Overwatch 2 Reviews

Overwatch wasn’t on my top 5 wish list for 2016 when I put that together. Nor have I played it’s open beta, which was so close to launch that it was more of a marketing tool than an actual beta test. After getting it last June and playing it for well over 2000 hours as of now, I simply wanted to share my opinion on what I deem one of 2016's best games, if not the best.

General overview

Overwatch is a 6 vs 6 team-based FPS with MOBA elements or a 'hero shooter’ as described in a TA op-ed a few weeks before launch. This means that while you have three types of characters like in a class-based shooter (damage, tank and support), each character of a certain type is distinctive from the other characters of the same type. For example, the offensive hero Pharah utilizes a jetpack and a rocket launcher and is therefore best used at medium to long range. Reaper, on the other hand, is a hero which excels in close quarters combat due to twin shotguns and is useless at long range. Each hero also has multiple other heroes which can counter them and multiple heroes where they are strong against.

Content

The game has four game modes with a total of 14 maps (13 main maps and 1 special Arcade-only map). While this is in the average amount of maps in a FPS, the real content are the heroes. There are 32 heroes (21 originals and 11 introduced with title updates) and each hero has a different playstyle. Some of them, such as Reaper, D.Va or Roadhog excel in close-quarters combat, while others like Pharah, Hanzo or Cassidy are best utilized at mid-to-long ranges. And yet other heroes like Lúcio, Mercy and Ana don't do that much damage, but are very important in a team composition due to their healing abilities. The sheer variety of heroes make it a game full with content while you work on mastering each one enough to get the achievements. And with all future content being added for free, there will still be a lot to look out for.
Score: 88/100

Gameplay

Now the game begins. You walk out of the door/are prepared for those who do when on defense and the fight starts. Each hero has a weapon which fires with RT and most of the heroes have an alternate fire mode used with LT. Each hero also has one to three character-specific abilities which are bound to the bumpers and LT by default. Those abilities are very important in the gameplay and the winner is often the team where the players worked together and combined their abilities well. Each hero also has one ultimate ability, which charges over time and by dealing damage to opponents or healing teammates. These ultimate abilities can literally change the balance of the game in seconds when used well and can turn a certain defeat around to secure a victory.
Score: 92/100

Audio

Where most if not all shooters are primarily played by sight, it’s nice to see one which has sound as one of the most discerning features. The sound design is incredibly clever with most attacks/ultimates being easy to recognize due to their sound. In case of ultimates, these are recognized by the voice line of the character and serve as a telltale sign. The situation of the battlefield can also be determined by sound, with voice lines indicating oddities such as a resurrection or a teleporter. The music also fits the game quite well, with the theme being more playful when the game starts and getting tenser when a game draws to its conclusion.
Score: 94/100

Visuals

While most shooters choose for the gritty grey, brown and green as their colour scheme of choice, Overwatch comes with a vibrant visual style where bright colours almost literally pop up everywhere, from the detailed maps to the colourful bunch of characters that make up its playable roster. There are a lot of easter eggs to other Blizzard games hidden in the maps as well, such as quite a few computers showing a Hearthstone screen, and even a Dark Souls reference on the Eichenwalde map. The design reflects positivity for the most part, and it's yet another bullseye from Blizzard.
Score: 93/100

Story
While Overwatch doesn't have a story mode at all, there is a surprisingly deep backstory describing how Overwatch was formed and disbanded, what all heroes have to do within the world that Overwatch is set in and their own personal reasons to take up arms. There is a lot of lore to be discovered in the Animated Shorts and comics and especially the former are high quality. However, it's still not accessibe from in-game in any way. That little point makes the story behind Overwatch the weakest, but still a quite impressive part of a very impressive new IP.
Score: 82/100

