Prepare to be frozen in place once more.Screenshot: Blizzard
Overwatch 2’s various reworks and balance changes have fundamentally altered several characters from their original forms, and that shift means a lot of mechanics that were once key to the original game no longer exist in the sequel. This came as part of a larger change in the game to remove or alter crowd control abilities like Cassidy’s Flashbang and Brigitte’s Shield Bash which make the game altogether faster and more frantic.
The changes include removing Mei’s original ability to freeze her enemies in place with her primary fire (though her ultimate still has the freezing effect for those caught in it), which has been replaced by a slowdown effect. If you were feeling nostalgic for one of the most frustrating mechanics Overwatch had back in the day, Blizzard has put out a new mode for its returning Winter Wonderland holiday event that entirely centers around stopping players in their tracks. If you miss that part of her kit as a Mei main, I get it. If you miss it as someone who was once on the receiving end of her endothermic blaster, I have to ask, “who hurt you?”
Freezethaw Elimination is part of Overwatch 2’s 2022 Winter Wonderland event, which is running up until January 4. The arcade mode is what Blizzard describes as the hero shooter’s version of freeze tag, where your team’s goal is to freeze all your enemies by eliminating them, then they’re left to helplessly watch from their icy prison until thawed by a teammate. The new mode launches alongside returning Winter Wonderland modes Mei’s Snowball Offensive and Mei’s Yeti Hunt, and it really brings home that Mei and her icy disposition will, by default, always be the star of Overwatch’s annual winter event. Unless she gets removed from the game, again.
D.Va’s holiday cosmetics will be available through Twitch drops.Screenshot: Blizzard
As with all Overwatch events, the 2022 Winter Wonderland event includes themed cosmetics, such as a new Ice Queen skin for Brigitte and an Ice Angel skin for Echo alongside the smaller stuff like weapon charms and sprays. Some of these, including the Brigitte skin, are unlockable through playing Winter Wonderland modes and completing event challenges.
All of this is happening as a prelude for some holiday-themed D.Va cosmetics that will be unlockable by watching Overwatch 2 Twitch streams from December 25 to January 4. This includes a Festive victory pose, which has D.Va’s mech adorned with Christmas lights, and the Sleighing skin, which has both the hero and her mech dressed up for the holidays. Hopefully these Twitch drops don’t fall prey to the same troubles previous events have had, as some players were reporting not having unlocked promised in-game cosmetics after watching Overwatch League streams last month.
Overwatch 2 is in the midst of its second season, which added Ramattra, a new tank hero who’s the leader of Null Sector, one of the antagonistic forces in the game’s upcoming PvE mode set to launch next year. Ramattra is the second unlockable new hero in Overwatch 2 after Kiriko at launch, who was made part of the battle pass, much to the chagrin of long-time players who got heroes for free in the first game. After this pushback, Blizzard made Ramattra slightly easier to unlock on the free battle pass. Still not much happening regarding feedback on its monetization and battle pass grind, though.
Thanks to a bunch of funny people, the most difficult aspect of Overwatch 2 right now is probably just getting into the damn game. But if you’re new to this franchise, what awaits is a whole suite of heroes with unique abilities that mesh together into a hectic first-person shooter in which teamwork is absolutely essential. Overwatch? More like Overwhelming. (Sorry.)
You might be apprehensive about diving in, asking whether or not you can really wrap your head around all these heroes, or if you can keep up on the field with veterans who go all the way back to the first game’s launch in 2016. But I can assure you that Overwatch is a very understandable game and you’ll be scoring victories before you know it.
These tips assume you know nothing about Overwatch and will give you some fundamentals going in. These will help point you in the right direction and will set you up to understand the sometimes-hectic nature of this game.
Each hero is a rabbit hole of tactics unto themselves, so let’s iron out the basics of who to choose and demystify this incredibly popular shooter.
Over a dozen heroes, but just three classes
Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku
First-timers get tossed into the First Time User Experience, which will limit the number of heroes you can play for the tutorial section and some of your first few PvP matches.
Don’t freak out too much when you have to choose among 15 different heroes you know nothing about. As the game will explain, all of these heroes slot into three classes, drawn from RPG lingo: Tanks, Damage, and Support. When looking at the hero selection screen before a match, you’ll note that the heroes are broken up into three columns representing these classes. You’ll also see an icon indicating which class a hero is: A shield is for Tanks; bullets are for Damage; and a plus/heal sign is for Support.
