For almost a decade, Overwatch was by far the most popular hero shooter game to date. Its iconic cast of heroes and gameplay redefined what a hero shooter was meant to be. Almost a decade later and games are still trying to do what the original game did, including its own sequel.
So what went wrong? Why did a beloved game become so hated? Why did players jump ship the moment Marvel Rivals came out? Let’s take a look at the rise and fall of Overwatch and why Overwatch 2 couldn’t sadly overcome its predecessor.
Just a TF2 Clone?
When Overwatch first came out in 2016, It initially got mixed receptions. While it was being touted as a game changer, a lot of TF2 fans felt it was simply riding the success of Team Fortress 2. While it is true that TF2 started the class-based shooter, Overwatch took the concept and made something entirely unique.
So, what made Overwatch so successful? Aside from it being one of the very few class-based hero shooters at the time, it was the lore and world-building of the game that really hooked people in. Before the game’s release in 2016, Blizzard came out with a series of animated shorts. These shorts showcased snippets and stories of the different characters in Overwatch and the world they live in. Needless to say, players got instantly attached to the characters even before they got a chance to play the game. So when the open beta was announced, millions of gamers clamored to play the new game over the course of 4 days.
Overwatch completely broke the mold of what an FPS was like. TF2 had different team sizes depending on the game mode and was essentially a team deathmatch. Overwatch took MOBA concepts and applied them to a hero shooter. Things like special skills and the hard cap of 6 players versus 6. They also added what a lot of games in the genre are doing today: different missions. Overwatch implemented unique 6v6 missions that required actuall teamwork and not just farming kills.
Aside from that, they gave us unique characters that you wouldn’t expect in an FPS. Not only did it take the class-based shooter concept to the next level, they introduced characters who specialized at melee. This was completely unheard of at the time and the public loved it. Couple the rich lore of the game with the new concept and you had a slam-dunk game.
So, What Happened?
Overwatch had the makings of the perfect game. It was unique, highly competitive, and downright fun. For a while, it was Game of the year and one of the top Esports. Unfortunately, a number of factors led to its decline.
It all started after the game introduced the new support, Brigitte. She was a tanky off-support that could shield, deal damage, and heal all built into her basic kit. From there, a new meta was born that shaped the game for a whole year. The meta shifted to teams going 3 tanks and 3 supports. It was an unkillable team comp known as “Goats” and it forced your team to either go Goats or die horribly.
This meta-shaping comp influenced the game so heavily that after several attempts to fix it, Blizzard had no choice but to implement the dreaded “Role Queue”. This meant that teams now had to go 2 tanks, 2 supports, and 2 DPS. While this change didn’t heavily impact pro-play too much, DPS players were heavily punished in casual play. DPS was the most popular role outside of pro-play and that meant that queue times were unbelievably long just for queing up as DPS.
Freedom restriction aside, the game suffered due to dev choices and a pile of failed promises from Blizzard. Role queue and long queue times were only the tip of the iceberg. Players noticed a dip in the quality of event missions until they just abruptly stopped giving players these events. People wondered what was going on until 2019, 3 years after its initial release, Aaron Keller and Jeff Kaplan announced something no one was expecting at Blizzcon. They announced that they were now working on Overwatch 2 and that it would primarily focus on the PVE mode that everyone wanted.
This was the biggest promise that everyone expected Blizzard to keep. People loved the lore and everyone begged for a PVE story mode. They understood now why Overwatch seemed to stop with the events. The dev team was coming out with a fully fleshed PVE and that’s what everyone wanted.
Overwatch 2 Killed Overwatch
With the release of Overwatch 2, the dev team explained that Overwatch would no longer be supported and its servers essentially shut down. They assured players there would be a seamless transfer of account data between the two games and that this was essentially an upgrade.
The main difference of Overwatch and Overwatch 2 were mostly mechanical and cosmetic. Aside from O2 being free to play now, tt had an improved U.I., better animations and graphics, and the surprising change of having 5 members on a team instead of 6. They removed the chance for a Goats meta by only allowing one tank. People were apprehensive about this but mostly didn’t care because the PVE was coming. That’s what everyone wanted, right? Unfortunately, as of 2024, Blizzard announced that they were cancelling all development of the PVE due to “Poor sales”.
All the promises and waiting ended up giving Overwatch players absolutely nothing. The kicker here is that’s not even the worst part. The launch of Overwatch 2 was by far the messiest and unplanned launch of any MOBA to date. Not only were the servers too full to accommodate literally anybody, there were multiple bugs, glitches, and a whole host of problems. Heroes had to be removed from the game for weeks! This was the supposed holy grail of Blizzard; the game that was supposed to save their franchise. It unfortunately hit the ground flopping.
The other egregious fault O2 had was the monetization. You know it’s bad when a paid game that was 60 USD to play had more free cosmetics and rewards compared to a free-to-play game that has a battlepass. In Overwatch, you could grind for cosmetics slowly by earning loot-boxes that gave you random rewards, including credits. If you saved up enough, you could get literally any skin you wanted. In Overwatch 2, the only way to get credits is to now take out your wallet and buy the battlepass and top-up.
Not only was O2 dipping in quality, but it also never delivered on the whole reason why it was made in the first place. Players have been waiting for the PVE for 6 whole years and never got it in the end. Everyone loves the lore of Overwatch and it’s still so iconic to this day. It’s an absolute travesty that they just dumped the story mode and the only reason they made a sequel in the trash. So, if you ask players if Marvel Rivals killed Overwatch, they’ll tell you that Overwatch killed Overwatch.
Overwatch is a classic case of a masterpiece that was mismanaged to oblivion. Blizzard had gold in their pockets but chose corporate greed over preserving the one game that was to become their legacy. Overwatch will forever live on in the memories of players who enjoyed the golden era of the game and be remembered as the original foundation and inspiration of all hero shooters to come out after.
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