Game Modes

There are a variety of distinct game modes in Overwatch: Quick Play, which is the more casual, drop-in-drop-out variety, Competitive Play, which is the same as Quick Play but ranked and with longer matches and Arcade, where all special game modes are included in. In Quick and Competitive Play, there are 4 distinct objective types: Control, where two teams fight over a capture point in the middle, Assault, where one team tries to capture both points and the other team tries to defend them, Escort, where one team is tasked with delivering a payload and the other team tries to stop it and Assault/Escort, a combination of the former two modes. Arcade game modes are 1v1 Mystery Duel, where two people are put together in a series of fights where they both use the same random hero, 3v3 Elimination, a last team standing mode where teams of three try to kill the enemy team before they get killed, Mystery Heroes, where everyone respawns as a random hero after death, a Brawl playlist, which features the standard game modes with a twist and No Limits, basically Quick Play but without the one hero per team limit. Arcade also contains the seasonal events such as Mei's Snowball Offensive in the Christmas period and Capture the Rooster at Lunar New Year (2017 is the Year of the Rooster for reference). There's quite a lot of variety in the modes and there is something for almost everyone.
Score: 91/100

Balancing

In a multiplayer game, balancing plays a pivotal part in its life cycle. Overwatch sees regular balancing updates to make as much strategies as possible viable. There are always some heroes which feel stronger than intended or weaker than intended after every update (mostly due to hidden buffs), but Blizzard adequately monitors balancing and makes changes accordingly. For example, Ana recently recieved a decrease in healing boost for her Biotic Grenade ability, since it proved too powerful on tanks. Sombra, on the other hand, got a reduced cooldown on her Hack ability and a reduced time to execute the ability in the same update. Early changes include a reduction to Widowmaker's bodyshot damage from 150 (which could instantly kill a Tracer/Zenyatta back then) to 120 and a console-exclusive nerf to Torbjörn's turret from 14 damage per shot to 10 since it proved a bit too hard to counter on console due to the aiming not being as precise as on PC. Overall the continuous balancing and openness of Blizzard is something which definitely deserves a glowing recommendation.
Score: 93/100

Final Verdict:
Resurrected from the charred remains of the Titan project, Overwatch is a highly enjoyable FPS/MOBA hybrid with a lot of replay value.

Final Score: 633/700 = 90/100

Edit: changed some terminology to account for the offense/defense class merging.

Overwatch 2 is a free to play, team-based action game from Blizzard Entertainment.

Rather than write a review of the game from scratch, I'm going to talk about what changes have occurred compared to the original Overwatch, which Overwatch 2 replaces, and what I feel are the positives and negatives.

THE GOOD

Overwatch 2 is free to play. While there are negatives to that, which I will discuss later, the positive is that anyone can download the game and give it a try without having to pay for it, and if you like it, you can continue playing it for free.

The game has full cross-platform play in all modes, both casual and competitive, across Xbox, PlayStation and Switch. You can also play with people on PC, however, if you queue with a friend on PC, aim assist is disabled and you cannot play competitive, so you'd have to stick to quick play and the other casual arcade modes.

The game is optimised for the Xbox Series consoles and offers 3 choices on both machines: resolution mode, balanced mode, and framerate mode, with the latter targetting 120FPS. It's not that common for the Xbox Series S to get a 120FPS mode in a game, so it's nice to see it offered here.

There's skill-based matchmaking across all modes. In the casual modes, you can queue with friends of any rank, however, in competitive modes, if you want to queue up with friends they need to be a similar rank to you.

As the game is a "live service game", it will receive new content regularly, including new maps, modes, and characters.

The devs have addressed some of the gripes people had about the original game, for example, as there's only 1 tank per team now instead of 2, you won't encounter annoying double shield comps where you spend a lot of your time just trying to destroy enemy shields. Pretty much everything that can stun you has also been removed from the game, so you rarely feel like you have literally no chance to respond.

The new maps are decent, and there's a new "Push" game mode where each team is trying to take control of a robot to push it to the end of a path, and that's fun too.

There's a ton of new voice lines and interactions between the characters.

There's a new ping system, so you can ping enemy players to let your teammates know where/who they are, which is very useful.

