Why I m Hopeful For Overwatch 2 Despite Everything
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
You might think this is apples and oranges. You had to buy both Warcraft 2 and 3, just like you had to buy Smash Bros. Ultimate and Melee. Meanwhile, Overwatch 2 is free. You’re basically getting a new game for the price of only one game! Except, again, that doesn’t mean I only want the new game and never want to see the old one again.
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
Losing a tank opened the door https://overwatch2Base.com/overwatch-2-support-perks-guide-optimal-minor-major-buffs-For-2025 for major, much needed reworks to a lot of heroes. Tanks like Reinhardt and Orisa now have more utility and survivability since they have to tank for the entire team, while shield breakers like Bastion get to take a step back and fill a different role. I’m not suggesting that every character is perfectly balanced now, but I see so many improvements already. It’s hard not to be excited about the new Overwatch meta. A shakeup like this was never going to happen without a title cha
The grim reality is that the entire reason Overwatch 2 exists is to change the way Blizzard makes money. All of the meta changes, like the battle pass, Coin system, and locking new players out of content until they grind enough, are designed to increase revenue and engagement metrics. I don’t think we should ignore that or give Blizzard a pass, and if that’s enough to get you to give up on Overwatch 2 I don’t blame you. As someone who still loves the game, I’m willing to accept fewer free rewards if it means more frequent updates and better events. It’s simply too soon to write it off for me. I need to see how the devs respond to feedback and how much the game changes over the next year. None of this is ideal, but in the long run, it could end up being exactly what Overwatch nee
Armed with two hearts and dual machine guns, Mauga seems like a great pick, but his health is on the lighter side, and any attempts to defend himself when alone, see him quickly taken care of by enemies. Mauga is still a good pick, but he exists in a spot of normalcy after his release, in which Blizzard was probably scared of having Mauga be a tank-like Bastion. After all, they already have Or
Overwatch getting shuttered and Stadia getting taken behind a woodshed isn’t the apocalypse. Most titles on Stadia already exist elsewhere and Overwatch 2 appears to be a real video game. This isn’t the end of all things. You can be excited about Overwatch 2 while still admitting it’s a crappy way to treat fans. The suits at Blizzard and Google (I know it’s "Alphabet" or whatever now, but come the fuck on) don’t care about you. Maybe that’s a cliche, but it’s worth remembering because it’s going to only happen more as the "take the money and run" strategy plays out. They’ll promise and swear that your purchase will be good and playable for the foreseeable future and then take that shit away the moment it’s convenient.
It’s the same corporate avarice that led us to Stadia , only Google was far more incompetent with how they sold it. Fortunately, Google has more money than there are gods in the heavens; they can (mostly) pay people back for the company’s mistake . But remember Stadia wasn’t a live game that just didn’t take off. It was an entire platform that didn’t take off. A platform that Google promised would stay online for the foreseeable future. And, like Blizzard, Google could also afford the servers.
There’s no reason to sunset Overwatch before Overwatch 2. I get if we’re eight years down the line and Blizzard is like, "Hey, folks. Had a good run. But nobody’s using these servers and we need them for all the HR reports Bobby Kotick has buried ." But by killing Overwatch, Blizzard is saying, "We already got your money, so you’ll play the new game or nothing at all."