Fans of the Blizzard Entertainment game “Overwatch” have been waiting for the release of its sequel for almost three years and the day of its release has finally come. “Overwatch 2” launched on Oct. 4 and features a revamped cast of characters along with many changes and overhauls that many fans have been vocal about. It’s a mixed bag of good and bad and despite advertisements marketing this as a sequel, it feels more like a glorified update that fans should have had access to months after it was announced.

One of the biggest changes made in “Overwatch 2” is to its core mechanic, changing the six versus six player battles into a five versus five. In order to achieve this, the tank class of heroes was reduced to only one per team, meaning that previous tank heroes needed adjustments in order to suit this role more effectively. This change at first didn’t sit well with the player base but early beta tests showed more positive remarks and an increase in players using the tank class which was least popular compared to damage and support.

Another positive aspect of this sequel is how engaging the action is compared to its predecessor. By changing the game into a five verse five hero shooter, games are more likely to be played in new and interesting ways. In the original game it was often seen that playing specific heroes together made your chances of winning more frequent and so matches played out the same, making it feel dull and uninspiring. With the change in compositions, players will no longer feel restricted to certain heroes and will feel like who they want to play will make a difference in their matches.

But that’s about it with the positive aspects of this sequel. Not only did they change the core mechanic of the game, but also changed its business model and made the game free-to-play. This means that in order for Blizzard to make a profit from their new business model, many of the cosmetics for heroes that could be earned through playing the game are now locked behind paywalls that can cost as much as $20. 

Players have calculated through information released from Blizzard that if someone had never played the original “Overwatch,” it would cost more than $10,000 for items that were previously free. This has sparked an outrage among the community who believe that this new model is predatory and makes the game feel more focused on their wallets than their dedication to playing. Although there are challenges which will offer in-game currency as a reward, players barely earn enough for what they want and it’s more of a way to encourage spending real money on the game. 

If it isn’t the amount of microtransactions that will be a part of “Overwatch 2” that turn away players, then it’ll be the new way to unlock heroes that will. Heroes used to automatically be unlocked for all players but now will require players to unlock by reaching a certain level in the battle pass, a common practice in free-to-play games. This new grind has been disliked among the player base and it gets worse for people who are playing “Overwatch” for the first time because they will not only have to unlock new heroes but existing ones as well, limiting the amount of heroes they can play in the beginning with their new account.

Hardcore veterans who love what the original had will find “Overwatch 2” to be exciting with all the new changes and new content, however its greedy microtransactions will rain on their parade and long grinding experience makes it hard to recommend this to brand new players. If only the highly requested story campaign which was supposed to be available when the sequel was released was ready to play, “Overwatch 2” maybe would have seen a more positive reception. However, Blizzard failing to deliver its promises despite the lengthy amount of time they had has made it difficult for even long-time fans of the franchise to defend and only time will tell if the decisions they made for this sequel were the right ones.