You’d better sit down before I tell you: in Overwatch 2, Fortresses no longer stand still in turrets. Yes, the character’s infamous party-erasable chain gun can now be moved around in turret form. Bastion revolutionized — and not alone.
I’m playing the Overwatch 2 closed alpha PvP beta ahead of the April 26 closed beta, which will invite members of the public to participate. It lets me try out a small portion of PvP and play the new character Sojourn – who I’m great with and will be back later – as well as testing out major rework of existing Heroes Fortress, Doomfist, Orisa and Sombra. There are new maps and modes, a new ping feature, 5-on-5 team sizes, a graphical overhaul, and a new UI, all of which make Overwatch 2 refreshing, if not terribly new.
A new ability for Bastion.
first, fortress. The bot has been redesigned with the idea of being a skirmisher who can move around and fight on the go, rather than a bot looking for sneaky places to mow down the team – a philosophy that runs through a lot of the character rework and . Overwatch 2. The vibe seems to be to keep up and keep going.
Forts can still turret, but turrets move and you can only do turrets for a short period of time. It’s very much like the old tank Ultimate the fort once had, only with infinite ammo chain guns instead of cannons. As you now spend more time on your feet, Bastion’s arm gun has been polished (it’s more accurate) to reflect this, meaning you’re better suited as a damage dealer in between. Complementing this is a throwable Bouncy Bomb in place of the Fort’s old fix/heal.
Meanwhile, Bastion’s new Ultimate locks you in place like a chunky stationary cannon that fires up to three rounds in a circular area.
Blizzard explains Bastion’s rework.
Orisa It also feels noticeably different now, and has gained a lot of offensive moves to make her more viable in her own right, rather than as a buffer and protector. In fact, she doesn’t have a shield at all now, and her damage buff ultimate is gone.
Orisa’s new ability.
Instead, she has a fancy new spear, which she uses in a variety of ways. The first is throwing: she throws it like a javelin to damage and knock back enemies, which works especially well if you slam them against a wall. The second is a spinning spear, which destroys incoming projectiles, pushes enemies back, and provides a burst of speed. The third use is part of her new ultimate: she lifts her spear in the air and charges for ground-target area attacks, seemingly capable of snaring and grabbing any foes caught in it.
Orisa’s gun has also changed. It’s still roughly the same thing – capable of constant firepower – but it works differently. It now has infinite ammo and is regulated by the overheating mechanism. Using too much can get stuck and require cooling, so frequent bursts are a better approach. Orisa’s updated Fortify ability also helps keep your guns cool.
Doomfist’s new ability.
This lets us Doomfist Who, on the surface, doesn’t seem to be any different. He still seems to have most of the same movements.But the biggest difference is that he now tank, instead of the glass cannon, so his health goes up from 250 to 450. He also gains temporary health when dealing damage, and he has a new block ability where he can sweep his large, thick mech arms across his body cloak like a vampire and block frontal damage.
Getting this block means losing an existing ability to make room for it, and the lost ability is an uppercut that allows him to easily get into the air, so in a sense he’s grounded now . The ground slams of his rams and jumps still give him some air time, but nowhere near as much. He’s spending more time on the court now.
Sombra It’s the last redesign, and while her abilities still look the same, there’s a lot of changes behind it. Overall, she gets a lot of what Blizzard calls “finishing powers.” Her hack now disables characters’ abilities for a shorter period of time, but increases the amount of damage Sombra deals to them, while also revealing them to hidden characters.
Consider that when used in conjunction with her ultimate, it can attack all enemies in an area and reduce all their health by 40% (which is obviously a lot for higher health characters), and her current Stronger bite ability. By the way, that ultimate no longer removes all shields in an area.
Blizzard explains Sombra’s rework.
So for the new role stay, especially the series’ first black female character. She has a similar feel to Soldier 76 in that she is a run-and-gun skirmisher with good mobility and damage output, but is implemented in a slightly different way. The key to all this is her weapon, which has a railgun.
sojourn ability.
