It has been about a year since the highly anticipated sequel, Overwatch 2, was released: oh boy has it been a wild ride. Let’s just say that it did not start off being very well received and has continued to disappoint longtime fans while frustrating competitive players since its release. 

This game has had issues even before it was released, the sequel was announced back in November of 2019, and was delayed several times after the announcement. It got so bad that at one point, people were expecting the game to be released this year. Though they were able to get the game out in 2022, fans were already terribly upset with how they decided to do it. Usually when a first-person shooter (fps) sequel is made it is an entirely new game with its own servers and the servers of the old game are still available. The game developers decided to completely override the servers of the old game for the new one, essentially deleting the first Overwatch.  

This was very upsetting for fans because the entire game would be completely unplayable. Another thing that Blizzard did was make the game free to play. And while this is becoming a very common thing among FPS’s, fans felt like this was a massive cash grab on the company’s part. This is because the old Overwatch had to be purchased and because of this you got a lot of the skins and cosmetic items for free with their loot box system, something that many free to play games have too. Overwatch 2 completely got rid of this loot box system and has adapted a battle pass system like other free to play games. Where there are a select few character cosmetics you will get as you work your way up the battle pass.  

Players were also disappointed to see that certain features that were promised to be in the game were not implemented. In the main trailer of the game, it is stated that Overwatch 2 will come with campaign missions/story modes and the regular PvP game mode that everyone knows and loves. The whole entire point for the second game was these story missions, so when they were not in the game, players were reasonably upset.  

Blizzard responded to the backlash by saying that it would take a lot of time for them to finish these missions but that they would eventually be in the game. However, in June of this year it was announced that they were no longer going to be adding this story mode into the game. The backlash from this was intense, and for good reason, it only confirmed to players that this game was just a cash grab. 

To add insult to injury, the game developers added a few smaller story missions that are a taste of what they could have been and are very similar to an event that took place in the first game in season 6. Except you can only play one for free and must purchase the other ones to play them. It all feels like a very big middle finger to the people that have been fans for a long time and have been waiting for a game that focuses on the story of the game. The response to this was even more backlash and having people write off the game entirely. 

The game is also buggy and not well balanced. In the first few months of the game, several characters had to be completely removed from the character roster and rebalanced, making them unplayable for weeks. Every time a new character is added, several bug fixes must be done and sever maintenance, which also makes the game unplayable. Along with these technical issues the match-making system within the game is very flawed and not really based upon your skill level unless you are playing the ranked mode: which still has a lot of its own issues. This pushed a lot of older fans away, the match making in the old game was not perfect by any means, but it was much better than what we have now.  

Overwatch 2 is currently one of the lowest rated games on Steam and is at the lowest player count it has ever had. All the reviews on steam are the same, accusing the game of being a cash grab, criticizing the match making, saying that the game can barely count as a sequel because of how similar it is to its predecessor, and more. This had led a lot of people to avoid the game, contributing to its plummeting numbers. Something else that could be contributing to this massive drop in player is that Blizard completely shut down all their servers in China. The reason they did this is due to a dispute between NetEase, China’s main game publishing company and Blizzard. Overwatch was not the only Blizzard game server that was shut down, but their other games were as well. 

Though the game is still relatively new, it is only on its 6^th season, it is not looking good, the team seems to be very out of touch with the player and only cares about money. This is not good for Blizzard, though the company itself does not have a good track record for its games or its conduct. Despite all the negative reviews and upset players, there is still a large percentage of people who do play and enjoy this game every day, maybe there is hope on the horizon. Maybe one day the game developers will listen and improve, but for now things are not looking good.