This is much more like the Overwatch 2 I wanted when it launched. We’re having a redo moment. Blizzard isn’t calling this a relaunch but to me, it feels like it is. This is a reintroduction of a game that floundered back in 2023 at launch, but three years later, it’s solid and it’s stacked. Overwatch (the 2 was symbolically dropped from the title recently) knows what it wants to be now and this is the fullest and strongest this game has ever been. Arguably it’s also the strongest the series (can we call it a series now?) has ever been, which is a provocative thing to say, I know. But I haven’t been this excited about Overwatch since the original came out 10 years ago.
Note, I haven’t played for three years since the sequel launched, which is an important factor here because returning after all that time is borderline overwhelming – in a very good way. Last week’s expansion was the catalyst that brought me back, but even putting aside the five new heroes, the UI overhaul and the story push the expansion brings, there are maps, heroes and modes I’ve never seen before. How long have you been able to upgrade abilities for?! It doesn’t matter: the point is that to me, it’s all new. Loading the Practice Range to try these unknown heroes is like diving into an unopened chocolate box. It’s a hell of a sugar rush.
Case in point: I’m a support player at my core, a healer of sorts. Like Mother Teresa. And one of my bugbears with the original Overwatch was that there weren’t many support characters to play. I got bored with what was on offer and the slow wait for new characters to refresh the list. (This comment could be applied to many areas of the game.) But now there are several support heroes and my current obsession is Juno, who bombs around the map on hover boots with a Martian ray-gun that can heal and also damage, and damage enough that I’d be tempted to classify her as a damage dealer. I’ve taken names; I even got a Play of the Game once. She’s great. But she isn’t new – Juno was added in August 2024.
Or take Stadium, a whole new mode added to Overwatch last summer. Here you buy buffs for characters’ abilities as you play, a bit like how you do in a MOBA. It’s a best of five match spread across different game types, and before you begin, and between each round thereafter, you have time to buy upgrades from an armoury. This means you can alter the builds of your favourite heroes, doubling down on damage or survivability or utility – whatever you like. And this is mind-blowing to me. I’ve never been able to alter or adjust a character’s abilities in Overwatch before. It is wild and it feels wild in play. Imagine a whole team of supercharged Overwatch heroes and you’re close to what it’s like. It’s a significantly different way to play.
But again, Stadium isn’t new – it’s newer but it’s still been around for a bit. There is a new part of it, a build-helper, which suggests builds and auto-applies them, and it’s incredibly helpful for new players – I don’t know where I’d be without it. And actually, it’s in this helper that a wider point about Overwatch – and why it’s currently so enjoyable – comes to the surface. Yes, it’s giddying exploring everything that’s been added and done to the game in three years, as well all of the expansion-based stuff. But more pertinent is a feeling that this moment is designated for lapsed Overwatch players to return, or for new players to come in.
I can’t stress the importance of this point enough. New and returning players seem to be here in abundance. It doesn’t only mean that the game feels re-energised because there are more people playing it – match queues are short to nonexistent – but it feels welcoming because of who is playing it. You don’t know the ropes? Fine. You’re in good company. There are newer players (visible by the levels of the characters they’re playing) everywhere, which not only gives you and me a chance in matches, but also makes for a wider kind of tolerance from the existing players in the game.
One of the reasons I avoided going back to Overwatch 2 for so long was because I was out of touch and out of practice, and didn’t want to be told off for not knowing what I was doing by some idiot in group chat. Whether or not that would have happened, I don’t know, but it certainly isn’t happening now. People are, dare I say it, friendly, which might be because I’m (probably annoyingly) chatty, but there’s a palpable sense of camaraderie here, both in people reconnecting with the game and in people pleased the game they play is resurgent. I feel welcomed. I feel encouraged. It’s like people are happy to see Overwatch doing well again, and that’s a very nice feeling to be around, though I can’t speak to the mood in Competitive, which tends to be more tense, because I haven’t mustered the courage to play there yet.
This expansion moment has been like Blizzard firing a gun in the woods and startling people into noticing Overwatch again, and the difference this time is Overwatch is ready for the attention. The happy added bonus is that adding five new heroes at once to the game has also – to continue my weaponised metaphors – thrown a hand grenade into the game’s meta. Currently, things are upended, unsettled, and that’s exciting – there’s enough new stuff happening at the moment that even regular players have things to discover. Jetpack Cat in particular is capturing attention for her ability to tow other characters through the air and open new tactical possibilities. But for all the talk about her, I haven’t seen her much in game. Or if I have, I haven’t noticed her having a game-shaking effect. Though again, maybe that’s different at higher skill levels.
Whether or not Overwatch maintains this excitement for me, and this general sense of momentum, I can’t yet know. There are moments when staleness creeps in, while playing old heroes on old maps, but there’s still so much newness around it that it doesn’t taint the experience for long. Plus of course there are more heroes and hero reworks to come this year, which I’m particularly excited about, and a new expansion promised at the start of every year hereafter. The intention from Blizzard is clearly to try and keep the momentum up. Still, Overwatch doesn’t exist in a vacuum any more. There’s strong competition in Marvel Rivals, and in hero-shooter-inspired games like Apex Legends and Valorant, which wasn’t the case when Overwatch once reigned supreme. But for me, right now, Overwatch is back.