Railguns must be charged in order to be used. The primary mode of fire is an automatic machine gun (similar to the Soldier 76, but based on projectiles, not instant hits – meaning the bullet must travel before it reaches the target). Whenever Sojourn fires at a target – which could be a shield – she gains a charge. She can then release that charge to create a beam, a railgun attack. Rails hit enemies instantly, no matter how far they are, and when you’re in ultimate mode, you can run through enemies and potentially hit another enemy. Ultimate mode also automatically recharges the railgun for a short period of time.
Sojourn’s movement speed has been increased slightly, and she includes a quick ground glide move that you can jump (cancel) to propel yourself high into the air. In practice, that means you can slide to and then over obstacles – or platforms – in one quick motion and give her plenty of options as she moves around.
Her other ability is the glowing blobs she throws that slow nearby enemies and drain their health.
Brand new character selection screen. Please note that groups are limited to five people.
So playing Sojourn requires patiently handling orbital charges to take down annoying aerial targets, or softening – and potentially ensnaring – ground targets in one go. She has no healing abilities, but her mobility means she can quickly regenerate health, and when the ultimate time comes, she can help unclog chokepoints and congregating enemy teams. I had a great time with her. Her damage isn’t particularly flashy, but it’s consistently high.
These are new or redone characters. New maps and modes I’ll cover later, but I want to mention ping first. This allows you to combine certain areas of the map with a radial menu of frequently used comments – such as “I’ll be here to protect” or “Here needs help” etc.use it should Helps you deliver important messages and information to your team clearly and quickly in the heat of battle.
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The new game mode is Push, in which you can once again feel this philosophy of keeping things moving. Basically, it’s a competitive escort mode where both teams fight to escort large robots across the map. What really speeds things up is the robot’s ability to jog — rather than walk — back to the last position the previous team reached, meaning the advantage can play ping-pong pretty quickly.
One of the Push maps is Colosseo, which was inspired by the Colosseum in Rome, but you can’t enter – it’s closed. You play outside and get incredible vistas of the Overwatch version of Rome. Another map is Toronto’s new Queen Street, all in the icy blue of winter against the red of maple trees, brick buildings surrounded by gleaming glass buildings, and beyond, the towering cityscape of Toronto in Overwatch. . They are all very nice maps.
Gorgeous new Toronto new Queen Street map.
Overwatch 2 is pretty cool. It’s a subtle handsomeness because there’s no denying it still looks like Overwatch, but when you go back to an old game — or straight from an old game — you’ll notice the difference. The characters have more detail, especially their faces, and the UI has been tidied up. Even if it’s not brand new, it feels roomier and more refined.
Another big change I left for last is Overwatch 2’s reduction in team size from 6 to 5. Obviously, it’s fundamental to how the game feels in the game. The idea behind it is to sort out the action a bit and make it more readable, which I guess will give people a chance to do something before they get cut off.and it Do It feels more spacious now, especially on the smaller, more claustrophobic map. It also raises interesting questions about group composition. Two healers, two damage, two tanks are no longer the norm – I wonder what would be.
I can’t get a lot of feel for how 5v5 will change PvP because the closed alpha ended abruptly before it was originally planned, and on the day I played, I couldn’t find another one – let alone two groups of them The – confrontation. I had to resort to bots, which was fine for testing character redoes, but less so for gauging the ebb and flow of combat. More things will become clear when the closed beta begins on April 26.
Overwatch 1 left, Overwatch 2 right.
Overall, this is a weak performance. There are some exciting changes and delightful new characters and modes to play, but we can’t escape this is still Overwatch as we know it. Maybe we won’t have it any other way, it just makes the sequel’s value proposition harder to gauge. Maybe one of the things that really feels new is the PvE part of the game, but when it comes to “decoupling” it from PvP, “so we can bring you PvP faster”, questions about that, and we I haven’t seen it since I played PvE at BlizzCon 2019.
We’re hoping for some concrete answers this year, but the vague progress surrounding Overwatch 2 requires consideration of the bigger picture, which is what Activision Blizzard is all about. It’s a company rocked by appalling allegations of a “frat boy” work culture and the so-called management cover-up surrounding it, and it’s a company that has been mired in lawsuits for it. There’s also Microsoft hovering on the cusp of acquisitions, all of which point to considerable movement and turmoil within Overwatch 2 — not the most important thing in the equation in the long run.
What that means for the game’s launch, we don’t know yet, because it doesn’t. This year, next year? We’ll have to wait and see.
