I Played the Overwatch 2 Beta — Now I’m REALLY Worried

Time spent playing the Overwatch Beta has left me more concerned than ever about the future of this game.

I’ve dabbled in playing Overwatch throughout its years of being a competitive game. I remember the fun and exploration of the first year and I recall the downtimes as people began to exploit the poor balance of the characters as the developers failed to match either the speed or the ingenuity required to fix problems. And so, as I began to try out the Overwatch 2 Beta this past week, I was hoping for a significant upgrade over the original Overwatch. Unfortunately, my time with the Beta has left me more concerned about this title, which I now believe will open with a tremendous thud.

I don’t like being negative or a pessimist. I much prefer writing positive reviews and previews. But that’s just not in the cards when it comes to Overwatch 2. The game feels very much like the original game, looks like the original game with new (but maybe not improved) UI graphics, and has some new audio recordings. There are a few new maps in this preview build, but none of them are exemplary when compared to maps we have in the original. And though almost everything in the original is returning, that’s a double-edged sword. This looks and feels just like Overwatch 1. This feels like a patch rather than a sequel. Worse, I’m not sure the 5v5 the sequel is based upon is any better than 6v6. I think it’s worse.

Let me explain:

In the original Overwatch, teams have finally been forced to play with two tanks, two damagers, and two supports. Though there was a better way to balance the gameplay, the team behind Overwatch 2 has decided to drop that to a single tank, two damage characters, and two supports. The problem is that now there is an imbalance on team impact severely just within the roles. Tanks are now the most important character on the team. If your tank dies, your team fight is over. If your tank dies, you all just need to return to your spawn and wait for the tank to come back. If your tank is bad, there is a very high probability you are going to lose. Though you may get a pick or two as a damage character, the chances of winning a team fight without your super-powered tank is low. Speaking of damage characters, they are where the actual fun lies. But with only two of your players being a damage-based kit, everyone else feels a little unimportant. Supports are the worst. They have been made into something that is honestly unfun to play — a far cry from the original. Instead of being able to keep two tanks alive, now you keep one tank alive while the other team works to kill you first. You have very little in the way of defenses and you will be relentlessly hunted down. Worse, with most of the CC abilities either tuned down or removed, supports feel completely like heal bots. Well, except for Zenyatta and Lucio who can still boop enemies away.

Hot take but the devs should stop messing with mercy's GA/superjump and change other parts of her kit that don't work in 5v5 like her crappy healing and rez

— Hoshi (@HoshizoraOW) July 8, 2022

The thing that I think will sink this game more than anything else, however, is that this is still just Overwatch. This doesn’t feel like a sequel at all. This doesn’t feel greatly different. It’s still a nearly complete team dependent shooter where your wins and losses greatly come down to your roll of the dice as to teammates you’re given. Characters other than DPS still do not have a skill ceiling raised with an impact amount that allows them to carry games. Even more of an issue now, many of these characters feel like they are still designed for a game that no longer exists. Symmetra, Torbjorn, Wrecking Ball, Zarya… they all just feel like they were never designed for this. That’s because they weren’t. And I have seen enough now to conclude that the team behind this game doesn’t understand what they’re working on well enough to probably fix it in time. I have a hard time believing that they have been working for three years and this is what they have to show to the public. It feels like a one-year patch and that’s not good.

We’ll see what they have up their sleeves this October. If this is all, however, I give Overwatch about two-and-a-half more years before it goes the way of Heroes of the Storm. That’s maintenance mode for those of you who don’t know.

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