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Blog entry by Willis Stephenson

Overwatch's History, Explained

Overwatch's History, Explained

Roughly eight years before the present day, a terrorist organization called Talon attacked an Overwatch facility in Oslo. More specifically, a businessman named Antonio was behind the attacks. Morrison wanted to work with the Italian government in taking him down, but Reyes opted for his own operation. He infiltrated Antonio’s home with a team that consisted of himself, Genji Shimada, Moira O’Deorain, and Jessee McCree. However, Reyes killed Antonio instead of capturing him, which started a series of events that would spell the end of Overwa

Once you let me combo my Earthshatter with somebody else’s ult, or give me a Zarya who bubbles me as I charge headfirst into a massive mech, I’ll be happy. Maybe I’ll even put another 1,000 hours

When Overwatch 2 was revealed in 2019, I assumed that it had to be nearly finished. Obviously Blizzard was announcing it because it was going to be releasing sometime in 2020. Otherwise, it could risk losing a lot of its popularity. Devoting resources to working on a sequel rather than adding content to the current game could cause players to drop off as the updates became less frequent. So it had to be just about ready to come

Overwatch 2 is a strange game to review. It’s a free-to-play live-service experience that depends on a consistent audience to find games and progress through its battle pass. As you might have already guessed, there were only so many games journalists in the world to populate its servers as we rocketed towards the embargo. Thus I am left in a bit of a pickle.

After getting annoyed at Competitive, I found myself longing for those co-op events - specifically, the Archives ones where you proceed through a linear level taking on waves of enemies. I realized that, for me, the joy of Overwatch isn’t necessarily tied to competitiveness - it’s about facing reasonable challenges with people who are interested in working together, and playing a character you absolutely love the feel

But once the sequel was announced the well started to dry up. We used to get three new heroes every year. In 2020, we only got Echo and she was confirmed to be the last new hero until Overwatch 2 arrives . We also used to get some new maps every year, but we only got Havana in 2019 and Kanezaka this year (and that's a deathmatch-only map so who cares about that.) Even the events have felt half-hearted as they've added nothing but new title screens with some old modes recycled and maybe slightly retooled. The only reason we even get new skins anymore is so Blizzard can still rake in that sweet lootbox mo

Investigations found a secret division called Blackwatch was involved in a series of kidnappings, torture, coercion, and assassinations. While the United Nations continued to look deeper into Overwatch’s activity, internal strife was building. Upset that Morrison received the strike-commander promotion over himself, Reyes formed his own faction among the age

Most notably, the DPS Hero’s mobility set is unknown. However, the BlizzConline video offers some potential hints via some concept art. It shows Sojourn sliding forward with booster jets coming from her back, knees, and calves. Perhaps this is her mysterious missing abil

The cosmetic menu has also received some cool updates, making it much easier to navigate and understand. Bold text is used to distinguish categories while a single glance at the menu is enough to see exactly what you have equipped at any given time. Seeing all of my unlocks transfer over to Overwatch 2 was also a sad reminder of how much time I’ve poured into this series. My accounts haven’t even combined yet either, so I promise you I have more than 14 D.Va skins to my name. All the voice lines unlocked too, I am dedicated to my girl.

Put it this way: I’m a Reinhardt main. I want to use my shield to close distances and control engagements. When I spot an opening, my job as main tank is to communicate that to the rest of the team so we can push forward as a unit. Ideally, the engagement process will go smoothly and I’ll have a support player keeping me healthy while I swing my Rocket Hammer as if I’m a massive, precision-engineered beyblade. I’ll synchronize my Earthshatter with a DPS ult so we can team kill and lock down the po

Overwatch’s biggest strength is how good its characters feel to play. Unfortunately, playing them online can feel unrewarding, specifically because of how toxic its player base is. Fortunately, Overwatch 2 has a unique opportunity to rectify this by offering the same high-octane gunplay without forcing you to hemorrhage SR purely because people on your team are being total dicks. It doesn’t need a complex story, or a million maps, or anything like that. All it truly needs is a basic, solid structure like Mass Effect 3 had, where you can run wild with your favourite heroes and use abilities to your heart’s cont

I can tell you firsthand why this is a huge blunder from Blizzard. I used to play a lot of Overwatch. It became a nightly ritual to log on, meet up with the large group of friends who gathered online to play, and run through multiple rounds of competitive matches. One of the reasons why we all kept playing was because the game felt like it was always changing. We'd get a new character like Sombra or Orisa. Or a new Support hero Juno map would be added to the rotation. Or we'd get a big seasonal event that would add in a new game mode and a bunch of unlockable skins. It felt like a game that kept giving and giving more so than any other game I'd played at the t

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