Overwatch 2— First Beta
Needed to write out my opinion on the first Overwatch 2 beta. In response to a post on Reddit
I personally feel lucky to be able to play this beta. No other game is like OW and OW2. I tried a lot of other games, but this is it for me. I hope others will enjoy the game and the developers can make a game they feel proud of.
Understanding how hard moving a game company to be fully remote at a brief notice and be able to continue working at home is a huge feat on its own. Then all the company problems they have been having and keeping focused on delivering their vision. Some will be disappointed when it doesn’t line up with what they imagine the game to be and in the timeline they may expect an AAA company to deliver.
I also, though, am a little disappointed with the OW marketing and management of their OW1 game during this time. There has been a lot of silence since Jeff has left (for reasons I think partially unknown) and that part hasn’t helped people understand this. There should have been a better amount of public communication throughout this time to help people understand what is going on.
They still haven’t even hinted about the PvE side at all beyond the 2019 play test. I understand that they don’t want to leak information, especially as details will change, but it erodes the trust that they will deliver. I personally think they will deliver on their vision of what they think PvE will be for them when the moment is right, but I feel there could be better communication about it. If they still aren’t talking about it, it could be even further away than they hope, with a lot of things being developed.
Ultimately for me, I am happy with the OW2 beta and have played a lot of it since I have gotten access. More to come in the future, which is how they did the OW1 betas which were much more exclusive in who was playing. Releasing heroes as the beta went through, refining balance changes, revision heroes as things developed.
No other game is like OW out there that even comes close to as fun as this game for me. Even if the current beta was a released version I would be happy (maybe have all the maps available though).