It has been six months since Overwatch 2 release so it’s time for a review. When the game was announced back in 2019 the fanbase was not in high spirits (myself included). Did the game turn out to be a disaster as prophesied?
Quality of Life
Overwatch has become more convenient to play thanks to:
New notifications. You can enable sounds that indicate when a friendly or enemy has been eliminated. Characters automatically say “We’re outnumbered”. Kill feed rows are more readable with colored background. Thanks to these improvements it’s easier to tell what’s going on in the heat of the battle.
Healer portrait is displayed when you’re being healed or when you’re healing somebody. It’s easier to tell when you’re being pocketed.
“Player saved” notification appears when you heal a player that’s in trouble. It’s great that the game recognizes your efforts when playing as support.
Pinging. Describing location of the enemy to other players was often a problem. Now you can just point and click.
New scoreboard shows every player’s statistics. Now you can compare how much your team does vs the enemy. Medals that encouraged you to compete with your own team, were removed.
It also shows exact ult charge for everyone in your team – very useful.
Portraits borders were removed. I’m glad about it because I was getting tired with negative comments about my level.
Push
Maps with two control points where removed in favor of tug-of-war mode named “Push”. I consider it a positive change.
2CP was about being stuck at the choke point. Once the attacking team managed to get through they would snowball to the rest of the map. Usually at overtime. So as an attacker you’re beating your head against the wall for most of the time and as a defender you can’t make a single mistake because you’ll lose everything. It was frustrating to play and exhausting in competitive where you could go through six rounds of back and forth and end in a draw.
Push on the other hand is about moving a robot closer to the enemy spawn than the opponents can to yours. The side that wins more consecutive engagements wins the match. Dramatic turnarounds are possible but you have to win every teamfight (to compensate for previous losses). It’s more dynamic than 2CP because the objective is mobile and the fighting occurs in different places instead of being stuck at the choke. The objective can be approached from different directions and there is more room to maneuver.
Single Tank
Another major change is going from 6v6 to 5v5 – one tank instead of two. Removing a player didn’t initially inspire confidence but in the end it turned out to be alright. The minus for me is that we’re playing with one friend less in our group.
Tanks heroes have been buffed. In Overwatch 1 you could duel them but in Overwatch 2 that’s not viable anymore because they have more hit points and are pocketed by two supports. Now the optimal approach seems to be to ignore the tank, go on a flank and get rid of the supports first.
This change turned out to be a success. In OW1 there was a problem with finding players willing to pick the tank role and it was demoralizing having to wait 10-15 min between matches. Now the queue times are much shorter.
Hero Changes
Annoying stun abilities such as Mei’s freeze, Cassidy’s flashbang, Orisa’s Halt or Brigitte’s shield bash were removed. It was frustrating to get flashed out of nowhere and then immediately die. With magnetic grenade the outcome is similar (you’re probably dead) but you don’t lose control and you’re still able to deal a finishing blow.
Doomfist was reworked. It was infuriating in OW1 when he would appear in your backline out of nowhere, one shot you and immediately escape. Now he’s a mobile tank that’s more of a nuisance than a deadly threat and I hope it stays that way.
Orisa was fundamentally changed too. In OW1 because of her shield she was often stuck in one place. In OW2 she’s meant to be very aggressive and it can be scary to play against her when she just keeps pushing.
Bastion became more mobile as well and his healing was removed. Now he spends more time fighting in the open rather than camping.
Zarya has two bubbles which she can spend on herself or on teammates. Unlike in OW1 you don’t have to shield a teammate to reach high energy. You will probably just spend both of them on yourself because you’re also frontlining.
New character Kiriko has an ability called Suzu that can counter Ana’s biotic grenade. In OW1 a well-placed nade would often decide a fight and now it’s not as clear cut. Perhaps Suzu is a tad too powerful simultaneously cleansing and giving a temporary immortality.
Supports have self-healing so now they are more self-sufficient. Sometimes it was frustrating relying on the other support to heal you.
Small percentage of ult charge is kept when you switch heroes so that it stings a bit less when you want to play a different character mid-game.
Gameplay shift
The basic gameplay is still the same: group up, go fight using abilities, retreat if you have to. It’s still fun to play. However, due to Push mode, 5v5, powerful tanks and less shields the approach to team fights has changed.
In Overwatch 1 teams would mostly stick together behind shields, poking the enemy team and once a pick has been made they would snowball on the enemy. In OW2 you can start pushing immediately without having to break the enemy line. The battle lines themselves are much less defined now. I don’t mind the new dynamic but there’s something about OW1 style of gameplay that I miss.
One aspect was tank synergy. It definitely was a thing but rather infrequent because it required a teammate who would know exactly what to do. For example: Reinhardt had to keep track of Zarya’s bubbles, step in and shield her when when she was on cooldowns. It was a pleasure when such a synergy occurred.
More noticeable to me is the loss of communication. I’ve noticed that there are no more discussions about comp (team composition), strats (strategy), target focus, ult combos. In OW1 there was: “let’s go dive” or “I’ll go Symmetra and let’s teleport” or “let’s go Bastion with shield and hold the point” or “dry push”. Not every OW1 match had that kind of teamwork but at least there was something. In OW2 there’s not much besides the usual “pick hitscan for pharah” or “pick Mercy for Pharah”. So far I’ve only been asked once to combo ults.
Perhaps cooperation was forced by the reality of facing a heavily fortified choke where it was necessary to coordinate and press Q at the same time to break the defence. OW2 seems looser like a deathmatch. It’s easier to approach the enemy team and you’re not relying on ults as much to win the fight. In fact ult generation is slower now which I think is for the best – it puts more emphasis on positioning and aiming than on the magical button.
I’ve talked with a high-ranked friend and they told me that in higher ranks communication and strategy is the same. And that the reason for my experience is the influx of new players who aren’t familiar with the jargon and techniques. That might be the case but I’m still inclined to believe that it’s due to design changes. At one point we were new to OW1 too but somehow we learned all this stuff.
Disappointments
Fire meter was removed. Technically it’s still measured because heroes say the voice line but the display is gone. I liked it because it showed how well you’re doing in a short span of time. However, it’s not a big deal.
Post-match cards were removed. I enjoyed them because the game acknowledged your efforts even when you didn’t win or get POTG (especially important for support players who don’t get flashy plays) and displayed it for everybody. And you could chat about it with other people. OW2 just shows you your individual grinding progress.
POTG formula is the same and I’d like to see something new. For example the replay could be longer because I find it frustrating when it cuts off just before the last kill. People on Reddit had various ideas like Team POTG for ult combos (although I guess that’s now less relevant in OW2).
Obscured rank. I think ranked mode is less stressful now but it’s a bit weird when your reward after 5 hard-fought matches is rank loss. Maybe position in the ladder should be updated after 5 matches in general instead of 5 wins?
Bastion’s artillery. I don’t like this new ultimate ability. It’s similar to Junkrat’s riptire because you have to hide to use it but the tire is fun to control (and you could even perform tricks with climbing) and effective against the enemy. Artillery fire is easy to avoid and most of the time you get nothing. Tank mode was much more fun to play and more deadly. Remember rocket jumping over an obstacle and one-shotting surprised supports?
Conclusion
I consider Overwatch 2 an improvement over Overwatch 1. It’s more dynamic, more convenient and less frustrating. It’s also more individualistic and I do miss teamwork / social aspects from the previous game. It’s a shame that you can’t play OW1 anymore. I would have compared them side by side.