After so much waiting for so many fans, the Overwatch 2 PVP Beta has finally been announced. With it will come all-new maps and more importantly the first of hopefully many new heroes. For some that will be enough, for others, they will question whether Overwatch 2 is worth it? Here is a look at whether Overwatch 2 is worth it or not.
[Related: Overwatch 2 Beta Announced: New Maps and Characters Coming]
The original Overwatch launch was a smash hit. Overwatch won Game of the Year in 2016 and was off to a hot start from there. The Overwatch League would launch just two years later and it seemed as though Overwatch would be a staple game for years to come. Then the bad times hit.
With Covid arriving in 2020, the Overwatch League was shut down and then moved online. The dev team for Overwatch also struggled and announced that Echo would be the last hero brought into the game. This meant that most of their focus was put on Overwatch 2 which had been announced in November of 2019.
Since then the team decided to go dark for most of the last two years with little updates to where the game was or what would be happening with it. This was all until Blizzconline 2021 where they revealed new maps and some of the new looks for the heroes coming over from Overwatch. Lastly it would all come to ahead with the Overwatch 2 PVP Beta being announced and coming in April of 2022.
With the history out of the way, it is time to look at the good coming with Overwatch 2. For starters, it means that there is finally new content coming to a game that has been starved of it. Since Echo in 2020, there have been no new heroes added and just skins during the seasonal events. With new maps on the way and Sojourn finally getting her release, fans are going to be very excited.
Along with this beta was the announcement of Overwatch 2 becoming a live game. This can mean more than a few things. The first is that the Overwatch 2 dev team will be adding more content and balancing the game more often. This was what many expected the first time around but then development on Overwatch 2 stopped that. Now that it is back, many will be wondering if it will be Free to Play? So far the game has not gone F2P but many anticipate that this was the first announcement that shows a willingness to make the game free.
What fans and critics are assuming is that the PVP side of the game will go F2P relatively soon. With fans and players only having to own the original version of Overwatch to play with the Overwatch 2 PVP players, it would make sense for this to be the route. Should this happen, most fans would be delighted.
The last great aspect of Overwatch 2 coming out is the revitalization of the Overwatch League. One of the biggest concerns for the OWL has been the lack of updates to the game. It has felt stale for most of its lifetime and with Overwatch 2 being an active game, the League will feel as fresh as it has since the start.
For starters, the Overwatch dev team have basically left fans in limbo for nearly two years. While new content will definitely help that, it is hard for fans to forget how many times the dev team has either not listened to them or reluctantly made changes. Certainly, this has left a sour taste in fan’s mouths.
Along with this, the dev team have promised updates and rarely delivered on them. For Overwatch 2, one of the aspects discussed was that during the beta fans would get even more new maps and heroes than what has been shown thus far. Also that there would be regular updates. So far, the team will have had two of these updates in the last two weeks. Certainly, fans will be looking forward to this new transparency but until it is done more consistently, it will be hard to know how serious they are about it.
Overwatch is more than just a PVP game or at least it is supposed to be. With the full release of Overwatch 2 will come a story mode that has long been needed. The question becomes, was waiting this long for content worth it? According to the devs, this part is the main reason for the lack of content and if is is a pretty basic story to an extremely short one, then it may not have been worth the drought.
Lastly, how will 5v5 feel? Many fans are used to the 6v6 action of Overwatch PvP. With the addition of Overwatch 2 comes the subtraction of the flex tank role and many fans are not pleased with that. While it may end up being the right call, no one will know until the game is actually being played. With the beta, many hope that this issue will be resolved.
Overwatch 2 may never be able to live up to the hype of the original Overwatch. That being said, it is going to be bringing a lot with it and finally solving many of the problems that have plagued the original since 2018. For fans this may be enough for them to consider the game worth it but for others it may not be.
What it will really come down to is the F2P aspect. If that is implemented then why wouldn’t fans play Overwatch 2 PvP at least? Especially if they already spent the money for the original Overwatch. In terms of the story that is still yet to be seen. Not much is known about it and the verdict will have to wait.
Ultimately, it will be up to what matters most to each individual. If Overwatch 2 is worth it with the positives outweighing the negatives then that will be good enough. If not then Overwatch 2 is not worth it. It simply comes down to preference at the end of the day and frankly, patience for how long this game has taken.
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