There's nothing I can say about Overwatch 2 that hasn't been said already. This was a massive misstep that strikes down everyone's dwindling faith in Blizzard.
From the start, this should never have been called Overwatch 2. The biggest mistake publishers seem to be making these days is setting unrealistic expectations. If this was marketed as "Overwatch 1.2: A massive patch that introduces new characters, maps, and hero abilities", it would have been a better experience. In fact, calling it a sequel straight up seems like a lie given that this runs on the OW1 client.
An even better way to handle this would have been to just continually update Overwatch 1 and get it to this state gradually. Instead, they abandoned OW1 entirely, leading to rot and meta fatigue, tarnishing the goodwill of the community. They let a good game die a slow and painful death, only to make the revival somehow worse than the original.
I like all the Overwatch 1 aspects of Overwatch 2. I'm happy to play a really polished team-based shooter with a really cool art style and lovable characters. I love the character abilities and ultimates and combining them together to get some really great gameplay moments. I love all the little dialogue moments between characters while waiting for the game to start. Overwatch 1 was one of my favorite games, and I played it a lot during some formative years of my life. It felt like comfort food.
Overwatch 2 on the other hand feels like the same kind of comfort food, but the taste is off, as if its the same ingredients but stale and not properly put together.
5v5 seems weird. I was hoping I'd get used to it, but I haven't. The 1/2/2 meta seems nice at the start when you realize there's less shields and the pace is faster, but that also means you can't play tanks defensively as much anymore. Everything is about getting kills fast. In Open Queue, I rarely see 1/2/2. It's as if the community knows thats not fun. All the damage dealers feels weaker now too. I just don't see as many great ultimates as I used to.
The worst thing though is even if they reversed the changes to the meta and the characters, I still don't think I'd be motivated to play. By abandoning OW1, they allowed a lot of players to get tired and leave, and OW2 isn't big enough or revolutionary enough, or generating enough buzz for them to want to come back. The people I loved playing OW1 with aren't going to come back to this. The time has passed. On top of that, the new ranking system that replaces the SR system isn't nearly as satisfying to work through. There's no clear indication of progress until 7 wins and that hurts the overall experience.
Overwatch 1 should have been kept alive and Overwatch 2 (at least without the PVE) should not have existed. Bring Jeff Kaplan back!
From the start, this should never have been called Overwatch 2. The biggest mistake publishers seem to be making these days is setting unrealistic expectations. If this was marketed as "Overwatch 1.2: A massive patch that introduces new characters, maps, and hero abilities", it would have been a better experience. In fact, calling it a sequel straight up seems like a lie given that this runs on the OW1 client.
An even better way to handle this would have been to just continually update Overwatch 1 and get it to this state gradually. Instead, they abandoned OW1 entirely, leading to rot and meta fatigue, tarnishing the goodwill of the community. They let a good game die a slow and painful death, only to make the revival somehow worse than the original.
I like all the Overwatch 1 aspects of Overwatch 2. I'm happy to play a really polished team-based shooter with a really cool art style and lovable characters. I love the character abilities and ultimates and combining them together to get some really great gameplay moments. I love all the little dialogue moments between characters while waiting for the game to start. Overwatch 1 was one of my favorite games, and I played it a lot during some formative years of my life. It felt like comfort food.
Overwatch 2 on the other hand feels like the same kind of comfort food, but the taste is off, as if its the same ingredients but stale and not properly put together.
5v5 seems weird. I was hoping I'd get used to it, but I haven't. The 1/2/2 meta seems nice at the start when you realize there's less shields and the pace is faster, but that also means you can't play tanks defensively as much anymore. Everything is about getting kills fast. In Open Queue, I rarely see 1/2/2. It's as if the community knows thats not fun. All the damage dealers feels weaker now too. I just don't see as many great ultimates as I used to.
The worst thing though is even if they reversed the changes to the meta and the characters, I still don't think I'd be motivated to play. By abandoning OW1, they allowed a lot of players to get tired and leave, and OW2 isn't big enough or revolutionary enough, or generating enough buzz for them to want to come back. The people I loved playing OW1 with aren't going to come back to this. The time has passed. On top of that, the new ranking system that replaces the SR system isn't nearly as satisfying to work through. There's no clear indication of progress until 7 wins and that hurts the overall experience.
Overwatch 1 should have been kept alive and Overwatch 2 (at least without the PVE) should not have existed. Bring Jeff Kaplan back!