Tanks are there to soak up damage from enemies and keep their attention away from the more vulnerable Damage and Support characters. Your priority on the field should be distracting opposing forces and blocking incoming fire with your physical size and special abilities. You’re the anchor for your team.
Damage is all about, well, hitting them hard! Compared to the other two classes, you’ll fare better in a head-to-head showdown with another Damage hero. But if your team is working as it’s supposed to, you’ll be more of an opportunist, picking off the fools too busy dealing with the Tanks.
Support heroes heal and buff allies and sometimes debuff foes. Your primary goal is typically to keep your teammates’ health topped up, as well as provide buffs to things like movement speed or damage output. Try not to get the attention of your opponent’s Damage heroes or get caught in the crossfire. As a Support, wise use of your abilities on the field can prevent a skirmish from sliding too far toward your enemy’s favor.
Read More: Be Prepared For These 7 Big Overwatch 2 Gameplay Changes
If you’re starting out, I recommend cycling out of each class with a hero you’re drawn to each match. On the field, make choices based on the role of your class, not so much the unique abilities of your chosen hero just yet. Over time, you’ll learn how to use those specific abilities to better play your role.
Break those bad habits learned from other shooters
Many other shooters bake sprinting and aim-down-sights into your very reflexes. Unlearn that for Overwatch. Only Soldier: 76 can sprint like a Call of Duty character. Other heroes have additional movement options, but they’ll often be tied to a cooldown, so you want to be sure to save that for when you really need to pick up the pace or get the hell out of the way.
Outside of a handful of characters with scoped weapons, there really isn’t an aim-down-sights option, either. Right mouse or left trigger is usually reserved for a secondary fire or power of some kind.
Basically, if other shooters have trained you to sprint like a maniac or constantly aim your weapon, you’re most certainly going to have to unlearn that. Even heroes with more genre-familiar attributes like Soldier: 76 or Sojourn will require you to adapt in this way.
Find your main and practice, practice, practice
Now that we’ve divided up the many heroes of Overwatch into three broad categories, it’s a good idea to just pick one from each class and stick to them until you fully understand their strengths and weaknesses. With time, you should try everyone available to you so you can understand how to deal with those characters, but to start out, focus is good.
The goal here is to figure out who your mains are going to be, as well as which role you prefer. You may not always be able to choose your main hero in each match, but the lessons you learn with your early choices are going to become reference points for mastering the skills and abilities of other heroes.
If a hero confuses you at first, don’t be afraid to drop them for one you might be able to understand a bit more directly. Also, Overwatch is a game full of style and character, so while you’re new and haven’t yet digested the meta, go ahead and pick a character who speaks to you based on style and personality. Video games are about having fun after all.
If you’re coming from a more traditional shooter like Call of Duty, I recommend spending time with Soldier: 76. If you’re more comfortable with more modern, speedier shooters like Apex Legends, Sojourn’s fast slide (which can launch into a super-fun jump!) will likely be more familiar to you. Sojourn unlocks for free if you play during season one.
If you’re looking to jump into Support, Mercy isn’t a bad choice to start with, as you’ll be less tempted to engage in firefights. Her main “weapon” heals and buffs, and it can bend around corners, which is a reminder to keep your head down. Her automatic pistol is capable if you’re quick, but her abilities are very narrowly focused on filling that Support role.
D.Va isn’t a bad choice for a starting Tank, either. I find her to play a bit more closely to a standard shooter character than the other Tanks, and when her mech bites the dust, you can stay on the field while it recharges. D.Va is not one of the starting heroes, however. So you’ll need to play a minimum of two unranked matches to unlock her. (If you do playD.Va though, be sure to audibly say “stand by for titanfall” every time you recall the mech. And don’t you ever apologize for it.)
Figure out which role you enjoy filling the most, and within that role, which hero fits your playstyle the best.
Battle some bots, study your victories and defeats
If you’re a first-timer, you’ll have to go through the tutorial which, while helpful for the very basics, is likely to mirror so many other shooter tutorials that you might gloss over the details.
