The first beta for Overwatch 2 ended on May 17th. A big point of criticism was that it doesn’t play much differently and looks almost identical to the first part. But now the players have to play the first part again and suddenly realize: Overwatch 1 is much less fun for them than the successor.
The Overwatch 2 beta has been over for a few days. On April 27th, the beta started very successfully, also thanks to Twitch drops. A short time later, however, the mood turned into a disinterested shrug of the shoulders or even into the negative.
The conclusion of the community was: Overwatch 2 is not very different from Overwatch 1, and therefore a disappointment. The numbers on Twitch plummeted, with a whopping 99% of viewers turning their backs compared to the Twitch drop phase.
But now that the second part beta is over, Overwatch fans will have to play part 1 again. And the direct contrast is apparently causing a rethink in the community.
Especially on reddit, there are more and more voices saying: Bring back the beta for Overwatch 2, because the first part is just not fun anymore.
“Most players have realized that OW2 is actually better than OW1”
How did players find Overwatch 2? As editors, while we found that almost everything stayed the same in Overwatch 2, it felt like a very different game. But those who were in gaming forums, Discord communities, on Twitch or YouTube heard otherwise.
In particular, a video by well-known YouTuber Jason Yevgeniy “videogamedunkey” Gastrow contributed a lot to the image that while Overwatch 2 changes big things, it’s still essentially the same game. He opined that “there’s no escaping the feeling that you’re still just playing Overwatch 1.”
Here you can see the video from videogamedunkey:
How has the mood changed? However, the beta for Overwatch 2 ended on May 17th. If you play Overwatch regularly (again), you have to play the first part. And now the fans of Blizzard’s shooter are realizing that part 2 has done a lot more differently than they thought.
On reddit you can find posts with titles like “The OW2 beta must stay. OW1 is unplayable since i [Overwatch] 2” (via reddit).
This mood is also reflected in the comments:
Overwatch 2 changes a lot of small but fundamentally important things
Why has the mood changed? The reasons for this change in mood are apparently that players notice in direct comparison how many annoying little things from Part 1 are no longer in Overwatch 2.
These were the main changes in the beta:
All of these changes, while relatively small individually, create a larger domino effect that changes the whole feel of the game. That’s why many of the heroes that fans already know by heart from Part 1 play differently in Part 2. Some of the most surprising characters were the strongest in the beta.
Here’s a look at which heroes were very strong in the Overwatch 2 beta:
Now that the beta is over, many players are realizing more than ever what Blizzard has changed with Overwatch 2. But for now, you can just keep playing Overwatch 1 without all the changes. And with many things that you didn’t miss in part 2.
When does the next beta start? This is currently unknown. However, the date for this is to be announced on June 16th. It is also unknown when Overwatch 2 will celebrate the correct release. However, it can be assumed that at least the PvE part of the game could not appear until 2023.
Regardless of the game itself, Overwatch has been the subject of a huge debate lately. It was about a tool that Activision Blizzard used for diversity purposes and caused a lot of criticism:
Activision Blizzard wants to be diverse, gives Arabs a 7 out of 10 – Triggers a disastrous reaction