The achievements are the same as in the first game, which some may see as a negative, but given that the first game is now unplayable, you're not left with achievements that are impossible to unlock, so I see that as a good thing. Quite a few of the achievements are tied to seasonal events that come and go, but those same events still come and go in Overwatch 2, so they can still be obtained.

THE MEH

The game is supported by a battle pass system. There's both a free and premium battle pass, with the latter costing 1,000 Overwatch Coins, which is £8.39 in real money. Each battle pass covers 1 season, which lasts for 2 months. The premium pass offers an array of voice lines, weapon charms, sprays and other small cosmetic items, plus a handful of skins, although it requires you to level up to earn each reward, which takes time. If a new character is part of a season, buying the premium pass will unlock it straight away, otherwise free battle pass players will have to hit level 55 to unlock it, which does take a fair amount of time to do.

A lot of small things/features that people liked in the first game are no longer present. There's no LFG feature built into the game itself. There's no player portraits, on fire indicators, medals, or post-match cards to vote on. There's no indicators to show if players are grouped up. The priority pass system is gone. There's not even an intro animation when you load the game up. You just get the Blizzard logo, then it jumps to the login screen. It definitely has a "beta" feel to it, like they still have a lot of work left to do.

Before the game's launch, the devs talked a fair bit about the new PVE modes, which would feature story-based missions and skill trees for each character so you could unlock/upgrade their abilities (only in PVE though, not PVP), but none of that stuff is in the game as of mid-November 2022. It's still coming to the game, but not until some time in 2023.

The queue times can be long. I've seen queues of 8 minutes to play tank and I'm only a player of average skill. At the higher skill levels, the queue times can be even longer. The fundamental issue is that there are not enough players queueing to play support at any given time, leaving the queue times for tank and DPS quite long. If you flex (queue for all 3 roles at once), more than 9 times out of 10 you'll be playing support.

There are no lootboxes in the game. Whatever your opinion is on lootboxes, in the original Overwatch, you received 1 for free each time you levelled up, you got up to 3 as endorsement rewards every now and then, and you sometimes got them as a free gift for a seasonal event. So, over time you could unlock a decent amount of items for free, including the top-tier legendary skins.

The 2CP mode has been removed, along with its maps. Many people didn't like 2CP (where you had to capture 2 points to win, instead of pushing a payload), but it would have been nice if they kept the mode in the game in some optional form.

THE UGLY

There have already been a bunch of legendary skins added to the in-game store that are only available to buy with Overwatch Coins. These typically cost around £16 to buy, which is obscene IMO. Yes, I know that they are only cosmetic, however, many players (including me!) enjoyed collecting all of the unlockables in the first game, but no way am I spending £16 per skin. I don't mind buying the premium battle pass to support the game, but that's just too much.

While you can earn Overwatch Coins by completing weekly challenges, the rate at which you earn them is ridiculously slow. You'd have to complete all of the weekly challenges every week for 44 weeks just to earn enough coins to buy a single skin.

CONCLUSION

The core gameplay is really fun, especially if you're playing with friends. It features a whole bunch of maps, modes and characters to play, and all without having to pay a penny if you don't want to. There's casual and competitive modes, with skill-based matchmaking across all of them, and if you have friends on other platforms you can play with them too. There should be a steady stream of updates, adding new features, modes, maps, characters etc. over the course of several years.

The game is let down somewhat by its unfinished feel, missing features/modes, and the ridiculous prices for certain skins that can't be obtained any other way aside from buying them with real money.

Blizzard will almost certainly address some of the things I've criticised as time goes on, but based on the state of the game right now (November 2022), I would rate it 3.5 out of 5.

