Overwatch 2 has finally landed after much anticipation from the Overwatch community. Initially, Blizzard had decided to shut down the original Overwatch game since they felt that the entire game needed a huge overhaul. These overhauls ranged from the different heroe roles and gameplay all the way to how the loot system worked in the game. They also managed to implement a new battle pass system which gave players guaranteed cosmetics and even heroes when they reached certain levels. Aside from all these, Blizzard also made the decision to make this game free while adding microtransactions where players can spend to unlock even more cosmetics. The many redesigns to the game were greatly welcomed by the majority of the player base. Many also foresaw that the player base would expand even further beyond considering that the game has become free-to-play.
However, with Season 1 just having ended recently and the brand new season having just arrived, many have started to notice that the quality of the game has started to dwindle. Because of this, many have started to react to this by once again declaring that Overwatch 2 is about to die. This is not actually the first time this has happened since the downfall of the original Overwatch occurred in much the same way. There were a lot of complaints surrounding the game that Blizzard could not seem to solve. To add to that, the esports league of Overwatch, Overwatch League, was suffering from different controversies and scandals. With this in mind, what then could be the reason why the doom-sayers have once again reappeared?
Looking at the different opinions that the community have posted on Twitter, the reason can be narrowed down to two reasons. The first reason would be the current meta of the new season. With the new season entering, a lot of players were expecting to see a drastic change that would shake up the meta and make the game feel fresh. This is an especially important factor as it was one of the reasons why Blizzard had to end the original Overwatch and work on Overwatch 2. Second, the gameplay in matches is just simply, not exciting anymore. Players have been noticing that the uniqueness of each hero’s kit is starting to disappear since Blizzard just carries over the kit from other heroes and simply modifies them. Players feel that each hero has no more factor that makes them unique.
With these reasons in mind, let’s see if what these players are saying are true regarding the current issues that the game is facing and how Blizzard could possibly fix this.
Meta
When it comes to complaints about the meta, there is a lot of criticism towards its current state and how it centers around making teams that can “one shot” opponents. According to many, this type of meta is not engaging nor fun in any way since it does not give the opponents any chance to even play the game. Furthermore, there have been complaints that this current meta is just getting stale since there is almost no difference in gameplay or team compositions since the first season. Some would even go as far as to say that it has become worse since team compositions are starting to be built around very specific heroes. This is a bad sign for the game considering that the objective of the game is to have diverse strategies among teams but with how things currently are, it seems that Overwatch 2 is currently heading in the opposite direction.
Despite all the negativity surrounding the current meta, it is still not too late for Blizzard to resuscitate and get Overwatch 2 back on track. They can start by addressing how they have designed some of the current heroes. Despite the overhaul that they did in their transition to Overwatch 2, some heroes both old and new have design elements that made them a bit too powerful for the game. A simple rework or restructuring of a Hero’s kit could help keep them in line while also keeping their identity. They could also look at how the team dynamics works with these heroes and see if it promotes teams to build around these specific heroes. In summary, what needs to happen is that Blizzard needs to make drastic changes to how some of these heroes work.
Gameplay
When talking about the gameplay of Overwatch 2, at its base level, it is very similar to how the first Overwatch was played. However, in the transition, some of the more basic aspects of it were changed or made clearer. For example, some heroes’ roles were changed since they felt that they matched that role better. The impact of roles also became more defined as Overwatch 2 gave a lot of emphasis on what makes a hero part of that role and playing the role that the hero is part of.
At the beginning of the first season, these changes were greatly appreciated by the playerbase. However, with time, it became apparent that there were some present problems with the system. For one, the way the roles were distributed and the number of people on each team placed a great amount of pressure on one particular role. This role would be the tanks. They have to bear the brunt of the team as the initiator of plays as well as the protector of the team. Giving both of these duties to them makes it difficult for them to find a balance between the two. There is also the fact that most of the top tier tanks tend to have a long stun that contributes to the stale meta that many are complaining about. As much as a stun really helps the team, giving a stun to all tanks really makes them feel less unique. In addition, there is the difficulty of playing the most common role, the DPS. Although there are some DPS that are easy to master, most of the top tier DPS in Overwatch 2 require a lot of knowledge on the game. This knowledge ranges from how to properly play their kit, to knowing the map pool and all the way to knowing how to play with the team. Making this role overwhelmingly difficult can drive away some of the newer players.
With these problems stated, there is still a way Blizzard can fix these gameplay issues with Overwatch 2. First of all, the roles being limited to three can be a bit restrictive. By expanding the amount of roles, Blizzard could manage to alleviate some present issues. With an extra role, the tanks could give their duties of initiating plays to this new role. The DPS could also focus more on their damage dealing rather than thinking about other things. As for the other issues, Blizzard could also look into diversifying their options for crowd control. Currently, there are some top tier tanks that do not stun but rather do some other form of crowd control. Blizzard should take notes from these types of characters and try to apply them to the others.
With all these said, these are merely reports and statements of the current player base. The number of active players may have dwindled from the start of the release of Overwatch 2, but this could all in all just be attributed to the fall off of a game after becoming new. With the new season in full swing, there are many events in store for Overwatch 2. It remains to be seen whether these doomsayers are wrong or they were right all along.
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