Overwatch 2: problems and changes

“Heroes never die.” That’s the Overwatch game’s catchphrase, which you’ve probably heard a million times if you or a teammate has ever been a Mercy main. It kind of evolved into the game’s de facto rallying cry since, despite Blizzard’s repeated attempts to cut down the flow of new content, it always reappeared regularly. What’s the situation with Overwatch 2?

It seems to have become a Blizzard’s tradition to ruin all of its creations. The promised story mode has been delayed till 2023. A lot of old and new features have been bugged out. Along with that, there have been problems with the servers and account transfers. Here’s everything we know.

New things brought to the new game

If you’re a seasoned player, the following significant gameplay changes in Overwatch 2 can be confusing to you:

• Up to 30% of your Ultimate charge is refunded if you switch to another Hero in the middle of a game.
• Instead of decreasing each hit by five damage as it did in the past, armor (seen as orange parts of a character’s health bar) now reduces instances of damage taken by 30%. All damage sources are equally affected by this damage reduction effect.
• Temporary Health, which is displayed on a player’s health bar as a bright green tint, has replaced Temporary Shields and Temporary Armor. Heroic abilities now offer Temporary Health rather than Temporary Armor or Shields, such as Lucio’s Sound Barrier Ultimate, Junker Queen’s Commanding Shout Ability, and Doomfist’s The Best Defense Passive. Players will receive an Ultimate Ability charge at half the normal pace if they damage adversaries with Temporary Health.
• To maintain all of their Hero unlocks and stats, returning players need to also make sure that Overwatch 2 cross-progression and account merging are turned on.

The reality of Overwatch 2

Let’s face it: Overwatch 2 had a terrible debut. When the servers went live on Tuesday, Overwatch 2 was plagued by two problems at once: a cyberattack and extremely long login queues due to high player interest.

The corporation was battling with Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, according to a tweet from Blizzard Entertainment President Mike Ybarra. The servers were no longer being disrupted after Tuesday’s launch. In gaming, “server difficulties” and “launch day” invariably go hand in hand, thus many players were prepared for delays and disruptions.

Bugged heroes

If you haven’t noticed any technical difficulties, it’s possible that you’ve encountered a different kind of problem. For example, a bug that caused Bastion to spread chaos around itself. It has been noted that Bastion’s ultimate attack can be extended if the player clicks multiple times in a row, with the right timing. The attack was becoming so devastating that Blizzard decided to remove Bastion from all mods. Of course – only temporarily until they solve that problem.

Another hero followed Bastion’s path – Torbjorn. It has been noted that his Overloaded skill can be used twice in a row. As a result, he was temporarily pulled from the roster as well. However, Torbjorn is still available in the Quick Play mode of the game – he only disappeared in the Ranked mode.

Blizzard and classism

The use of Blizzard’s SMS Protect function, which necessitates a mobile phone number to prevent cheaters and deter hackers from taking control of player accounts, was another problem that plagued the debut of Overwatch 2. Due to the SMS Protect protocol, users with prepaid cellular accounts cannot utilize those mobile numbers. A Blizzard spokesperson said that the company is “actively engaging with some service providers to explore if we can expand the program to cover more users while still protecting our players and game security.”

Blizzard announced late Wednesday that an update they will release on Friday would modify SMS Protect. Everyone who has logged into Overwatch after June 2021 can play without the need for a phone number. However, those who haven’t will have to use it to get their accounts. Blizzard has also been rolling out updates to reduce long login lines and unstable online performance. Additionally, users have complained about missing items and other data; according to Blizzard, half of these problems are the result of individuals failing to merge their accounts. For the rest, Blizzard has said that they haven’t erased or destroyed any data. They are also working to recover any goods that had gone missing.

Closing thoughts about Overwatch 2

So far, everything about Overwatch 2 has been a disaster. If the launch wasn’t this rushed maybe this could have turned out to be a decent game. But, right now it’s just not worth playing.