Overwatch is one of 3 games that, to this day, I have over 1000 hours on. When I first started playing it back in 2016, it brought a whole new dynamic to teamwork in a video game. It was always so exciting when you hit a 4+ man with a D.Va or Reaper ultimate. There isn't a game I've played that matches the energy quite like this as of yet. I suppose that shows considering I'm still playing the game now, almost 9 years later. The game is smooth in regards to gameplay and stability and is still consistently updated to this day. There was quite a bit of a learning curve for this game before Ranked came out and a LOT has changed since then. Despite all the new heroes (21 on 28/01/25), my main is still Roadhog, and I think it will be forever.

Even though the devs like to implement things into Overwatch that don't really serve much of a purpose, I will never speak badly of this game. Even if Marvel Rivals takes over.

The game and its community has changed drastically since its release, but I still have some good fun with it.

(Bynski, 1100+ hours acc. Xbox Stats, 59/59 base game achievements)

A review of Overwatch: Origins Edition

Say what you want about 2016, but it was an amazing year for shooters. We got Gears 4, The Division, Doom, Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty IW and countless others. So in this review, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite games of 2016... Overwatch!

Gameplay: Overwatch is a multiplayer first-person shooter that lets you play as twenty-three twenty-four different characters, known as heroes. These heroes are split up into four categories: attack, defense, tank and support. Each type of hero is better in different situations, and it is best to balance your team and build the perfect combination. Every hero has different and unique abilities, as well as a powerful 'Ultimate' ability. Using a powerful ultimate can often change the tide of a losing battle. Considering how many different characters the game has, I think that Blizzard does a very good job of balancing the heroes. While there are certainly some heroes that are better than others, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses and I would never say hero is terrible.



Game Modes: Something that may anger a lot of players is the lack of any single-player content. Without an Internet connection, you cannot even reach the title screen. However, the game's servers are extremely fast and reliable. I have below average internet speed, and I've only experienced lag once throughout all of the multiplayer games that I've done.

The easiest way to get into the game is by playing Quick Play. You can almost always jump into a match that hasn't even begun yet. On most of the different maps, the game uses an Attack/Defend game type. Each team composes of six players. The defending team will have to guard either a small area of the map or a moving vehicle, depending on the map. The attacking team will have to break through their defenses and get to the objective. Personally, I think it's a bit easier to play offense, but a powerful defensive team can very easily hold off a poor offensive team. What's fun about Quick Play is that it doesn't really matter if you win or lose, but you still feel motivated to win because you get more experience and the overall satisfaction of winning.

The more hardcore (and sometimes rage-inducing) game mode is Competitive Play. You will be teamed up with players according to your SR (Skill Rating) and placed up against a usually equal team. Your Skill Rating will go up if you win and down if you lose, so everybody's really out to win and teamwork becomes really crucial. If a member of your team rage quits during Competitive Play, you almost always lose, which shows how much difference a single person can actually make.

The last mode that I want to talk about is the Arcade. The Arcade lets you try different game modes that rotate depending on the season. Some of the seasonal modes include a snowball fight, capture the flag and a three versus three elimination game. However, I don't really play the Arcade very much because I just don't find it as the same appeal as Quick or Competitive Play.

Sound: The game's soundtrack is good. It's not anything that I would personally write home about, but it can be catchy depending on the situation. The voice acting, on the other hand, is really good. No two heroes have the same voice actor, and everyone really sounds and feels like their character. Heroes will sometimes interact and talk with other before a match starts, which is awesome because it allows you to learn a little more about the characters and their backstories.



Replay Value: The massive amount of playable heroes means that it's very hard to get bored of everyone. There's a good amount of maps and modes to do that can keep most people playing for a long time. On top of that, every future hero, map and game mode is completely free of charge. There's no season pass, no pay-to-win and everyone is on the same playing field.



Achievements: The achievements are really hit or miss. Some of them are fairly simple, while others such as


can be a real pain, especially if you don't have any boosting methods. However, most of these can be earned simply by trying your best.

Conclusion: Overwatch is one of my favorite Xbox One games EVER. The massive replayability and the sheer fun that this game provides is phenomenal. Blizzard never really fails with its PC games and I'm happy that they brought this greatness onto the Xbox One.

