Overwatch | Brief Retrospective

Coming from someone who doesn’t commit to multiplayer live services for too long after launch, Overwatch is the only game to break that cycle. It can’t be overstated how big of an impact this game played in my gaming space in the past 6 years. Even through this long content drought for the game, I’ve still stuck with it because I still find the game fun all these years later. I don’t play many Blizzard games at all but I’ll always have a place for Overwatch.

Like many, if you didn’t play Overwatch during its initial release in 2016, you certainly heard about it. Back in its prime, Overwatch was extremely popular with hardcore and casual gaming audiences. It took off in a way that many may not have expected it to. I would probably never have touched this game if it wasn’t for word of mouth in the months after its launch. It wasn’t on my radar pre-release at all and the hype got me intrigued, I gave the game a try and I’m glad I did.

It all goes together exponentially from the dynamic cast of heroes to play as, the addicting and competitive gameplay, and the intriguing lore. Blizzard crafted a multiplayer experience that I’ll remember for years to come. Now, that leads us to the upcoming release of Overwatch 2.

I recently played the beta of Overwatch 2 a little over a month ago (Thanks to PR for the code). I will say that the game is still fun to play, which is the most important aspect. Blizzard made some significant changes to the game, the most considerable being the move to 5v5 instead of 6v6. I need to play the game more to truly know how I feel but in terms of first impressions, I’d say I prefer 6v6. Then again, that may be because I’m used to it.

Most heroes didn’t get major reworks but a few did here and there. Orisa is the first hero that comes to mind and I can confirm she plays like a completely different tank. There have been new maps added which I’m not too acclimated with just yet. One topic of debate has been the lighting changes to multiple maps. Personally, the bloom effect on certain maps is a bit much to me but from what I understand, the lighting is not finalized yet.

At the end of the day, the game still feels fun to play and that’s mostly what I care about. There’s also the added incentive of the story mode that unfortunately will not launch with Overwatch 2. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I’m looking forward to Overwatch 2 considering the lore of the universe has always been something I’ve wanted to learn more about. As of now, I don’t believe the story mode has a specific timeframe launch besides 2023 so we’ll have to keep waiting there.

I really don’t want to go too in-depth with my thoughts on the changes coming to Overwatch 2. I want to save it all for the full review I plan to do later in October. I wanted to put this up as a short recollective of my time with Overwatch after all these years. After the content drought the player base has been in for years, I hope for the best on release next month on October 4, 2022.