Blizzard needed to change its release model to make more money and get with the times, and there wasn’t really a way to do that without throwing a number at the end and making it free-to-play across all platforms. I don’t mind this direction at all, and think it will result in a much better game when all is said and done, but something about it does irk me.

On the surface, the game is making all the right decisions. Both versions of the battle pass are packed with skins, sprays, charms, and a variety of content that outweighs anything its predecessor had in its first few months. Seasonal events are established, and an existing roster of heroes we’ve already fallen in love with have a generous roster of cosmetics and lore to build upon. I’m already invested, and for Blizzard that is half the battle right now.

Overwatch 2 is going through an identity crisis right now, even if this weird transition was one that me and so many others expected. It will be a better game in the end because of this awkward growth, but right now my investment in Overwatch has arguably lessened the investment I have in its successor because there is less in it for me from the off. Don’t get me wrong, this is definitely a me problem , but aside from pushing through the battle pass I’m now stuck waiting to see what else awaits me on the horizon.

Overwatch was the game I played constantly at university, and playing around with its existing roster while delving into each new hero was a big part of its appeal. My flatmates and I would fall in love with specific roles, or gravitate towards certain heroes because their aesthetic called out to us. I’m a filthy weeb and also very gay, so my mains ended up being D.Va, Mercy, and Lucio, with venturing into DPS territory rarely.

Overwatch 2 is not entirely unique in this regard; Call of Duty still does yearly releases, and even the ever-popular Warzone is getting a sequel. Splatoon 3 just enjoyed a stellar launch too , although not without criticism that it too would be better served in the modern environment as an ever-evolving service game rather than a brand new

I know some other games do this. Valorant and League of Legends are both successful, and both require heroes (agents and champions, respectively) to be unlocked from the off. But crucially the original Overwatch did not, and that was a major part of the appeal. This unlocking system was at one time commonplace in the fighting genre, until studios realised this was no fun and served no purpose. Overwatch 2 seems to be deliberately making the game less fun in the hopes of ensnaring players to keep playing until their favourite hero is let out of jail. A more confident hand would give you the heroes from the start and trust that it’s good enough for you to stick aro

Overwatch 2 is free to play, so in theory it’s not too much of an issue that it’s an entirely new game. Splatoon and Call of Duty both charge full price for their updates on what came before, and Overwatch 2 at least avoids that. But it doesn’t mitigate how dated Overwatch 2’s structure already feels, and how much that contrasts with how the initial game felt at launch. Overwatch is a hero shooter, and part of its popularity has been the affection for its heroes, not to mention how differently each of its roster plays. There are characters with pistols, shotguns, bazookas, ice blasters, revolvers, sniper rifles, mech suits, and bows and arrows, but whatever the weapon is, Blizzard seems dead set on aiming them all directly at its f

I can buy skins outright, but they used to be earned through chance, so the value of each skin is twisted in a way that the community is going to take a long time to reconcile. In reality is it no different to how things are done in games like Apex Legends or Fortnite , with the very best skins costing around $15-$20, but we were used to earning them in a much easier way, and thus it feels unfair. For someone like me with more skins than sense, I feel like a dragon sitting atop a mountain of gold unaware of how they stumbled across such riches. I’m serious, using the new values assigned to skins I think my account is worth thousands. Yet it’s also worthless.

Medals are completely meaningless. Other than a minor XP boost from your highest medal earned, you don’t get anything for collecting medals. They aren’t tracked on your stat page or in your achievements, you can’t trade them for cosmetics, and you can’t even see anyone’s medals but your own. What they did do was explode onto the screen all bright and shiny at the end of every match. My Overwatch career is more than 400 hours long, and the medals alone were enough to keep me coming back for Overwatch2Fans.com m

But for those not planning to pick up the premium battle pass or aren’t already cemented in the Overwatch ecosystem, some new heroes are locked behind progression in ways that actively discourages the experimentation this game is all about. Kiriko - the new fox girl support hero who I am totally not simping for already - is available immediately to premium battle pass holders or existing players of the original Overwatch, while everyone else must grind to Level 55 in order to unlock her. That’s a big time investment for a hero in a hero shooter.