Battling AI, though, that’s where the (fun) learning really begins. While there is a practice range to romp around in, I recommend spending your first handful of matches battling AI alongside other players in the PvE mode found in training areas. Resist jumping into PvP matchmaking until the AI battles begin to feel boring. There are three AI difficulties to choose from, but start with casual. Trust me.
AI matches are an optimal opportunity to learn the basics of Overwatch 2’s different modes without the pressure of an actual PvP game. You can learn the maps, how different heroes function on the field, and other basics. Remember, you’re just fighting AI here, so it’s no big deal if you have to take a moment to hit F1 on PC to remind yourself what your hero’s abilities do. (The hero information overlay is not bound to a gamepad button by default.)
That said, the bots are no slouches. If your team isn’t working together, they will take advantage of that and quite possibly send you to a defeat. This can happen even on the easiest of the three AI difficulties.
You might feel a little humiliated if you lose to bots, but it’s actually a fantastic opportunity to study why you lost. Since you’re fighting AI, a loss is more likely due to poor teamwork than the opposing team’s innate talent.
Take a look at the makeup of your team and of the opposing side. How many Tanks are there? How many Damage dealers? Support? Was Support keeping everyone nice and healthy during the match? Was Damage failing to take out enough foes? Were the Tanks not acting as Tanks? As you start answering those questions, you’ll both learn the game better and understand what you need to do differently next time.
Ping stuff!
Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku
I typically kill all voice chat in a game, so it was delightful to see Overwatch 2 has a detailed ping system to communicate critical information to your team. It’s better to get used to using it sooner than later.
A generic “ping” is accessible with the middle mouse button on PC and the left d-pad on a controller. This will highlight to your teammates whatever you’re looking at, be it a landmark or a foe, with a prominent HUD indicator they can see through walls. Use that for calling out advancing enemies or sneaky Damage heroes looking for an opportunity to take out one of your comrades.
The first ping command you should dedicate to muscle memory beyond the standard one is calling for help. On PC you hold down the middle mouse and then pull downward to activate the “Need Help” ping. On gamepads you hold down the left d-pad, selecting the desired ping with the right thumbstick. If Support is doing their job, they’ll hopefully come by shortly.
Dedicate this to muscle memory. Call for help as you flee, when you’re near death, when things are getting chaotic, or if you’re just low on health and there aren’t any health packs nearby.
Learn to read the scoreboard
Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku
Whether you’re pulling up the scoreboard to check in the heat of a match or reviewing the details of a game that’s just ended, the information there isn’t just for bragging rights: It’s a reflection of how well or poorly your team is doing. The scoreboard can tell you why you’re winning or losing.
Before you even look at the numbers, the first column will tell you the makeup of the teams, how many Tank, Damage, or Support heroes are on the field. Sometimes the answer to why one side is getting annihilated is found right there. As you develop a sense of each hero, you’ll get a better understanding of how balanced a team is.
Moving rightward, we have some familiar stats: E, A, and D stand for Eliminations, Assists, and Deaths, respectively. Deaths should be low across the board, while Eliminations should probably be highest for your Damage heroes. Assists should likely be high for Support or Tanks. If you’re losing, these might very much tell you why. Are the Damage heroes racking up Eliminations? Are Deaths too high across the board?
Moving over to the next three columns we have DMG for overall damage output, H for healing output, and MIT for total damage mitigated. Generally speaking, Damage heroes should have the highest DMG, Support’s H numbers should be high, and Tanks ought to have high MIT.
Reading this scoreboard and acting based on what it tells you is key to contributing to your team’s success.
Don’t die, be patient
This goes without saying, but you really should prioritize your life. Yes, you’ll respawn in a matter of seconds, but so many of Overwatch’s game modes are like one giant multiplayer arm wrestling match. And if you’re dead, that’s a few precious seconds where you don’t have an arm in the fight.
But if you do die and respawn, and essential members of your team are still on a respawn counter, hold on a moment before heading back out into battle. This is especially true if you’re playing Support. You want to stay alive for when your comrades respawn and rejoin you. If that means letting the enemy team hold the objective point a little bit longer or push the payload up a bit further, you’re going to be better off responding with your collective strength rather than individually.
Overwatch 2 is far more team-driven than your average first-person shooter. And being a great team player requires more than just learning your hero well enough. Timing and staying alive ensures that you have a team functioning as best as it can, regardless of who’s on the roster.
