Overwatch 2 Review – Blizzard gives you the game for free, but it wants your money anyway

I fell in love with Overwatch in 2016, with the premiere of the first part. Blizzard, however, decided to refresh the title and switch to the free entertainment scheme. Today’s review of Overwatch 2 concerns many elements of the free mode, because the story edition will not be released until 2023. Is Overwatch 2 worth playing? Feel free to read the text that will help you answer this question. 

What is Overwatch 2 anyway?

Overwatch 2 is a team game that has several types of gameplay. The only thing we can choose as a base are matches that can be ranked or standard, slightly accelerated. What we come across is already random. And we can find three options, i.e. capturing points, pushing the cart and pushing the points with the robot. Importantly, the gameplay is very dynamic and the matches are fast. We do not have to reserve an hour as in the case of a LoL or CS GO match. 

The first mode in Overwatch 2 is quite classic, you need to capture a point and not let your opponents take it and not let them get 100%. The second mode in ranked matches is usually the longest. First, the first team defends itself, and the attackers have to push the payload. After the time has elapsed, the sides change, and the one who goes next wins.

The third point is a kind of combination of both. There is a robot on the map and two walls that he is pushing across the map. Only one team must be present for the robot to move the payload. The side that pushes the load further or the one that gets it to the end wins. 

In each case, there may be extra time , which can change the tide of the game. If time is running out and the attacking team or both are at the point, the game does not end in time. It will only end when the losing team scores a point, a checkpoint if the cargo is being pushed, or when all people have left the area where they would ‘touch’ the cargo. 

In Overwatch 2 we get a choice of 35 characters. On the one hand, it is a lot, on the other hand, it is not much. This is obviously a lot for new players. You have to learn each of them, understand how it works and how to play it. In my opinion it is not difficult, but it is difficult to reach a high level of playing at least some of them. Currently, every two months there should be a new character that will be available in the Battle Pass. This is an absolutely tragic approach and I will come back to it later. 

Graphics and sound

The style has hardly changed from the previous part. It is still very colorful, a bit comic-like. Some locations and characters remind me of Borderlands, while others remind me more of Fortnite.

The whole game is nice though. It is not a graphic style that will appeal to everyone, however. Despite this, it will not get old quickly and will reach a large proportion of players. I have more comments for sound, including dubbing. The game is not able to show very well the directions from which the opponents are approaching. The sounds of footsteps are very loud, but they do not direct us very accurately, especially when there are many levels in a given location. 

As for dubbing, the game in theory provides multiple language. In practice, it is different, because not all issues have been translated. It does not bother me, because when I remembered about it, I decided to switch the language due to the fact that some of the taunts are simply embarrassing. However, this is standard in today’s games, because just look at Need For Speed ​​Heat, which is at the top of my ranking in terms of embarrassing dialogue. 

It is also worth mentioning the maps in Overwatch 2, which take us to various places in the world and have many elements referring to the countries in which they are located. We can find here, among others, the Italian colosseum, a bit of Asian atmosphere, or the Hollywood movie.

Each of the maps is unique at the same time, but also does not have too many passages, so it is relatively easy to navigate and learn about them. Of course, as with many games with ranked systems, not all maps are available during ranked mode. Most of them, however, can be seen in special modes. 

Overwatch 2 – what has changed?

Blizzard shared the first information about Overwatch 2 during Blizzcon in 2019. In three years, they introduced the announced changes, which in some cases turned out to be positive, and partially negative. People stopped playing the original Overwatch mainly due to the lack of game development, too much tank role and the lack of new players who often preferred Fortnite or Valorant over Blizzard production. The latter is to be prevented by a free gameplay model. However, it is not designed well in my opinion, but I will come back to that later. 

One of the most important changes is, of course, the change of the gameplay model. Instead of teams of six, we have more standard teams of five. This resulted in the removal of one of the tanks , which in my opinion is a positive change. A smaller number of shields definitely increases the dynamics of the game, and it is easier for us to simply find four people to play together. The third mode is also new, i.e. pushing the load with the help of a robot, which I described a bit above.

Important, but not very important in terms of gameplay, is also the new scoreboard . In the first part of Blizzard’s production, we had a less detailed view. There was only information about the medal we have in eliminations, injuries and healing. If we didn’t have a medal at all, this field was empty. Currently, in Overwatch 2, we have a view of complete data on both teams under taboo. This is the better solution in my opinion, although it may cause more toxicity in the game. 

Apart from these elements, there have been a lot of changes that are too tedious to describe and irrelevant to new players because they didn’t play the first game. We are talking, of course, about character balance, or a complete change of Orisa’s skills. A lot of the changes are a plus in my opinion, although elements such as Cassidy’s grenade could remain unchanged. As it stands now, the game just doesn’t have enough hard crowd control effects in my opinion.

The playing itself, however, is incredibly enjoyable

I cannot say that I am a Sunday player, but I am also not a huge enthusiast. In the first part I spent quite a lot of hours, although I already feel that Overwatch 2 will last me a lot longer. Mainly thanks to the change in the number of people in the teams, because one tank less is simply less irritating, and it also ensures greater dynamics of the game. After all, we are not faced with two characters with a lot of life and defense skills to break through. 

