When Blizzard introduced Overwatch 2 in 2019, my eyes squinted and my head tilted a couple of levels to the precise. We’re within the age of service video games—a time when “previous” video games get up to date for years after launch and problem the necessity for sequels in any respect. Overwatch was among the many first to kick off the pattern in 2016, and now there’s going to be one other one? How do you sequelize a sport that is not supposed to finish?
Nearly three years later, Overwatch 2’s entire deal hasn’t gotten any clearer. Blizzard has achieved a foul job of explaining what its subsequent shooter is, and it is already having an enormous impact on its first PvP beta.
Left with scarce updates for these final three years of ready, gamers have naturally crammed within the blanks, build up their very own expectations for what a sport known as “Overwatch 2” ought to look/sound/really feel like. Now now we have an enormous slice of Overwatch 2 in our arms, and seemingly no one is pleased with it.
Sequel shock
Besides, maybe, for me. I am having a fairly good time in Overwatch 2’s first beta. Sojourn, the only new Overwatch 2 hero at the moment within the beta, is a enjoyable combine between Soldier: 76 and Widowmaker. A lot of the hero tweaks, like Orisa and Bastion, have been profitable to this point. The controversial 5v5 shakeup has been a constructive change in my ebook. The brand new lighting on previous maps is good. I even dig the brand new Push mode, which is principally a map-wide tug-of-war between two competing payloads.
By and huge, the brand new stuff itself is not the problem right here. However a “single new hero,” “previous maps,” and “hero tweaks” aren’t actually the novel new options that come to thoughts after I take into consideration sequels. On the primary day of the beta, I streamed Overwatch 2 for my associates on Discord. As I began a match on Dorado, an iconic Overwatch 1 map that now has a daytime model, one pal shortly interjected: “What is that this? The place are the brand new maps? Why are the previous maps right here?”
I used to be a bit aggravated by the remark at first. There are a couple of new maps within the beta, really, however there are previous maps too. To me, this is smart—I nonetheless benefit from the previous maps, so I might be bummed in the event that they had been ignored of the sequel. As he noticed extra of the sport, he grew extra disillusioned and I understood why. My pal, who has a traditional particular person job and does not sustain as carefully with video games, had simply assumed {that a} new sport meant utterly new stuff. After all he did, that is supposedly a sequel!
Overwatch too
It has develop into more and more clear that Overwatch 2 is not a sequel although, at the very least not in the way in which that everybody on earth makes use of the phrase. It is not simply that Overwatch 2 feels much like Overwatch 1—it is Overwatch 1. To play this beta, you merely have to modify to a special model of Overwatch 1 in Battle.web and obtain a couple of gigs of additional content material. The menus are functionally similar, however look a bit totally different. All of my Overwatch 1 settings had been robotically the identical in Overwatch 2. I personal all the identical skins. My D.Va’s dancing emote is even mapped to the identical key I left it on.
It is not like Blizzard has been mendacity about Overwatch 2, however including a ‘2’ to the title has definitely misled or at the very least confused lots of people. Blizzard has technically been telling us what Overwatch 2 is for some time, explaining in 2019 that Overwatch 1 gamers will play alongside Overwatch 2 gamers, and that each new addition to Overwatch 2’s PvP (heroes, maps, modes) would additionally come to the unique Overwatch.
In each means that issues, although, the Overwatch 2 beta is extra like a patch. Or, extra precisely, it is an growth. Bear in mind expansions? Blizzard has made a whole lot of them for its different video games over time.
When WoW releases a brand new growth, gamers get what they count on—extra of the sport they’re already taking part in, however with new story, quality-of-life updates, new playable courses, and a brand new map. Primarily based on what I’ve performed, that sounds quite a bit like Overwatch 2. It is potential the notion of Overwatch 2’s scope will change as soon as we have seen extra of its mysterious PvE marketing campaign mode, however till we will play it, it is pure to imagine PvP will stay the sport’s draw.
I can not assist however marvel if Blizzard would have saved an extended headache if it had merely known as Overwatch 2 anything—Overwatch: Heroes Rise. Overwatch 2.0. Overwatch: Reforged (OK, possibly not that one). As a result of now, Blizzard faces two huge issues:
- Lots of people aren’t clear on what Overwatch 2 is and…
- Those that thought ‘2’ meant Overwatch 2 could be a conventional sequel aren’t joyful
That is why I am not shocked tweets like this have gone viral in previous weeks, with replies suggesting Blizzard is just advancing the time of day on previous maps and passing it off as new content material. I do not assume that’s what’s really occurring right here. The up to date previous maps aren’t a spotlight of the brand new sport and appear to primarily exist to indicate off Overwatch 2’s improved lighting. That stated, in case you’ve been fairly assuming Overwatch 2 is a very new, transformative sequel all this time, it is a fairly dunkable video.
Overwatch 2 New Map Lighting Comparability 🌟 📽️Supply: https://t.co/9UAo68CzBj pic.twitter.com/tUPFJ7jVaJMay 5, 2022
The traces between growth and sequel are graying even additional now that Blizzard is formally splitting the PvP and PvE parts of Overwatch 2. Blizzard stated it made the choice so it might get Overwatch 2 within the arms of gamers quicker, suggesting that the marketing campaign and PvE is taking quite a bit longer than deliberate. The studio did not go as far to say that Overwatch 2’s PvP will come out earlier than its PvE, however I am anticipating that announcement any day.
No matter the brand new deal is, I want Blizzard would simply say so. Make it clear that that is “Overwatch too,” not Overwatch 2. As a result of I am already bored with having to be the one to clarify it to my associates. “Nicely sure there’s new stuff, nevertheless it’s additionally the identical sport” simply does not roll off the tongue as a tagline.
I like Overwatch and, Blizzard’s horrible messaging be damned, I feel I will have a whole lot of enjoyable in Overwatch 2, too. However I’d begin calling it Overwatch 2.0, simply to set expectations proper.
