, which has some committed series lore in games like Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft launch a new title in a completely new universe. Players were hungry for some insight on the characters they were playing as, clawing for any exposition they could get on the world of heroes and Overwatch 2 was it!... until it became clear that the company couldn't offer what they had promised players and instead realized they could be milked like the cash cows they are. Why give your players, after years of clamoring for more and promising of a new story experience what they asked for when you could opt for a faux relaunch of the baked down version of the game they're already playing (and leaving?)
It's for this reason that I'm granting a half star review for Overwatch 2, I don't know what makes it a new game, other than the predatory battle pass and resoundingly boring new UI experience. There's no single player, there's no new exciting group of characters, there's no graphical update, there's no improvement to user communication, there's just more of the same. Why don't we start releasing new Fighting game characters as new games. Bridget is now out in Guilty Gear but its the exact same game? How about release it as Guilty Gear Strive 2! PUBG has a bug fix update and a new 3x3 map? Let's release it as PUBG 2! This is an inexcusable, undeniable cash grab by a former legendary developer that is now a complete husk of its former self.
Overwatch is dead.
I legitimately can't believe it, Blizzard actually went ahead and "released" the exact same game that they'd compartmentalized and destroyed over the last six years with less features, a board-room bland UI, and a predatory battle pass. There is almost too many issues when it comes to Blizzard's decision making process in the last decade plus that even pointing them out becomes a chore, there is quite literally a surplus of awful, and Overwatch 2 is no exception.
I was a competitive player when Overwatch first released, and the game was a catalyst for me becoming a more social person as I met and befriended a completely new circle of people as well as for taking games much more seriously. I put hundreds upon hundreds of hours playing casual, custom, and competitive matches to hone my skills as both a single player and teammate. As the years went by, Blizzard did their best to make that experience that I had molded, a chore. The balancing team released meta-destroying characters and refused to change the game, more or less saying "deal with it" as the consensus of the beloved Overwatch took a nose dive. What people had fallen in love with, myself included, with Overwatch in 2016 was a completely new hero shooter experience that emphasized teamwork and jubilee. Time progressed and the experience of playing Overwatch became an experiment. Additions to maps and characters were lazy at best and boring, communication to the playerbase was insulting, the company did its best to ruin its internal image by doing a complete disservice and committing to horrendous acts upon its female employees, and they removed features from the Overwatch that gave it the identity it held. I didn't want to gloss over the treatment of women at Activision-Blizzard, as it is completely deplorable. Moving Overwatch to a five player team felt like a decision for decision's sake rather than actually investing in making the gameplay fun or invigorating. It felt like a corporate "what-if" scenario to throw at players to make them feel like "OOOH AHHH something new!" rather than put content in the game that would be genuinely interesting or engaging. Moving away from the open queue to a role queue that made it nigh impossible to play as a DPS further cemented the downfall of Overwatch from an acceptance standpoint. How does Blizzard expect working adults or anyone with a time constraint to wait anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes to find a match? In my previous days, when the game was still a little fresh, you could pop in and play as whichever character, and that was beautiful! If I wanted to play a ranked game, I could jump on and pick my Hanzo within a few minutes, play the game and be on with it.
I enjoyed each role in the first few years of Overwatch, playing at nearly the highest tier as both a tank and a healer, and near that as a DPS. I'm experienced in every role and I would like to think that made me a good well rounded player, yet having a queue and rank devoted to each seperate role enforced that I would never commit to the grind, because I simply couldn't afford the time for what was becoming such a middling gameplay experience. How is it that a game like Halo Reach, a game that I frequent, has aged better than Overwatch? Well you can abandon any of the incomprehensively poor gameplay decisions that Blizzard has made with OW in favor of a completely free, cosmetic only, not even available to purchase with a seperate currency, cosmetic pass for items not available in the original game. Overwatch, victim of a poorly designed ever changing meta, cannibalized itself by never having a gameplay identity that felt reliable. Reach fundamentally today is still the Reach it was back in 2010 from a matchmaking standpoint. Playing Overwatch now after the six years have passed since its original release feels like you've landed on the Planet of the Apes. Gone is the joy, gone is the happiness, gone is the gameplay loop that once took the world by storm, and now you have... role queue's, a poorly optimized engine, a few new characters which have boiled down the competitive and casual experience, an eyesore UI that robs the game of its flare, and a battle past thrust into the player as soon as they load up the game.
You know what's crazy? I've basically gone this entire "review" without mentioning Overwatch 2, and that's because it doesn't exist. Overwatch 2 is legitimately Overwatch again. It's the same exact game. Nothing is new, I figured that with the release of this game I'd be getting a plethora of new characters and maps, but that was not the case. Remember back in the day when Super Smash Bros Brawl came out and you cracked the game open, ran through the gambit and unlocked freaking Sonic and Solid Snake? That's what a new title based on heroes should feel like. In Overwatch 2 you load into the game, should you have an account from the first Overwatch, and you have all the characters, the same ones from Overwatch and/or the Overwatch 2 beta, which again is just Overwatch with a new character. How is this excused? How was Blizzard able to craft this update as a new game and how are journalists and consumers even treating this like its a second game? I'm at a loss for words at the predatory greed that Blizzard continues to embark itself on, between WCIII, Diablo Reforged, and Overwatch 2, Blizzard has done nothing but demonstrate that they do not care for their consumer base, just for their coffers.
I remember having the physical copy of Gameinformer two years ago, long before GI got culled in the same style of corporate greed as Blizzard, that went into extreme depth detailing the story and narrative experiences of Overwatch 2. Can you recall that adding a story to go along with these heroes was the entire reason that this game was coming out? Probably not! Blizzard went into depth about the mission structure and RPG elements of Overwatch 2 as its selling point, giving some love back to the players who requested more out of the attractive new IP. Not often does a company like Blizzard, which has some committed series lore in games like Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft launch a new title in a completely new universe. Players were hungry for some insight on the characters they were playing as, clawing for any exposition they could get on the world of heroes and Overwatch 2 was it!... until it became clear that the company couldn't offer what they had promised players and instead realized they could be milked like the cash cows they are. Why give your players, after years of clamoring for more and promising of a new story experience what they asked for when you could opt for a faux relaunch of the baked down version of the game they're already playing (and leaving?)
It's for this reason that I'm granting a half star review for Overwatch 2, I don't know what makes it a new game, other than the predatory battle pass and resoundingly boring new UI experience. There's no single player, there's no new exciting group of characters, there's no graphical update, there's no improvement to user communication, there's just more of the same. Why don't we start releasing new Fighting game characters as new games. Bridget is now out in Guilty Gear but its the exact same game? How about release it as Guilty Gear Strive 2! PUBG has a bug fix update and a new 3x3 map? Let's release it as PUBG 2! This is an inexcusable, undeniable cash grab by a former legendary developer that is now a complete husk of its former self.
Overwatch is dead.