Now, these were just the outlines of new characters so there's not much to go on yet. However, Game Informer did have some vague descriptions of the potential new heroes. According to the site, three of the four looked like they could be female. As for the one possible male character, writer Andrew Reiner wrote that it "held a crooked staff, looking somewhat like a wizard, warlock, or voodoo priest." Maybe a Diablo 4 slide got mixed in by accident? There was also a hero who seemed to have an animal companion, and "a giant four-sided weapon" __ that Reiner described as "similar to the shuriken used by Yuffie in Final Fantasy VII , but much thick

 
Overwatch 2 is free to play, so in theory it’s not too much of an issue that it’s an entirely new game. Splatoon and Call of Duty both charge full price for their updates on what came before, and Overwatch 2 at least avoids that. But it doesn’t mitigate how dated Overwatch 2’s structure already feels, and how much that contrasts with how the initial game felt at launch. Overwatch is a hero shooter, and part of its popularity has been the affection for its heroes, not to mention how differently each of its roster plays. There are characters with pistols, shotguns, bazookas, ice blasters, revolvers, sniper rifles, mech suits, and bows and arrows, but whatever the weapon is, Blizzard seems dead set on aiming them all directly at its f

 
After the massive announcement of Overwatch 2 was made at Blizzcon, we found out a little more about the highly anticipated sequel. We know that multiple new maps are coming, as well as a co-op story mode, and two new heroes: Echo and Sojo

Right now I have almost everything I could ever want, and I’m smart enough now to avoid wasting money on currency unless there is something I desperately want. The battle pass is one of the few means of progression right now, with the character levelling system teased in earlier trailers abandoned until PvE rolls around. Seasonal skins that used to justify events are now available whenever we like, or a part of bundles that cycle through the store each and every day.

 
Overwatch 2 is not entirely unique in this regard; Call of Duty still does yearly releases, and even the ever-popular Warzone is getting a sequel. Splatoon 3 just enjoyed a stellar launch too , although not without criticism that it too would be better served in the modern environment as an ever-evolving service game rather than a brand new 

Blizzard needed to change its release model to make more money and get with the times, and there wasn’t really a way to do that without throwing a number at the end and making it free-to-play across all platforms. I don’t mind this direction at all, and think it will result in a much better game when all is said and done, but something about it does irk me.

Overwatch 2 is a weird sequel. It’s more of a live-service update with fancier menus and quality of life improvements instead of a fundamental evolution of what came before, except it’s a whole new game - although it’s free and your progress carries over, so it’s not really that much of anything.

 
Unlocking old heroes only applies to new players, but going forward the battle pass will come into play. With that, free players will need to grind to unlock heroes, while premium players will get them automatically. It seems to go against Overwatch’s greatest strength that some players can have access to so many more heroes, and so much earlier. Of course, it might seem like Overwatch cannot win. I’ve just complained that it is opting for the sequel model, and now I’m criticising it for going down the seasonal route. Maybe that’s just it though. Maybe Overwatch cannot win. It was the perfect game at the perfect time, and it feels impossible to think it might ever recapture that ma

 
I know some other games do this. Valorant and League of Legends are both successful, and both require heroes (agents and champions, respectively) to be unlocked from the off. But crucially the original [[https://Overwatch2Fans.com/|Overwatch 2 Maps|Https://Overwatch2Fans.Com/]] did not, and that was a major part of the appeal. This unlocking system was at one time commonplace in the fighting genre, until studios realised this was no fun and served no purpose. Overwatch 2 seems to be deliberately making the game less fun in the hopes of ensnaring players to keep playing until their favourite hero is let out of jail. A more confident hand would give you the heroes from the start and trust that it’s good enough for you to stick aro

I played a lot of Overwatch. I owned it across all platforms and put in hundreds of hours across a number of years since its original release. I also bought far too many loot boxes thanks to my compulsive personality and skins my brain convinced me I couldn’t live without. With the power of hindsight it was a pretty bad time, and I’m relieved the RNG has been wiped away in favour of a more honest model of purchasing skins. No longer am I toying with a slot machine and pulling myself further into a spiraling gambling obsession.