TL;DR I had such high hopes that Overwatch 2 would be the return of one of my favorite games. While there's some good in there thanks to the talented and passionate developers, basically every decision made by Blizzard has had a detrimental impact on the game. With PvE cancelled, there's nothing to look forward to and I no longer have any desire to play ever again.
It's genuinely impressive how hard Blizzard dropped the ball on Overwatch, should make a pretty interesting documentary in a few years. What seemed like something that would become the largest new video game franchise of the decade, subjected to a several-year long content drought to allow development on the sequel.
Most of that time was supposedly spent on the very impressive looking PvE, story-based content. This was the entire reason for Overwatch 2 to exist, and has just been announced to have been cancelled before the game even released. For players, this makes the three-year content drought Overwatch 1 faced seem to have had no payoff whatsoever. For the developers, who put their hearts into work that will never be released due to the whims of management, I feel incredibly sorry for.
Looking at the game they released: a revamped version of the PvP mode.
1. I like the move to 5v5. I think having a single, powerful tank is more fun and engaging than 2. I don't like how they removed 6v6 entirely, it should have remained an option.
2. Despite two less players, visual clarity has not been addressed at all. It's baffling how Blizzard thinks Overwatch can be an esport when most people cannot tell what's happening at any point.
3. The new heroes have been consistently pretty neat. Sojourn is a bit of a dud, but the remaining four continue the trend of tank and support heroes being by far the most unique. Similarly, the reworks to Orisa and Doomfist were huge in making them more fun to play as and engaging to play against.
4. The timed events are kinda neat, that mythology one was fun. The fact that content is coming regularly is a breath of fresh air
5. New maps are cool too. The only one that really sticks in my mind is the casino one. Pretty neat, has some verticality.
6. The new mode, Push, is my new least favorite. I guess it's a step up from 2CP, but it's way too snowbally, and dying once usually means a very long walk back from spawn.
7. Monetization... bad. I'm not a fan of battle passes to begin with (I don't want to feel like I have to play the game by a certain point to avoid missing out), but this one was done very poorly. It's gotten better recently with the addition of some currency in it, but it's not the currency the battle pass itself costs, a standard that most games with the system adhere to.
The skins are horrifically expensive, no one should pay $20 for a model swap in a first-person game. Even if the models are high quality, there's just no world where it's worth it, especially when the entirety of Overwatch 1 cost $20 in it's later years.
Overall, the OW2 we got feels like one step forward from OW1's later years, but an entire 5k race back from OW1 at it's peak. Blizzard's management has managed to fumble a property that seemed too big to fail. At this point, I don't see any reason to play Overwatch ever again.
It's genuinely impressive how hard Blizzard dropped the ball on Overwatch, should make a pretty interesting documentary in a few years. What seemed like something that would become the largest new video game franchise of the decade, subjected to a several-year long content drought to allow development on the sequel.
Most of that time was supposedly spent on the very impressive looking PvE, story-based content. This was the entire reason for Overwatch 2 to exist, and has just been announced to have been cancelled before the game even released. For players, this makes the three-year content drought Overwatch 1 faced seem to have had no payoff whatsoever. For the developers, who put their hearts into work that will never be released due to the whims of management, I feel incredibly sorry for.
Looking at the game they released: a revamped version of the PvP mode.
1. I like the move to 5v5. I think having a single, powerful tank is more fun and engaging than 2. I don't like how they removed 6v6 entirely, it should have remained an option.
2. Despite two less players, visual clarity has not been addressed at all. It's baffling how Blizzard thinks Overwatch can be an esport when most people cannot tell what's happening at any point.
3. The new heroes have been consistently pretty neat. Sojourn is a bit of a dud, but the remaining four continue the trend of tank and support heroes being by far the most unique. Similarly, the reworks to Orisa and Doomfist were huge in making them more fun to play as and engaging to play against.
4. The timed events are kinda neat, that mythology one was fun. The fact that content is coming regularly is a breath of fresh air
5. New maps are cool too. The only one that really sticks in my mind is the casino one. Pretty neat, has some verticality.
6. The new mode, Push, is my new least favorite. I guess it's a step up from 2CP, but it's way too snowbally, and dying once usually means a very long walk back from spawn.
7. Monetization... bad. I'm not a fan of battle passes to begin with (I don't want to feel like I have to play the game by a certain point to avoid missing out), but this one was done very poorly. It's gotten better recently with the addition of some currency in it, but it's not the currency the battle pass itself costs, a standard that most games with the system adhere to.
The skins are horrifically expensive, no one should pay $20 for a model swap in a first-person game. Even if the models are high quality, there's just no world where it's worth it, especially when the entirety of Overwatch 1 cost $20 in it's later years.
Overall, the OW2 we got feels like one step forward from OW1's later years, but an entire 5k race back from OW1 at it's peak. Blizzard's management has managed to fumble a property that seemed too big to fail. At this point, I don't see any reason to play Overwatch ever again.