Blizzcon is scheduled for February 19-20 and an update on Overwatch 2 has been promised . I really hope Jeff Kaplan and company have some good news to share, because they're going to need to give lapsed fans like myself a reason to consider coming b
Well, it turns out I was wrong. Quite wrong. It now looks like Overwatch 2 won't be out until 2022 at the earliest, which likely means regular vanilla Overwatch won't see any significant updates for over a year. And that's a very bad thing when it comes to maintaining a stable fanbase for your multiplayer shoo
You got a myriad of branching pathways and areas to flank, defensive positions, and high-ground walkways and platforms where snipers, Bastions, and Torbs can set camp. The map is elaborate enough for veterans to exploit but palatable and closed-in enough for newer players not to feel overwhel
Don't get me wrong. Overwatch is not a dead game. It still averages thousands of players every day so I'm sure its sequel will draw in fans. But I still think that Overwatch 2 will prove to be a miscalculation for Blizzard. This downtime has definitely had a negative effect on its popularity. I used to at least jump back into it every time there was an event, but the Lunar New Year event just started up and I barely even noticed. Nor do I really care. And plenty of my former Overwatch teammates feel the same way and have migrated to other games. There's nothing to make us return other than the allure of a new skin. And why would anyone bother to get a skin for a game they rarely touch anym
Overwatch’s biggest strength is how good its characters feel to play. Unfortunately, playing them online can feel unrewarding, specifically because of how toxic its player base is. Fortunately, Overwatch 2 has a unique opportunity to rectify this by offering the same high-octane gunplay without forcing you to hemorrhage SR purely because people on your team are being total dicks. It doesn’t need a complex story, Mei's Snowball Offensive or a million maps, or anything like that. All it truly needs is a basic, solid structure like Mass Effect 3 had, where you can run wild with your favourite heroes and use abilities to your heart’s cont
When Overwatch 2 was revealed in 2019, I assumed that it had to be nearly finished. Obviously Blizzard was announcing it because it was going to be releasing sometime in 2020. Otherwise, it could risk losing a lot of its popularity. Devoting resources to working on a sequel rather than adding content to the current game could cause players to drop off as the updates became less frequent. So it had to be just about ready to come
Yet despite its defensive-focused design, the layout, which yields multiple paths and areas to flank, makes attacking more-than-doable for sharp teams. The fun Warcraft- esque themes throughout, coupled with the variance of areas and overall detail make Eichenwalde an optimal choice to revisit for Overwatch
Overwatch’s corporate identity was clear to see through its diverse cast and clear attempts at inclusion, made worse by queer characters who were never given any strong narrative within the world itself. On the surface it was a bold statement, but dig any deeper, and you were left wanting so much more as Blizzard chased demographic approval. Its universe had so much potential for excellent stories and worthwhile sociopolitical commentary, but this clear ambition was brushed aside as the years went on in favour of recycled seasonal events and development of a sequel that is only now lumbering towards the finish line. I once looked up to Overwatch, but now I can’t help but view its failings and cynical business practices for what they really are. I still love so much about it, and the warm memories it brings to the forefront of my mind are clear proof that Blizzard struck gold with this one.
Overwatch defined my first steps into adulthood. I was in my first year of university when it came out, and remember watching my flatmates jump into the beta as they hyped it up as the next big thing. I’d never played a Blizzard game before, and at the time it was an untouchable bastion of goodwill defined by countless classics. Not so much these days . This was its first new IP in decades, and it had all the ingredients to be a masterpiece.
Put it this way: I’m a Reinhardt main. I want to use my shield to close distances and control engagements. When I spot an opening, my job as main tank is to communicate that to the rest of the team so we can push forward as a unit. Ideally, the engagement process will go smoothly and I’ll have a support player keeping me healthy while I swing my Rocket Hammer as if I’m a massive, precision-engineered beyblade. I’ll synchronize my Earthshatter with a DPS ult so we can team kill and lock down the po
It was the biggest shooter in the world for a long time. Blizzard eagerly celebrated new player milestones on social media, while seasonal events became an all-encompassing occasion in the shooter space before the days of battle passes and live service updates. It was both ahead of its time and constrained by the formula it existed within, as additional game modes introduced as part of big updates and quarterly events never lived up to the base experience it was built upon. Junkenstein’s Revenge, Overwatch Archives, and Winter Wonderland were great fun, but fighting against bullet sponge AI wasn’t what this game was about, and hoping to expand on this universe only served to highlight its shortcomings.