Overwatch 2 doesn’t look like Overwatch

When Overwatch was first released in 2016, it was groundbreaking. The game combined a first person shooter with the variety and roles of a MOBA, creating perhaps the most complex team-based shooter game in history.

It was named game of the year by tk on its release, and it seemed like Overwatch content was everywhere. But thanks to a stale content development calendar, and a few unpopular and broken metas, the game has largely fallen out of favor.

The game’s developer, Blizzard, announced early last year that they would not be releasing new content for the game anymore in order to focus on the game’s sequel, Overwatch 2. In the meantime, the pandemic, and a devastating string of awful lawsuits over the company’s abysmal treatment of women employees has further hamstrung development. This has left Overwatch in a sad state with a declining player base.

In late 2019tk, the game released the support hero Brigitte, ostensibly designed to counter the oppressive dive meta that was in vogue at the time. Her release spawned the dreaded Goats meta, in which three support heroes and three tanks made up each team of 6. That meta lasted a year and a half, and players lost interest in the game over time.

To kill the meta, Overwatch developers eventually rolled out role queue, locking each team into a choice of 2 supports, 2 damage dealers, and 2 tanks. Goats was the first step towards ruining the game, role queue was second.

Queue times for the 6v6 game now vary according to the role you want to play. In general, playing support or tank will get you placed in a game much faster than the more popular damage role. Twitch clips of high level DPS streamers waiting over an hour for a game during non-peak playing times are a dime a dozen these days, making the game difficult to stream, which, along with the content drought, drives away content creators, and lowers general interest in the game.

Blizzard’s last resort for the IP is Overwatch 2, the games successor. Most prominently, the sequel will feature a PvE mode for more casual players, which will deepen the lore around the already popular heroes in the game. But the dev team seems to be totally remaking it’s competitive PvP mode in the name of appealing to new players.

The new game will cut one of the tanks, making every match to be 5v5. They’re also redesigning the tank role into being more of a beefy damage role. Some Overwatch League pros who have played the game have said that tanks play more like damage heroes, rather than the highly strategic, space creating tanks of Overwatch 1.

They’re also buffing the damage class, giving many the ability to just instantly delete their enemies, and with one fewer tank to soak up the pressure, instakills will likely run rampant.

Perhaps worst of all, they’re apparently nerfing the healing done by supports across the board. San Francisco Shock main tank and streamer Super said the healing changes “felt bad.” And both flex supports that took part in an Overwatch 2 exhibition match at halftime of the Overwatch 2 grand finals complained about the game.

It’s clear now that Overwatch devs are committed to making Overwatch 2 a damage dealing game, which, to be honest, is just like every other shooter game on the market.

What made Overwatch great is that it gave us a world of colorful, differentiated characters, or heroes, which all excelled at different things. And they could work together towards victory for the team. That can be frustrating when your teammates aren’t on the same page. But when it works, there is no better feeling in video games.

But the dev team never really embraced the team aspect of the game. In five years, they never released a tournament mode, which would have made perfect sense for the game. The game’s lone tutorial is a run through of Soldier 76, perhaps the most basic damage hero in the game, and his kit. Nothing about ultimate combos or tanks creating space, or support players staying alive.

They essentially created the most complex shooter game of all time and just left their players to sink or swim. I personally didn’t get better at the game until i started searching out YouTube videos created by better players.

And now, for Overwatch 2, it looks like everyone is just looking for kills. With healing significantly nerfed, I’m not sure it even makes sense for support players to try healing their own teammates instead of looking for kills on the enemy.

By the looks of it, Overwatch 2 won’t even be Overwatch anymore, as Blizzard goes looking for a larger market share by appealing to COD kiddies and first person shooting enthusiasts.

That makes me sad.