Six years after the original game was released, Overwatch 2 is soon going to be let loose unto the world. Activision Blizzard's hero shooter set the industry on fire years ago with its colorful cast of characters, vibrant abilities, and hopeful futuristic world. The first Overwatch won multiple video game awards and amassed a following that, while not as big as it used to be, is still going strong.
But not everything is alright with Overwatch 2. Activision Blizzard has been hit with multiple accounts of sexual misconduct allegations by its employees; not to mention the increasingly prevalent toxicity and overworked nature that has become the norm in some video game companies. Company issues aside, Overwatch 2 itself looks more like an update than an actual sequel. Many maps and modes make a return, and the new content seems to be drowned out by the old. The most recent issue people have with the game is the battle pass, which locks new characters behind a wall that players need to either grind or pay to overcome. Aside from characters, the battle pass comes with the standard fare of emotes, sprays, emblems, voice lines, highlight intros, titles, poses, souvenirs (which pair with certain poses), and weirdest of all, weapon charms.
Overwatch 2's Battle Pass Isn't All Bad
Anyone who plays video games nowadays may have come across a battle pass or two at some point. These time-sensitive progression systems entice players with rewards by playing their games. All players have access to a free battle pass by default but to get the most out of the system, a paid premium battle pass is implemented. In contrast to the free battle pass, the Overwatch 2 premium battle pass awards players with more stuff like cosmetics that, while not integral to gameplay, allow for more player expression.
The Overwatch franchise is no slouch when it comes to cosmetics. Activision Blizzard prides itself on its design and animation teams, so much so that each new patch or limited-time event for the first Overwatch that included new skins or animations drew the attention of the fan base. The previews for Overwatch 2 have confirmed that the sequel is capitalizing on the original's success by adding even more cosmetics to the base game via the battle pass and the upcoming in-game store. Those who plan on sinking a lot of time in Overwatch 2 won't be disappointed by the number of ways they can deck out their characters, though they might take issue with how much money it is going to cost them.
Weapon Charms Don't Work For All Weapons
This is where the issue of weapon charms comes in. Considering Overwatch 2 will launch with 35 heroes with 35 unique weapons, not all of these armaments work in the same way as other first-person shooters. Soldier:76's heavy pulse rifle can rock a weapon charm with no problem, but a character like Zenyatta whose Orbs of Destruction hover just on the edge of the player's field of vision can cause problems. It just looks weird for a weapon charm to be dangling on a hero's hand instead of an actual weapon, but given the Orbs of Destruction's multiple weapon animations, adding a charm to them would result in a cosmetic that serves as more of a distraction than anything else.
Some Overwatch 2 characters don't even have holdable weapons. Doomfist and Echo come to mind, as their projectiles come out of their hands. Not only will placing a weapon charm on a character's hand be painful from a lore standpoint, but it could also cause clipping issues with the character's first-person model. This doesn't even count how strange it would look to other players from a third-person perspective.
Weapon charms work in first-person games like Call of Duty and Apex Legends because the characters in these franchises use roughly the same type of weapons. These pieces of artillery are separate entities from the character models and don't distract players or cause clipping issues with other objects. And while weapon charms look out of place on deadly weapons, they aren't as strange as having them on a shuriken or a weaponized escape capsule (also known as Wrecking Ball). Overwatch is known for having an accepting world, but weapon charms just don't seem to fit within its field of unique cosmetics.
Overwatch 2 launches on October 4 in early access for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.