Pros and Cons:

+ Tons of diverse heroes with unique weapons and abilities
+ Each map feels amazing and fresh
+ Competitive Mode is very well balanced
+ All future content is free of charge
+ Incredible voice acting
+ Many different skins, voice lines, emotes, sprays and victory poses for each character

- Lack of any single-player content
- Rage quitters can ruin the game for everyone

I'm always willing to improve my reviews. Please consider leaving a comment so I can know how to improve my future reviews.

I recently brought this game after being nagged by friends. It's a decent game, decent gameplay and enough characters to choose from. The graphics are of a cartoon-ish style, there is no blood or gore. Although its a 12 age rating I personally don't see why kids cannot play, its no worst than half the cartoons or kids films out there, but that is up to individual parents to decide. As someone who rarely plays first person shooters, and when I do I'm terrrible, this game is no differnce. This is online only, so you will need the internet to play. If you don't know what this is about it is basically a Team vs Team of various game types, and is usually more fun with friends. If you love competitive gameplay you'll enjoy this. It often does start to bore me after awhile due to its repetition, so I will often end up after 2-3hrs sticking in a RPG or something. You will find that you will get better as you play more, and you will start to learn what chararcters suit you most {I personally prefer Soldier, Tracer, Sombra, Hanzo and Widowmaker}, but for a casual gamer you will die, rage and sigh but cheer and feel a great accomplishment when you get your first kill, then your ten and so forth. Obviously not all players play fair, some games will test your patience lol

Overwatch: Origins Edition

Overwatch, is a 100% online, multiplayer first-person-shooter game, published by Blizzard. The game consists of 23 premade characters that fall into four different classes; offense, defense, tank and support. Each character has a kit of unique weapons and abilities to be employed during the contest, and they also have an "ultimate" ability that builds up over time, and can be used to turn the tide at a critical moment. Also, they all have their own backstory, funny or sad tales explaining who they are, what they do and why they do it. I won't lie...my daughter repeated the back stories enough that I caved and picked up a copy of the game.

Like most gamers these days, my friends list is rather extensive. A list comprised of family, personal friends, and many acquaintances that all share similar senses of humor, overlapping interest in movies/books/TV and every single one of them has at least one hobby (gaming) in common. At any given time, my friends list will have a minimum of 10 people online. Without fail, at least one of them will be playing a game that I also own. So imagine my surprise when I loaded up Overwatch, only to find out that NONE of the people on my friends list have played the game.

Then it dawned on me why... because First Person Shooters suck, especially the multiplayer parts! For those not in the know... Overwatch is nothing but multiplayer, no campaign at all. So of course my friends were avoiding it.

Why do FPS games suck? Let me count the ways:

PVP vs PVE: FPS campaigns are typically single player, or co-op. They have a story that the gamer advances by completing missions etc. A good story is important and can really make or break a game in my opinion. Multiplayer and PVP...not so much. If I can avoid PVP I will. I, and apparently many others, find no joy in contesting my skill against other players if there's no point other than "heh...I killed you." A friendly game between friends sure...but once that random griefer joins the game, I'm out. We all know him, that guy who logs in for the sole purpose of ruining your fun.

Well guess what...I haven't run up against one in Overwatch yet. Don't get me wrong, there are great players there, and I do get frustrated, but they aren't griefers. Everyone I've met in this game is really here to play for fun. Teammates are typically helpful versus out for themselves. I've yet to get a negative message from any other player and I haven't heard a single gloat yet. It's refreshing.
Game Modes: Team slayer anyone? No thanks...I don't want to be the guy at the bottom of the list. Ever. I doubt anyone else does either. Not a problem in Overwatch. Every game is objective based. There are two teams trying to capture and hold a single central point. Teams attacking and defending point A, then point B, should point A fall. Lastly, capture point A followed by an escort mission to point B. Multiple capture point games consist of two matches, so each team can both defend and attack. Absolutely NO slayer mode. Worst case scenario, one team is able to hold a bottle neck...but that's their job. No room for griefers here. The best part...no "ranking" at the end of the match showing who did what, all you see is your own results.

