More Thoughts on Overwatch 2

 It’s fair to say that Overwatch 2 has been the dominant game for me since it released. When I’m not playing it, I’m thinking about it. When I am playing it, I’m wondering why I’m not playing better.

It’s still a great game. If anything, it’s a perfect team shooter let down by minor details (and its major battle pass problems).

Today we will go through a few more of the issues I’ve found through extensively playing. Unfortunately, Overwatch is exactly the sort of game that everybody has strong opinions on – all based on their own playstyle. There will be ideas you disagree on. Only Blizzard has the data to actually check out these things. This is just my impression as someone who plays it far too much.

Widowmaker Needs To Go

We get it – you’re a badass non-team player in a team game. See also: Reaper, Genji and Hanzo. When played well, they can turn around a game. But you’re not playing them well. So stop.

Widowmaker is more egregious because she is designed around the idea of not being part of a team. This can go one of two ways, depending on skill level.

A great Widowmaker will make a huge difference in Overwatch. Suddenly she’s one-shotting DPS and support heroes and any attempt to reach her is thwarted either by her allies or by a well-practiced escape route. I have no major problem with this on a personal level. If you’re good, you’re good. But that such a dangerous character can exist with relatively few counters – and that levels have to be designed around her to boot – seems dumb. In a team shooter, she is one of the few characters that exists outside of the team.

Which leads to the far more common scenario. Someone has noticed Genji is taken. So they fall back on Widowmaker. They do very little damage, have very few kills. But they sit as far back as they can, taking potshots. It can’t be fun for them, and it’s certainly not fun for the team. They avoid objectives and end up with a vaguely positive K/D, and then the game is lost. Playing with Widowmaker is often like playing with a team of four. And in many cases that’s true even when she plays well.

And that’s the issue. Her current form needs to go. And if not, she needs to be rejigged so she can have a more active part in events – and so that assholes don’t pick her because she’s a safe bet.

Sort Out the Queues

Want to be support? Pick support in the menus. Don’t want to be support but willing to do your bit anyway? Click all roles, and play as support.

Support isn’t for everybody, but this one sort of plays into the point about Widowmaker. There are people playing who want to be the team’s hero, but they don’t have the skill to do it. These people are willing to wait 15 minutes so they can effectively throw the match playing the character they like.

And if you’ve picked All Roles, you have to support them while they do it.

Would it be the worst thing in the world to give All Queue people a priority in Tank or DPS occasionally? It would make Open Queue less attractive, and keep things fair.

Ignore the Chats

Overwatch has always been toxic. Overwatch 2 continues that tradition.

We played a game with a guy the other day who was so certain in his skills that he was telling every other player to change characters to people of his choice before the game had even started. When that went ignored, he refused to heal. When we won anyway – don’t ask me how – he gloated about how his choices would’ve made it easier. It was embarrassing, and distracting, and not what you want from something that’s supposed to be fun.

And that’s before mentioning all the times we’re told to kill ourselves, or to quit out entirely.

When there are people with player names like ILoveLittleKids, you just know reporting these people isn’t actually going to get you there.

But I wish there was a simple way to just ignore all this. Get the vital information, but ignore idiots. Especially idiots that have been frequently reported by others.

Weekend warriors aren’t fun. They don’t need a voice.