Overwatch 2 has been out for a week or so now and some of the Respawning gang have had quite a lot of time with it and collated their thoughts. These range from huge fans of the original game to people who just didn’t gel with it… and yet here they are. Find out what we think below!
Luke
I wanted to hate Overwatch 2. It was doing so many things ahead of the release which filled me with dread – but as always I thought I would give it the benefit of the doubt and, especially due to it being free, would give it a go… and you know what? It’s fine.
I loved Overwatch 1 and being completely honest with you dear readers… this is the same thing, just on new consoles and running with a better framerate. It’s probably worth noting that I was a casual Overwatch player so never learned the maps or the characters like the back of my hand, instead opting to play as two different characters (Ana and Zarya and okay sometimes Mercy) so I’m no expert. I haven’t noticed many differences between Overwatch 1 and 2, and when I began playing the game if you had told me this was the original game I probably would have believed you.
This is by no means an issue. Having an updated version of the game come out and not cost me any money is definitely something I am all here for and has allowed me to sink around 10 hours into the game for my own enjoyment.
One thing I do know is that players are having many issues with is the Battle Pass – and whilst I quite like the free one – there is nothing on this planet that will convince me to buy the paid version, which leads me to a bit of a weird conundrum… I actually miss the game’s loot boxes. One of my favourite things about the original Overwatch was the continual unlocking of Skins, and now that this is locked behind a paywall, I have to admit this is resulting in me losing 90% of the drive to continue playing the game as I feel my personal progression in unlocks has become stunted.
If you enjoyed the first one but aren’t bothered by unlocks of the battle pass then Overwatch 2 is… the same. I like it enough and it’s fine but I don’t see myself sinking nearly as much time as the original unless Blizzard do some big back-tracking.
Colin
I’ve put roughly eight hours into Overwatch 2, which is a bit of a surprise as while I owned the original, I couldn’t put too much time into it. It just didn’t gel with me. Nor am I massively into shooters. Fortnite is an exception to this, however.
There is a lot of distaste for the game at the moment, resulting from moving to a free-to-play with season pass and microtransactions style monetisation.
It’s safe to say that I’ve gone into this practically blind; I’ve heard what Overwatch 2 is going to include, and the Player vs Environment (PvE) content has piqued my interest, scheduled to launch sometime in 2023. So why am I investing time into this free-to-play game and wanting to play more?
Honestly? I’m having a lot of fun, and I don’t understand why. The visuals are polished, I love the character designs, and for the most part, I’m having fun switching between different roles and the variety of characters. To an extent, it feels like the game has that Blizzard polish which the developers were once known for having.
Moving forward, Overwatch 2 feels like it has built a solid foundation to expand upon, albeit at the cost of the original game. As I don’t have that deep investment in the franchise, I’m unsure what’s been sacrificed to launch the sequel, but I’m very interested in knowing where it’s going.
Clarissa
Similar to Luke I had lots of worries about Overwatch 2. I loved Overwatch and played it a lot casually but never really got into competitive play as I found it too stressful. I’m a Switch player with moderate success with most characters, however prefer to play Moira, Mercy or Ana (however she is a bit squishy now) as healer, sombra , soldier or widow as DPS and D.Va or Orissa as tanks.
Despite my apprehension Overwatch 2 is exactly what Luke said: an updated Overwatch 1. I also miss the loot boxes but I am considering the battle pass as I seem to be progressing well and am already at 20. It’s not too badly priced but the ability to earn some coins in the battle pass to give a cheeky discount would be nice. I do think I would have preferred the pay outright and still get loot boxes thing but I think the free-to-play system may help people stay interested. I’m looking forward to the PVE and many more casual games. So far of the new heroes- I can’t get along with Koriko, but Junker Queen is pretty brutal and so is Sojourn. I’m glad for Overwatch 2 as it has gained my interest in Overwatch again.
What do you think of Overwatch 2? Are you giving it a go or boycotting it completely? Let us know in the comments!
Written by Luke, Colin & Clarissa.
Edited by Alexx.