Overwatch’s biggest strength is how good its characters feel to play. Unfortunately, playing them online can feel unrewarding, specifically because of how toxic its player base is. Fortunately, Overwatch 2 has a unique opportunity to rectify this by offering the same high-octane gunplay without forcing you to hemorrhage SR purely because people on your team are being total dicks. It doesn’t need a complex story, or a million maps, or anything like that. All it truly needs is a basic, solid structure like Mass Effect 3 had, where you can run wild with your favourite heroes and use abilities to your heart’s cont

This Zen-themed Control map is both a delight to gaze upon and to play through, with its variance of indoor and outdoor regions, its crafty level design, and its abundance of pits which can lead to some chaotic fights for the point. A number of heroes can thrive here, including the defensive Symmetra and Mei, while heroes with push abilities can certainly have their fun in the Sanctum portion of this

In the absence of playing any actual games in Overwatch 2, I had a decent amount of fun staring at its menus as the search time for a match moved into the double digits. There was a weird smugness to seeing the years of work I put into the first entry immediately reflected in the updated client, which to me looks slicker and better presented than anything that came before it.

I love this screen. It’s slick, colourful, and showcases how good I am at certain characters. I will say that I am not a Lucio main by choice, but largely because my team would be ruined without me healing their asses on a constant basis. All the usual customisation options for analysing your stats can be found here alongside statistics and challenges. It’s a shame that a lot of tasks have carried over from the first game instead of starting afresh, meaning your main source of progression this time around is the battle pass and not much else. Speaking of!

Considering we could potentially see the addition of a new Omnic hero, Tekhartha Mondatta (speculation which we base off nothing but our own desires), we might as well get the return of the stage in which he's so prominently featured as a statue, Ne

On the other hand, attacking teams will often be in for a frustrating ride when trying to push the payload when facing super-skilled snipers or defensive-minded heroes like Torbjorn or Bastion. From both a design and artistic standpoint, there are certainly better options than Gibral

Overwatch is my favourite multiplayer shooter of all time, right up there with Halo 3. It’s also my favourite objective-based team game, which is why I have around 1,000 hours played in the first place. I used to regularly compete on teams with an average rank of high Diamond/low Masters, so I know what I’m doing. The thing is, Overwatch doesn’t reward you for that, which means every single game quickly becomes a massive pain in the a

Being an Assault map, Hanamura comes with a design that ultimately favors the team on defense, and to a pretty significant degree. You might find your teammates rage quitting in record numbers after the 8th failed attempt to mount a successful assault on the secluded Dojo. That's because it's just not easy to capture, especially considering the enemy spawns are ridiculously close to the point B area that needs to be defen

A returning enemy type from BlizzCon 2019, Slicers are little bird-like Omnics that Blizzard internally refers to as "chickens." These bots seem to come in packs, posing a minor threat on their own but deadly with numbers. Little is known about how they attack players, if at all (these could be another form of "objective units," which Blizzard discusses in the vid

The tank-like Artillery unit is already an intimidating adversary based on how Blizzard describes it in the BlizzConline video. It's a four-legged monster of an Omnic that can rain a barrage of small missiles and fire a charged-up duo of large rockets. There's little need to make this a more intimidating advers

This map is considered a classic for a reason—it's both thematically neat and well-crafted in its overall level design. This Hybrid map possesses all sorts of nooks and crannies for DPS-minded players to take advantage

Hollywood has shined through as one of the most favored Overwatch maps with its neat aesthetic and its insane diversity of elements. From various high-ground perches for snipers to set camp, to moving platforms, to pathways which can be exploited for cheeky flanks, this area has just about everything. The versatility and elaborate nature of Hollywood's corridors and pathways will likely make it a great choice for multiple new modes offered in Overwatch 2 Season 16

Yet, the Ruins and Lighthouse portions of Illios also produce some fun battles, as they offer a diversity of higher and ground-level areas, as well as pits, obstructions, and other elements to shake things