A major disappointment hit the gaming industry when Overwatch 2 released on Oct. 4,  2022 and introduced a plethora of new features – supposedly. While this is typically good news, the additions land shallow; unseen characters, detailed-but-distracting maps, and modes that are poorly developed. The game has left players with a significant amount of gameplay up to their judgment – but for longtime fans, the game is undoubtedly a miss. These features were a major letdown for the three years that Blizzard Entertainment spent to make Overwatch 2. At the end of the day, quality over quantity is always better.

 The game has adapted to be tremendously worse than the past rendition and it is devastating to see a decent franchise go to the dumps. An example of poor decision making by the development team would be that the characters could only be acquired after the first season by purchasing the Battle Pass, which is $10. But if you want to play as a specific character, that will cost you a hefty $19.99. Another major downside is the fact that the developers debuffed some of the old characters that made Overwatch 1 competitive and popular, a prime example being Mai. The scientist is an offensive-centered character, whose main attack is an ice-based range attack. Although adored by fans, this action has been removed. Another note would be a 5v5 push map, except on closer look the idea does not appear to be original.

One of the biggest disappointments is the failure to build upon the old characters’ stories. The new characters have dull stories that don’t intrigue the player. An example would be Kiriko, the sister of Genji, who was a member of a criminal gang known as the Shimada Clan. It was not a mentioned detail until the clan came to Kiriko for Genji’s debt. But that is as far as the story goes, stopping in its tracks. On top of that, they added nothing to the pre-existing story of Genji and Hanzo. The icing on top for this mess of a game is when they shut down the servers for the original. The plan was to transfer the data from the old game. They had bugs where not everyone who previously had Overwatch 1 got all their old data and some players lost their old skins and Battle Pass items. As a reminder – there was a transaction of $10 for the pass and it was promised this would be transferred to the new game. Not to mention the progression-system is unreasonable. You have to put in an inconceivable amount of time to even progress in the game, making the experience deterring.

In conclusion, the new Overwatch has lost its fun and enjoyable features. As a result, damaging the reputation of its original franchise. Hopefully with some of the upcoming updates, the team will fix these nuances and return back to the previous glory of Overwatch.