“Overwatch 2” has been out for over a week, and I have come to the conclusion that the game is simultaneously horrible and great at the same time. First, let me provide some context with my background of the game. I first played the game on console shortly after its launch but quit after a few months. In 2020, I started playing the game again, even though it was pretty much “dead,” but this time on the computer. During both of those occasions, I found “Overwatch” to be a mostly fun game. It was unique compared to other first-person shooter (FPS) games because of all the abilities. However, the game found itself in ruins because the developers gave up on the game. They turned their attention toward “Overwatch 2” super early and stopped updating the original game. Without new content, the game got stale for some people, so they quit. Also, players were actively complaining about certain characters and abilities, but the developers made very little adjustments. That made certain games completely unplayable and incredibly frustrating. However, they said “Overwatch 2” was going to be different. They said they were going to add new characters, new maps and rework old characters to make them better. I think as a whole they have somewhat addressed that. 

The launch day and its following days were an absolute mess. Players were stuck in queues that lasted hours, so they couldn’t even play the game. People were super excited because this game was so hyped up to be better than its predecessor. When people finally got to play, there were obviously mixed views. The first major change they made to the game was removing a tank player. This made it a 5v5 instead of a 6v6 as it used to be. I originally thought that this change was going to be terrible for the game. There were going to be less opportunities for synergies and combinations without that extra tank. I was somewhat correct about that. The game definitely feels different without the extra tank as the tanks can no longer play off of each other. However, the positive of this change was that it’s much faster paced. Professional “Valorant” player TenZ said this when talking about “Overwatch 2:” “It feels like I am playing an aim trainer. It’s just constant movement and constant stimulation, which is quite nice.” I have also played “Valorant.” It’s a game that I enjoy, but there are definitely times where the rounds are slower. “Overwatch 2” on the other hand is just go go go. You die, you group up with your team and go again. “Overwatch” had the issue of having too many shields. This made the game boring at times because you spent half the game shooting at shields. However, with the removal of the extra tank, there are less shields and more just shooting at players. This makes the game a lot of fun because of the constant action. You feel like you are actually doing something throughout the round. Adding on to the benefits of one less tank is the greater opportunity for carry potential. I am not going to go into the intricacies of each role and how they are different, however I can say that in general a single player has more control over the game than they did before. With the extra tank/player, it was harder to truly have a significant impact on the game by yourself. You could be killing half of the opposing team on the damage role, but it’s difficult to hold positioning on the objective with such little health. You needed tanks. Additionally, it was really difficult to kill all six players before they killed just you. However, now that feels more reasonable. Without that extra tank, it feels way easier to carry games. Every kill you get has a greater impact because the teams are smaller. Also, it’s way easier to kill the entire enemy team because you don’t have to deal 500 damage to an extra tank. So overall, I think these initial changes have been very good for the game. It feels like a normal FPS game, where you as a player actually matter, but it still has the abilities that make the game unique. 

Now I am going to talk about some of the frustrations I have with the game. Firstly, I am not sure I understood their whole character rework process. Some of the characters, such as Bastion, had interesting reworks that I am totally okay with. Other characters, such as Doomfist, had reworks that made the character unplayable. I did hate Doomfist in “Overwatch,” but the changes they made were too drastic. Finally, there were some characters that 100% needed reworks for the game, but they didn’t do anything. The character Moira, for example, seems so much better now in “Overwatch 2,” because she’s practically unkillable and she can 1v1 almost any character. More characters definitely need a balance check, which I hope comes soon. That is one of my big fears about the game. If the game doesn’t get character patches or content updates, it’s going to be very difficult to continue to play the game. The next issue I have with the game is the fact that they didn’t add more maps or change the old ones. They added six new maps into the game, but that definitely didn’t seem like enough. I wanted the new game to be new, but part of it definitely felt the same because of the maps. Also, the new game mode they added, called push, is terrible. I literally want to pull my hair out when I play that game mode. It’s a combination of the control and escort game modes and is somehow significantly worse than both of them. Push is terrible because every fight feels winnable. So, you may die first, and then as you respawn you walk back while the fight is still going on. These fights take a little longer because everyone is fighting around the push robot and its surroundings. But by the time you get back, everyone on your team is dead and then the other team kills you too. It’s a really frustrating game mode to play. 

I think overall I enjoy the game. It’s a fast and fun FPS game that has a lot of intricacies. But in the end the game is still Overwatch. Even after all the changes I still find it to be the most frustrating game I have ever played. There are so many games that feel so unwinnable because your team does nothing. I said previously that it is very possible to carry your team to a win, but some days you can’t do everything. Frequently, you play games with a player on your team that is literally throwing. That right there is a waste of 15 minutes. You probably just want to quit forever. The game gets so frustrating so quickly. Beyond the team, some characters are just so frustrating to play against that you just don’t have fun anymore. I mentioned that I like how Overwatch has these unique abilities. Well, some of them I hate because they are so absurdly broken. You can play almost perfectly with your team and all of it can be countered by one ability, Baptiste’s immortality field. In conclusion, the game is somewhat different from its predecessor so it’s a fun game. However, it is similar to its predecessor at its core, so it can be very not fun. I honestly do not know what to think. Some days I think it’s a great game, other days I want to uninstall it.