As the years moved on and seasonal events began to repeat, I fell out of love with Overwatch. I returned following the surprise debut of Archives, which promised a more intricate delving into the lore behind my favourite operatives, but it was a surface level exploration of narrative elements that simply didn’t do enough. A few skins caught my eye, tempting me to indulge in free loot boxes and to grind for a couple alongside friends who returned for similar reas

Implement multiple seasonal events into a single battle pass, rewarding players for completing activities and levelling up their favourite heroes across both casual and competitive playlists. You could ensure that the most beloved skins are making a return on a frequent basis, much like seasonal events provided us with multiple chances to earn distinct skins on a yearly basis. Skins, sprays, emotes, voice lines, and other cosmetics could be brought into fray at w

It could be argued that Overwatch doesn’t need to waste time focusing on this stuff, pushing an "agenda" that simply takes away focus from actually playing the game. But it should, its queer characters deserve more than just a passing mention to keep us satisfied. Explore these stories, show that Overwatch is worthy of the awards and nominations it has received for doing the bare minimum for representation. Two cisgender white homosexuals feels like a sanitised definition of diversity. Where are the POC, transgender characters, and those who refuse to fit into neat little boxes? The universe is only growing with the coming sequel, and its grasp on representation should do so along with

Where a lot of hero shooters have characters that either riff on Overwatch or age old tropes, Overwatch’s originality makes it easy to project onto. They still aren’t perfect - we won’t be able to play as a Black woman until Overwatch 2 - but they’re head and shoulders above the competition in terms of what I look for in the genre, even though I never play

Controversial to have him this low? Lucio is a ‘good vibes’ kind of guy, and while partying with him might help when you're feeling low, he seems a bit of a fair-weather Support. I'm not sure how helpful he'd be in sticky situations or with anything that required any level of emotional depth or assistance that went beyond sticking on some sick tunes. Points for trying, but only j

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 Overwatch 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

Overwatch is capable of so much more, and I hope the sequel realises that. Characters and narrative are clearly the sequel’s focus, which is excellent, but the multiplayer foundation that defines it shouldn’t be neglected, especially when a few small changes could help it shine brighter than e

On the other hand, they could merely be small expansions of the Archives seasonal events where you traverse across bland environments doing battle with generic robots until the objective is reached. These events are... fine, but they aren’t that exciting, lacking the competitive edge of multiplayer that makes Overwatch so wonderfully thrilling to play. If a sequel does anything, it needs to overhaul how we engage with it over a long period of t

I really hope the initial intention was pure, but the aftermath leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The community has done a better job of portraying queer stories in the Overwatch universe than Blizzard has themselves. Pairings have emerged from chemistry found in the game’s dialogue that its creators failed to capitalise upon, which is the sign of an excellent universe filled with potential. Now, Blizzard just needs to build upon it and treat its canonical queer characters with greater resp

Seasonal events in Overwatch 2 skins|https://overwatch2Fans.com/ became major occasions to look forward to. Christmas, Halloween, Chinese New Year, and several others were transformed into virtual celebrations that had our favourite characters donning gorgeous new outfits and performing charming emotes and victory poses that I couldn’t wait to unlock. It was a game I spent hours upon hours with in university, playing alongside my housemates to earn loot boxes and praying we got the skins we wished for. Spoilers: We never

Paladins, a free-to-play shooter which took a _ lot _ of inspiration from Overwatch, has a battle pass, and it functions brilliantly. Now imagine this with Blizzard’s budget. I used to be filled with excitement when Overwatch introduced new seasonal events, hoping that my favourite trio of heroes would receive skins I could flaunt on the battlefield. Now, I’m just indifferent, rolling my eyes as the same optional modes, the same skins, and the same aesthetic are rolled out again and again to keep us ha