Written by Toralar | Edited by Denayed

The latest beta for Overwatch 2 ended on July 18, and it seems that the general opinion toward the game has improved significantly since the first one. There were more than a few complaints following the first beta, which was only open to PC players, but Activision Blizzard managed to iron out a lot of the kinks in time to include console players in their second beta.

Like we mentioned in our last review, there have been some key changes from Overwatch to Overwatch 2, including changing the player count in matches from 6v6 to 5v5. This change has been somewhat controversial. With teams consisting of only a single tank, two DPS heroes, and two support heroes, the flow of team fights and the tank role’s function have both changed significantly. Some people are pretty happy with the more aggressive style that tanks are adopting in Overwatch 2, while others miss the combos that having two tanks enables. Combining a Reinhardt charge with Zarya’s barrier, for example, is going to be a thing of the past.

Another issue players continue to run into in this beta is the long queue times for tank and DPS heroes. With Sojourn and Junker Queen as the newest damage and tank heroes, as well as the revamped tank experience, players have been ignoring the support role and flocking queue tank and DPS instead. As a result, the wait times to get into a match have been upwards of 10 minutes—unless players were queued for support, of course. Then it was incredibly quick, with some players claiming they got into a match in under 20 seconds.

The downside to the tank and DPS balances is that many support players are disgruntled with the state of their favorite heroes. Moira’s changes have received a good share of the complaints, with some saying that the removal of her damage orb turned her into more of a healbot; others are happy with the playmaking possibilities that the new enfeeble orb – the “forb” – presents. Overall, the general sentiment is that support heroes need some more adjustments before they’re satisfying to play.

The tank changes are also the source of some controversy. While players do enjoy the more dynamic tank gameplay, some of their opponents are unhappy that tanks seem to be dominating the battlefield and even beating out DPS heroes in 1v1 battles.

Despite these issues, however, it seems that Blizzard has made some positive changes and gotten people pretty excited for the full release of Overwatch 2 in October. The change from two tanks to one is popular because it increases the pace of gameplay and allows for more aggressive play instead of teams getting stalemated trying to burn down tank shields and break through stalling tactics. 

Of course, not everyone is going to be happy with Overwatch 2, no matter what Blizzard does. If the hero reworks are fun to play and the new support hero is well done, however, that will make a big difference. The game being free to play will no doubt also increase the player count, and the move from loot boxes to a battle pass is definitely a good one. It’s much less exploitative and makes obtaining cosmetics more reliable. Time to see what the third beta has in store!