Leveling/Rewards: I don't know about you, but I hate starting a new multiplayer game knowing that people that have been playing longer than I have, will always have the advantage of having unlocked better gear and more perks, that they can use against me. Not the case in Overwatch. Leveling is based on time played, winning the match, consecutive matches and medals. Medals are gold/silver/bronze based on how well you compare to your own team only in the categories of eliminations, objective time, objective kills, damage done and healing. No list of who did what is ever present...you only see the medals you won. Are there unlocks? Yes, there are. Each character has a number of skins that range from palate swaps, to completely different costumes. They also have "sprays" which are small pictures or logos unique to each character. My favorite, is the "wanted" poster that McCree uses. Players can and do use sprays in game to leave their marks on walls, trees, cars, windows etc. I've even seen players combine their sprays with each other in very creative ways. You can also unlock various victory poses, emotes, voice lines (think one liners) and highlight intros (more on these later). None of the unlocks affect game play, as Blizzard didn't want people to have the negative experience that I referred to up front. Unlocks are purely cosmetic and aside from familiarity with each character, everyone is always on an equal playing field.

Achievements: I won't lie...some of these are going to be tough. If you're a completionist, this may not be the game for you. After logging 33 hours of gameplay, I'm less than 50% complete. Of the 37 remaining achievements, 33 of them have been obtained by less than 10% of the gaming community. In addition to a few general categories, each character has two achievements/trophies, one based on a common ability, and one based on their ultimate ability, so if you want them all, you're going to have to master the entire line up.

Fun: Overwatch, is without a doubt more fun than your basic Call of Duty or Battlefield. The characters really make the game. Hearing each one call out their catchphrase when they unleash their ultimate ability is highly entertaining. When was the last time you heard a female Egyptian soldier scream out "Justice rains from above!" followed by a missile barrage from the sky that takes out half of your team? Or what about hearing "It's hiiiigh nooon!" and knowing you better jump behind the limousine or McCree, a cowboy with a bionic arm, is going to take you out with a well-placed headshot from his six shooter revolver? My personal favorite to play is Hanzo, a Japanese sniper, wielding a bow and arrow. When he unleashes his ultimate ability, twin dragons launch from my bow (big dragons too) spinning around each other in a helix as they wipe out everyone in my path, or better yet, when I send it through a wall and the competition can hear it, but can't see it and don't get out of the way in time.

The characters, should they have overlapping back stories, will talk to each other. For example, if Junkrat and Mei are on the same team, and standing near each other, Junkrat will say "Brrrr, I get cold just looking at ya." Mei will respond "Then you should look somewhere else!" Another is when D. Va, a professional video game player, sees Winston, an intelligent genetically engineered gorilla, she exclaims "A giant gorilla, just like in those old video games!" to which he responds with a sigh "I get that a lot."

Another fun aspect of the game, is the highlight reels. Every match as a "play of the game" which highlights one character. Everyone in the match is treated to a short cinematic of your character, with your name in lights...and they get to watch what you did to earn the honor from your POV. As you play, you will unlock multiple cinematic highlight intros to choose from. Lastly, the game saves your last five or six highlight reels, even if you didn't earn play of the game. This makes capturing and posting videos to your friend feed super easy!

Drawbacks: The biggest drawback, is access to the story, and the lack of a campaign. With this huge cast of characters, fitting them all into a canonical campaign might well water down the final product. Which means that the majority of the backstory is only available outside of the game. You need to visit the Blizzard website to get the profiles, watch the videos or read the comics. In today's age of fan fiction and connectivity, that's really not much of a deterrence to those interested in the official stories of the Overwatch universe.

All in all, Overwatch is a fun time that is easy to jump in and out of with little to no pressure involved. Like most games, it's as much or little fun as you make it.