Currently, the game is very fast, which for me, who is a fan of rather quieter games like Hunt Showdown, needed to adapt to the reality. However, when I managed to control it a bit, I had a great time. Especially thanks to the option of countering opposing heroes, which the game allows us to do on a regular basis.

We can change characters at any time when we are on respawn. However, if we have a charged special skill, the game will not reset our progress in acquiring it, but will change it to 30%. Sometimes it is worth waiting for this skill to be used, but there is also no need to cheat on it throughout the game. 

It usually searches for games quite quickly, but if we play tank, it will happen that we will have to wait a few minutes. In this case, it is worth seeing special modes such as stairs, deathmatch, or tons of other modes created by the community . Sometimes they are more interesting than the rankings themselves, so it’s worth having some fun. 

The shooting itself is very enjoyable. Here we find characters that have weapons that shoot with standard, flying projectiles, as well as those that shoot hitscan, i.e. projectiles that are immediately where we were aiming. The same goes for automatic, semi-automatic and burst weapons. Everyone will find something for himself. Some characters also have different shooting modes, such as Sojourn or Black Widow. Rather, everyone will find a character for themselves in Overwatch 2. 

Fans of winning games almost alone should play as tanks rather than as support or attack characters. The role of the tanks was supposed to be reduced, but now they are able to do much more damage than the characters they were theorized to do. Nevertheless, the most important thing is to play together as a team , because single units will not be able to win the whole game on their own. It is worth remembering about it and not chasing some characters by force, but going back and helping the team.

But the ranking system is incomprehensible

There are ranks and points in League of Legends. After each game, we see how many points we get or lose. The same is true of Rainbow Six Siege. Counter Strike: Global Offensive, in turn, has the same ranks, but the transition between them is smooth. There is no situation where we win and fall in the ranking. And in Overwatch 2, we can win and fall.

Blizzard decided that the ideal solution would be to show updates in ranks every seven games won, or every 20 losses . So in the worst situation we can find out about our situation after even 26 games. Better yet, we might not play for a week, for example, play a match, win it, and find out that we’re down two ranks. Personally, I would feel incredibly discouraged from continuing to play, and as far as I know, I’m not the only one with this feeling. 

Battlepass, which is not how F2P games are made

In the first edition of the game, there were crates that were obtained with levels. Currently, there are no levels, but there is a season pass. If we want to play for free, we have to reach level 55 out of 80 available to unlock a new character. And driving the next levels is not going very well. Playing on average 2/3 hours a day, I barely reached the 25th level in a week.

New heroes should be available at the start of the pass, or placed outside of it altogether. If we want to have a form right away, this is an option, but the pass costs as much as EUR 10 , which is a very high amount, especially since it does not pay back and is scheduled to be new every two months. After all, Overwatch 2 should be free. For eight months of the pass, we will pay as much as for the latest Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare . Each legendary skin, however, costs as much as 20 euros, which is another exaggeration, especially since you can not get them in any free way.

Players who choose not to spend money at all get almost nothing from it, which is also a tragic option. The new heroes will not be available in the ranked matches for two weeks. Along with that, people who prefer to play for free have little to go beyond the ranking itself. There are no levels, no level chests, no nice battlepass rewards. If we decide to pay, it will be much nicer, but is 10 euro every two months not too much ?

There may be some bugs, but there are no places on the servers

The launch of the reviewed game Overwatch 2 was not without problems. At the start, the servers were almost down, I was able to join the game for more than five minutes only on the third day after the premiere, and problems continued to occur. It happened on a regular basis that the game server was shutting down, so the game was reloading with the same people, but on a different map, in a different mode and, of course, on a new server. It was quite possible to defend against defeat, or lose a won game.

Currently, a bit a week after the premiere, the game is in good technical condition, although there are some problems with the characters. At the moment, Torbjorn is unavailable in ranked games, and Bastion is completely excluded from the game. Hopefully Blizzard will deal with the issues quickly and all characters in Overwatch 2 will be available now. 

However, when it comes to optimization, that’s very good . My computer, which consists of the i5 10400f, 16 GB RAM and the RX 6600 XT, allowed me to maintain 144 frames per second in UHD resolution at medium graphics settings. Switching to FullHD at the highest settings I keep a steady 240fps at the maximum settings. This allows you to take full advantage of monitors such as Acer Nitro XV252QF or Dell Alienware AW3423DW .

Overwatch 2 Review – Summary

Overwatch 2 is a big change from the first game, but only the time, players’ approach and Blizzard’s decisions will show if it’s for the best. In my opinion, the gameplay itself is more interesting due to the smaller number of tanks and new characters, but a hopeless ranking system, a tragic season pass, and high skin prices can quickly discourage players from the refreshed title.

Nevertheless, I hope that Blizzard will make good decisions and will be able to keep players on Overwatch 2. Despite these problems, it’s worth checking out the game, after all, it’s free.

About Post Author

Param Flora

Param Flora is a senior editor at Techtiper and a longtime gaming enthusiast and cat lover. She writes about gaming, movies, and TV shows. When she’s not writing, she’s reading. When she’s not reading, she’s playing PUBG with her friends.

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