Overwatch 2 (PvP) Review: Blizzard FPS Brings No Cavalry

I’ve been wanting to write an Overwatch 2 review ever since Blizzard announced that its flagship first-person shooter is getting a sequel. With an Overwatch tattoo and a passion for all things Widowmaker, gaming has become a huge part of my personal and professional life, giving me my first “big break” from gaming media. So my expectations for Overwatch 2 are pretty high, not unlike the rest of the community.

Overwatch 2 will eventually include a PvE game, but it won’t come until 2023. For now, we’ll only be able to play a PvP game, and that’s all I could get. check too. For me, PvE is going to be a big part of what makes or breaks Overwatch 2, so I feel like I’m only seeing half of what the game has to offer. Until then, if you want the wild thoughts of an avid Overwatch player who was once (almost) a semi-pro, here’s our Overwatch 2 PvP roundup.

The bigger the better

Considering we haven’t had any new heroes since Omnic DPS Echo came to Overwatch 1 in 2020, Overwatch 2’s three new characters have drawn attention to some of the other features in the game.

Kiriko, a sassy Japanese support hero who intertwines with the duo of Shimada Genji and Hanzo, is the first tier of the battle pass, so she’s easy to unlock on the way out. She is so much fun to play, especially as the main fighter. Her healing is very similar to Moira’s; You hold down the left mouse button and fire a series of healing tokens at your allies. Right-clicking lets you launch deadly ninja stars that can decapitate enemies in two hits, which is solid damage for a healer.

However, his ultimate is even more fun. Beautifully animated and incredibly powerful, Kiriko launches a stunning turquoise fox through a series of traditional torii gates, accelerating players and increasing their reload speed. Running around sites and rampaging through enemies has never been so much fun, so I can say I’ll be playing much Kiriko. She adds some much-needed variety to a rather lacking support group: Healers rejoice, Blizzard has heard.

There is a new map: Esperanza, a beautiful Portuguese town nestled in the middle of forested mountains. Sadly, the map didn’t show up in my party at all during my limited pre-release play windows, but it looks promising, with tons of nooks and crannies, as well as balconies and raised platforms perfect for elite shooters.

The future is now (more or less)

The other big addition to the game is the aforementioned Battle Pass, a series of unlockable rewards that give you everything from new heroes like Kiriko to a cool new Mythic skin for master of stealth Genji. In my opinion, the Battle Pass is a decent price considering how good most of the rewards are, but it doesn’t do anything groundbreaking compared to the others. This should help avoid the content shortage that ruined the first game, but Battle Passes have been a staple of the service’s game monetization for several years, with Fortnite popularizing the idea in 2017/18. Overwatch 2 brings the base game into the modern era of live services, but there’s not much else to say beyond that.

It’s a similar story when it comes to UI updates. You can now press Tab to see a scoreboard with kills, kills, and assists, replacing the frustrating player cards at the end of Overwatch 1 games that simply tell you how many kills you’ve made without providing a full vent. There’s also a lot more pinging now, so you can mark allies quickly, just like you could in Apex Legends when it released in 2019. Those features are nice to have, but again, nothing revolutionary here, they just elevate the game. to outshine your competition.

PvP in Overwatch 2 generally looks like this; these are minor tweaks to the base game that could really just be a major content patch. These are certainly nice changes, but nothing significant that really catches your eye.

Someone with five stacks of DPS?

What stands out is the fast-paced gameplay, mainly because it’s literally the only queue that’s unlocked early on. Yeah guys, you can’t play queue until you’ve played five games in open queue. While that doesn’t sound like much, the fact that you can’t just dive in is a bit of a pain. count the intention is to introduce people to the game smoothly, but it risks defeating its own purpose of providing a smooth entrance. There are no assigned roles in QP, so players can play as they wish: you can have a team of five supports, five tanks, or five DPS. While it may sound funny, going up against five stacked teams that are already playing their OTP roles is a nightmare and will be eliminated quickly.

Then comes the flame: “you should have chosen Mercy rawr” and all that. If this was your first time playing Overwatch 2, I’d forgive you for unplugging it from your PC and ending it. Forcing people into an open queue just makes it more likely and I can’t figure out what the benefit should be. It’s an unwelcome change for fans old and new, and seems to completely defeat the purpose of the game. Blizzard’s role queue forces you to think about what combinations work, which healer works best with Genji or in the depot works best with Eichenwald. . Quickplay is a free-to-play mess and overall seems like a weird way to introduce you to the basics of the game.

I’ll admit that the 5v5 switch is a huge advantage, especially for a DPS player. They force you to be more aggressive, but also ensure that you are more strategic, especially since the new marker will let your allies know if you are feeding. For healers, this is more of a challenge than just healing the tank, as they will take a lot of damage, but your DPS players will too. Also, you’ll have to duck and dive so you don’t accidentally get ahead. It’s a small tweak for tanks, but a lot of changes to new and existing characters make for a powerful role. There’s nothing like unleashing the ultimate of Junker Queen on a group of unsuspecting DPS players, trust me.

Overwatch 2 in its current state isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. An improved UI and battle pass put it on par with rivals like Apex Legends and Valorant, and the addition of Kiriko adds some much-needed spice to a long-forgotten support role. Other than that, though, not much has changed.

Overwatch 2 in its current state isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. An improved UI and battle pass put it on par with rivals like Apex Legends and Valorant, and the addition of Kiriko adds some much-needed spice to a long-forgotten support role. Other than that, though, not much has changed.

In our first beta impressions, we said Overwatch 2 felt more like a major update than a full sequel. Sentiment online said more or less the same. After a few more betas and some time on the review server, we haven’t played anything to change our minds, and that’s a bit disheartening. PvP in Overwatch 2 is like Overwatch 1 with a few bells and whistles (and the annoying open queue system).

While I still hope the PvE content will give the game the new life it needs, a part of me will be disappointed, and it sucks. I should be excited, but I just say “no”, possibly the worst emotion you can feel in front of a new game.

Sure, the cavalry is there, but is that enough to revive Overwatch? Not just for PvP viewing.