Announced on Nov. 1, 2019 and released Oct. 4, Blizzard’s “Overwatch 2” is a multiplayer first person shooter with heavy aspects on teamwork and communication. Taking place sometime in the year 2070, 30 years after the “Robotic Crisis”, you take control over elite strike team members, all having their own agenda for the world. 

Blizzard released “Overwatch 2” with the hopes of giving players of all consoles and PCs a fresh new experience with major changes from the original game. So how is that end-goal holding up after being released for about a little more than a month?

Some of the major changes in the game include five against five (5v5) instead of six against six (6v6), stuns (a mechanic made to stop enemies from doing anything) being removed from the game, and roles having different passive abilities. With these changes, the game definitely feels different than it did in “Overwatch 1”. 

The new 5v5 system makes the game feel a lot less chaotic. In “Overwatch 1”, a player would have two tanks (characters who absorb damage), two damage (characters who typically deal most damage), and two healers (characters who heal damaged teammates). In “Overwatch 2”, you only have one, while the rest stay the same (two damage, two support). With passive changes done to the roles, every role feels more rewarding to play. 

For being a sequel, the game lacks a lot of new content; there is a new game mode called push where the objective is to push a robot to the enemy spawn as well as a couple of new maps. Other than that, there is not a lot of new content. Loot boxes have also been removed, but with that comes the new system where skins for characters now cost real world money. If you want a shiny new skin for your main character, you need to pay around $20 to get it. With this, the game does feel a lot less rewarding and doesn’t give players an incentive for playing. On that same note, the game is free to play and Blizzard needs a way to make money off of their game.

Sometimes you forget that the game is free, due to the high quality of the game. This gives Blizzard a free pass to make things expensive; it feels like looks are based off of the money in your wallet rather than the amount of dedication you put into the game. 

Although “Overwatch 2” could use added content such as more game modes and even more new characters, It’s still an exciting release. In all, I would rate the game a 6.5 out of 10. Comment your thoughts and opinions below.