By the time Overwatch 2 releases on October 4, the first Overwatch will have been out for six years and five months. In that time, players have spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours pushing payloads, capturing objectives, and doing everything else Activision Blizzard's hero-shooter has asked of them. Yet it has been a wild ride for Overwatch, as what once was one of the most-played shooters in history has slowly devolved into a title that is starved for content.
Overwatch's future isn't looking good now that Activision Blizzard has announced Overwatch 2 will be replacing the first game's live-service model. Players who already own Overwatch will have their cosmetics moved to the sequel, and any unopened loot boxes will have their contents automatically unlocked. Coins - a currency in Overwatch used to unlock cosmetics - are also supposed to carry over to players' Overwatch 2 profiles, but Activision Blizzard has provided sparse details about this transfer. Cosmetics aside, Activision Blizzard could end up alienating a good portion of its audience by retiring Overwatch as Overwatch 2 enters early access.
Overwatch Was Made With Six-Player Teams In Mind
Despite the hectic battles that often ensue in Overwatch, having six players on each team is how Activision Blizzard originally envisioned the experience. Two tank heroes support each other and help push the team forward, two damage heroes fight to break the enemy's defenses and eliminate opponents, and two support heroes provide the rest of the team with healing and buffs. Having 12 players on a single map can make for a crowded ecosystem, but it is a system that ultimately worked in the game's favor at the height of its popularity.
Since 6v6 was how Activision Blizzard envisioned Overwatch, gameplay elements such as map design and hero abilities were made with this in mind. Moving these elements to Overwatch 2's new 5v5 system without changing them causes problems - the most evident of which being not all the tank heroes in Overwatch 2 can stand on their own. Characters like Roadhog and D.Va tend to be too squishy and require the aid of another tank hero to push the team forward. The short of it is that adding or subtracting characters from an Overwatch team makes the overall experience feel unbalanced. Too many characters make the map feel crowded and the gameplay confusing, but too few make the weaknesses of the other characters more apparent.
Player Experience Isn't Utilized to its Fullest Extent
Apart from cosmetics, the other thing that carries over from Overwatch to Overwatch 2 is experience. Overwatch map and hero knowledge, as well as muscle memory, are unquantifiable variables that players improve by playing the game. There is no quantifier for how much experience a player has; it can only present itself through good gameplay.
Giving Overwatch players no choice but to switch to Overwatch 2 doesn't make sense, because some will inevitably prefer the first game. Some players have spent so much time with Overwatch that they enjoy the 6v6 system, map rotations, and hero roster the way it is. While it could be argued that Overwatch 2 provides these players with more things to learn and master, allowing them to either hone their Overwatch skills or move on to Overwatch 2 should be an option. Activision Blizzard could afford to keep both games' servers up, but has stated that the decision to replace the current Overwatch build with Overwatch 2 was made so that the franchise's fanbase wouldn't be divided. Yet, removing Overwatch entirely might get some players who loved the original to drop it once and for all.
Overwatch 2 might not be a big step forward from its predecessor, but there are enough changes to the formula that it feels different to play. The new 5v5 system, reworking of certain heroes, and split focus between PvE and PvP are just a few of the things that will differentiate Overwatch 2. It's sad seeing the final chapter of a six-year-old game come to pass, but that might just be the cost of progress.
Overwatch 2 will be available in Early Access on October 4 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.