What Overwatch really needed was the same thing that every live-service game needs: content. While development of Overwatch 2 caused a lengthy drought in the original, Overwatch wasn’t exactly on par with the rest of the live service game market either. A new hero every few months and a rehashed holiday event just weren’t cutting it. There’s a lot of people moaning about the new seasonal model in Overwatch 2, but if they were being honest, most of them would admit Overwatch wasn’t holding their attention. The luster fell off Overwatch after a couple of years, and the quarterly cadence of a new hero or map was not going to keep Overwatch al

The game's initial trailer also revealed the inclusion of customizable abilities, which will likely include tweakable visual flair for hero Ultimates. This array of personalized features should make for an even more chaotic and dynamic experience in O

Throughout the nearly forty-minute showcase, Blizzard shows only up to five players on a team at a time. There’s no explicit statement regarding this choice in presentation, but it could suggest that Overwatch 2 will introduce a team size-adjustment down to five play

It's probably safe to assume that there are other objective units planned for Overwatch 2. And chances are we've already seen some of them. Little is explained, for instance, Season 16 Update about the Orbiters, Slicers, and a few unnamed Omnics seen in some of the featured concept

Blizzard briefly discussed Sojourn’s main weapon during the video, describing it as a rail gun. There’s also plenty of footage of Sojourn shooting with her primary fire, which looks to behave like an assault rifle. But one clip of Sojourn, playing on King’s Row, shows the upcoming Hero shooting her rail gun several times in quick succession. An indicator under the reticle shows what looks like a charge ti

One of these details is the names of some Heroes’ so-called Talent Trees. Each Hero has three trees, with seven tiers per tree. Soldier’s trees are called Commander, Rifleman, and Vigilante. Mercy’s are Field Medic, Valkyrie, and Savior. Reinhardt’s are Crusader, Juggernaut, and Guard

Games like Apex Legends and Fortnite have really shown the awesome potential and appeal of an epic, exciting battle-royale. While a hero-based shooter like Overwatch doesn't tend to mesh with this more equalized style of FPS, in which everyone starts at ground level, Blizzard could certainly make it w

Given Blizzard's history with level editors in the past, it would make sense to see some sort of level creation tool for Overwatch 2 introduced. Of course, it'd be tough to flesh out the details with all of the assets and intricacies involved in building a functional 3D space, but surely some sort of basic toolkit to create smaller battle arenas could be implemen

Overwatch defined my first steps into adulthood. I was in my first year of university when it came out, and remember watching my flatmates jump into the beta as they hyped it up as the next big thing. I’d never played a Blizzard game before, and at the time it was an untouchable bastion of goodwill defined by countless classics. Not so much these days . This was its first new IP in decades, and it had all the ingredients to be a masterpiece.

While the Orbiters in these shots seem easy to eliminate (the Tracer player on Route 66 guns down multiple of these bots with just a few shots), their role is not clear and could be more objective-focused. ( All this said, it's nice to see these two maps brought back for Overwatch

Even better still, Winston has a Jump Pack that allows him to get involved in the fight, or jump away from it, and his Barrier Projector allows for a shield bubble that can trap enemies and ensure their damage does not leave the dome. Whilst he doesn't deal the best damage, he can be great at distracting and targeting even great support heroes whilst other heroes run in to take care of mean squ

Mauga is a big target, and his abilities may help somewhat in battle, but players will want a healer at their side to make sure they stay alive. His ability to take reduced damage and heal through dealing damage is fairly average, and his Cage Fight ability to trap himself with enemies isn't the most efficient other than for a sacrifice play or to create further aggressive carnage that can easily distract opponents long enough to secure objecti

Blizzard briefly mentions elemental abilities and how they affect enemy animations. But these damage types — like "freeze damage" and "electrical damage" — change how enemies behave and how Heroes can attack them. For example: on Reinhardt’s Talent page, Blizzard shows an ability called Icy Pains. It reads: "Charge deals 150% more Pin damage to Frozen enemies and keeps enemies Frozen while they’re Pinn

Overwatch 2 might be the first sequel in history that players of the original begged the developers not to make. Through a small handful of gameplay changes and minor visual updates, it just barely manages to justify its own existence. It feels like it’s Blizzard’s attempt to restructure the monetization into a more profitable, industry-standard model, which people have rightly pointed out benefits the publisher, but doesn’t actually provide any value to the players. At first blush, Overwatch 2 comes across like a dark tulpa of the original - a product designed to increase profits and engagement without offering anything that meaningfully increases enjoyment. Within the broader context, Overwatch 2 follows this year’s Diablo: Immortal as just another anti-consumer title from a mega corp that used to actually care about its fans and reputation. There’s never been a particularly good answer to the question "Why does Overwatch 2 exist?", and I don’t anticipate there ever will