Now is the best time it’s ever been to jump into Overwatch 2

This past Christmas marked the anniversary of me playing Overwatch 2. 7 years of my partner and I swearing at seemingly impenetrable enemy teams, then whooping in victory when we finally pull together a plan that cracks them apart - or just as our chill W+M1 game while we chat about our days.

For the uninitiated, Overwatch is a bright, colorful, and very funny team v team FPS that ditches the dour gunmen for a cast that doesn’t all require raw aim skill. Spider-themed snipers and six-gun slinging cowboys share space with winged angelic healers and a talking gorilla with a Tesla cannon - characters who reward positioning and timely ability usage just as much as one’s ability to click on heads. When the game went free to play and slapped a 2 on the end in 2022, it got a more muted reception, but the dev team have displayed a great willingness to experiment. In fact, there's never been a better time to give Overwatch 2 a go.

Apart from frequent balance adjustments and behind-the-scenes tweaks to their matchmaking system, the more expansive map design and swap from 6v6 to 5v5 in recent years has made Overwatch feel far less formulaic, with each battle requiring careful assessment and recalculation rather than rote memorisation of cover spots and endless hammering against impossible choke points.

Some of the more one-dimensional heroes have also been reworked from their Overwatch 1 incarnations to open up more playstyles, and I can confirm that they’re a lot more fun to play as, and against, than before. But of course, there are new characters too. The most recent patch brought cheerful Samoan Mauga to the game’s roster. He’s got two massive chainguns and the heart(s) to match, and he’s the heat in the otherwise festive holiday-themed event (still running through this weekend) that lets players throw snowballs at each other and earn some cute skins. The chimey, bell-filled version of the Overwatch theme that plays over the main menu is a nostalgia hit to that Christmas 7 years ago when I first started playing.

Monetisation segue! As gentle and natural as the way monetisation is implemented. Much as I understand the freemium model, I still kinda detest it. "Kinda" because my partner and I haven’t spent a penny on Overwatch 2, yet we’ve both been doled out enough O-coins to buy a few nice skins each.

Battle passes and time-limited skins harvest FOMO and turn it into juice for the machine, but the devs have stated they plan to do away with the more pernicious elements - and coincidentally Blizzard is no longer under Bobby Kotick’s money-grubbing thumb. Heroes like Mauga will no longer be locked away behind timewalls, with new characters being made available for free. The quests to earn coins have steadily been made easier, and progress from incomplete quests now carries over from week to week for those who don’t play all the time.

If you do jump into the game as a fresh player, your roster will be limited to the simpler characters, with the more complex ones slowly unlocking as you play, but you’ll get them all eventually with no cash required. Since money buys are cosmetic only, one can just play the game for free like I do, and not worry about ever spending anything, while still receiving enough currency to nab a skin or victory poses here and there

Skin sales wouldn’t work if Overwatch’s colorful and varied cast wasn’t a huge part of the appeal. Many of my friends who got into Overwatch were hooked in via character archetypes that few multiplayer shooters serve - movement based heroes who skate around the map, flying characters who strike from above, or ambush characters who lurk in the shadows. The personality and humor the writing team has bestowed on these loveable blorbos is a big part of it too, with the occasional Blizzard-level cinematic and lore drops expanding the broader loreniverse.

Even in game, snappy little dialogues between the characters range from smile-worthy to genuinely touching. Upon finishing a tough fight, Wiston (a scientist who happens to be a grilla) earnestly exclaims “I put the ‘win’ in Winston!”, a line so cheesy, and yet delivered so sincerely, that I can't help but love him. Another character might inquire after another’s dog, revealing that they’re thinking about adopting one soon - a subtle nod to letting go of a life spent in self-immolation and guilt.

The dev team have also worked in a lot more varied representation, continuing to have a diverse cast from all over the world (Peru, Haiti, Ireland). Queer characters like Thai pansexual Lifeweaver or the Egyptian lesbian Pharah precede a nonbinary character releasing in 2024, aka This Year, which I just took psychic damage typing.

Still, everyone has their favourites, from the laconic and lethal Roadhog, who uses his scrap shotgun and chain hook to get close and personal, to the heroic and unretired Reinhardt, with his huge hammer and even larger shield that he uses to help his team push a frontline. A shy climatologist with a freeze ray shares screen space with a butch Aussie warlord whose special interest is jagged edges. And they all play great together in the best balance state the game’s been in for a while. If your fave’s not working, trying something new can often be the thing that tips the scales and lets you lead your team to victory.

Overwatch 2 is a crackingly good game with something for most everyone, and it’s absolutely in the best shape it’s ever been. There’ll be a new multiplayer game mode later this year, the co-op tower defense mode is about to launch, and I haven’t even touched on the various story missions.

If you do log in, especially now that the game’s on Steam, do let me know which of the characters turns out your favourite.