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Overwatch 2 Beta Hands-On: Lackluster Introduction

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Overwatch 2 Beta Hands-On

Overwatch 2 Beta Hands-On: The beautiful visuals of the Overwatch 2 beta startle you immediately, and strangely, they have little to no influence on the game’s frame rates. So is this game strong enough to qualify as a sequel, despite its gorgeously rendered characters and maps?

I played the ongoing closed beta for a few hours to discover out. The UI modifications are immediately noticeable, and the in-game scoreboard now has a traditional appearance consistent with other first-person shooters.

Minor changes have also made to the Hero Select menu.

The game put on an SSD. Therefore the load times on a PC were minimal. In addition, the Overwatch 2 beta seamlessly transitioned to the match. Whether I was warming up in a Skirmish or waiting in the lobby.

Once in the game, I could immediately use voice chat to talk to the other players on my team. In addition, a conversation wheel and a new ping system are now available for players without microphones.

Conversely, the Overwatch 2 beta’s matchmaking wait times were appalling. Like the previous game, the Quick Play matchmaking is separated into lines for Tank, Damage, and Support.

The lines for tanks and damage had wait lengths of more than five to ten minutes, yet I just had to wait a short while to play support.

The wait times weren’t much impacted by the Priority Passes either. However, since this was the first closed beta, I have high hopes for future developments.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many noteworthy updates or new developments in the material.

Currently, most of the maps in the Overwatch 2 beta are remakes from the first Overwatch game, such as Eichenwalde and Ilios. However, except for their revised looks, most Heroes have likewise remained unaltered.

Only Orissa and Doomfist among the Heroes have seen significant changes. Blizzard Entertainment’s programmers have changed Doomfist’s role from DPS to the tank. On the other hand, Orissa now has a new set of skills that make daring moves more fruitful.

Overwatch 2 Beta Hands-On

With the launch of Sojourn, the Hero roster in the Overwatch 2 beta has also been expanded. She is equipped with a railgun that can fire destructive secondary shots and quick projectiles in general.

Sojourn is a Hero that should be simple for novice players to learn because of how closely it plays to Soldier: 76.

Push, a brand-new game mode for Overwatch 2, debuts with the Rome map. Here, the two teams face off to see who can control the PushBot, a shared cargo, and move it as far as possible before the timer expires, or they reach the finish line.

The transition from 6v6 to 5v5 matches in the Overwatch 2 beta is perhaps the most significant shift. Teams now include a lone tank, two DPS, and two healers.

This shift seems to be leading to some significant balance problems. In the majority of the games I played, the side that established control of the goal first won by a wide margin.

On the Overwatch 2 beta, the side that fell behind could not launch a possible comeback due to the lack of a second tank. This can be the result of characters who were created initially for 6v6 matches not receiving any modifications.

However, the novelty stops here. The Overwatch 2 beta still has a very familiar vibe to it. I even played the first Overwatch game to evaluate the changes.

Despite the overhauled aesthetics and minor improvements, the bulk of the Heroes feels and plays the same in Overwatch 2 beta. Thus, it falls short of offering anything new.

Instead of being a full-fledged sequel, Overwatch 2 beta now plays like an addition to the original game. Despite the current increase in Twitch views, Overwatch 2 may eventually become as irrelevant as Overwatch if Blizzard does not have anything new to give.

The PC-only Overwatch 2 beta is available now until May 17. After that, future betas will support consoles, according to Blizzard. With an AMD RX 570 8GB, an Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz, and 8GB RAM, we played the Overwatch 2 beta. ​