As a live-service, free-to-play game, Overwatch 2 is likely to see changes to the finer details over time. That said, there is a core, team-based FPS beating at its heart that relies on playing the right role at the right time. It can be a lot to understand all at once, but by drilling the basics, you’ll have a solid foundation to build on to carry you and your team to victory.
If you weren’t able to log in and play Blizzard’s highly anticipated hero shooter sorta-sequel, Overwatch 2, you weren’t the only one. After months of developer updates the free-to-play game’s launch day was met with not just one, but two DDoS attacks, forcing players to suffer through ungodly-long queues only to be met with the high probability of subsequent login errors redirecting their asses to the back of the line. Truly, the real Overwatch 2 was the queues we waited in along the way.
I was prepared to write up my own impressions of Overwatch 2, but last night, I too suffered from the log-in errors and was only able to squeeze in five matches before getting kicked back into the queue. In an attempt to make mountains into Mountain Dew, I’ve chronicled my experience playing and (mostly) not playing Overwatch 2. Prepare yourself for these tales from the Overwatch 2 queue.
Read More: How DDoS Attacks Work, And Why They’re So Hard To Stop
Hour: 1 Queue status: 40,000 players ahead of me Emotional vibe check: Perturbed
The irony was not lost on me that, despite the Overwatch team professing that OW2 isn’t just a glorified update to OW1, I was literally sitting at my Xbox watching the loading screen of OW1 receive an update called “Overwatch 2.” As annoying as all that was, I also couldn’t help but feel nostalgic about my bizarro journey with this game. It felt like it was only six years ago (because it was) when I first awaited Overwatch’s Xbox launch while seated in my freshman-year college dorm. I’d played the beta, hyped it up to friends, and was all but ready to place it alongside The Witcher 3 and Rocket League, the games that would sustain me between journo classes.
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Spooky and scary Something video games have over their film counterparts when it comes to horror is the player’s agency. Sure, watching the slasher claim their next victim can get a jumpscare out of you, but you know what’s scarier? Knowing you had the power to stop it. Watching someone slowly open a door and enter a dark room is unnerving, but having to do it yourself will send shivers down your spine and paralyze you with fear.
So it felt more than ironic that six years later, I would be sitting in the living room of my second apartment awaiting Overwatch 2’s launch so that I could cover it for work. I’m still coming to terms with going to school for journalism while playing Overwatch in my downtime to becoming a games journo with a whole-ass bachelor’s degree who’s covering Overwatch’s sorta sequel. Shit’s weird.
Suffice it to say that last night Overwatch 2 quickly became a meme as I and countless others waited to finally be let in to play the game. In reality, this wouldn’t come to pass for some time, thanks to the variously 20,000 to 40,000 players ahead of me and OW2’s servers being under attack.
Hour: 2 Queue status: 20,000 players ahead of me Emotional vibe check: Hungry
It would be dishonest of me not to admit that, by this juncture of my OW2 purgatory, I gave into temptation. I lost focus and bought my second—yes, you heard me, second—McDonald’s adult happy meal toy. Now hear me out, I still stand by those plastic toys who’re destined to occupy U.S. landfills for being ugly as sin, but I can’t deny my desire to possess my own biblically accurate Grimace and proceed to note his presence to any future house guests. At least that’s how the scenario has been playing out in my head. So far, I’ve only got the Hamburglar and Cactus Plant Flea Market’s Cactus Buddy (boo!) so I can only hope that a theoretical third trip to the well will grant me the purple bastard. As you may have guessed, there is no OW2 update for this hour because I was too busy maxing chicken nuggies.
Read More:Be Prepared For These 7 Big Overwatch 2 Gameplay Changes
Hour: 3 Queue status: 40,000 players ahead of me (again) Emotional vibe check: Bored
By this point, I’d given up all hope of ever playing OW2 and resigned to booting up my Steam Deck to do anything but play a video game. I was technically off the clock anyway so why not? Why shouldn’t I live deliciously and use my glorified portable PC to catch up on my stories? I got caught up on episodes of What We Do in the Shadows and even started watching the latest episode of the medieval white people drama that is HBO’s House of the Dragon. Them Targaryens are messy. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who took this purgatory as an opportunity to metaphorically touch grass either. Another would-be OW2 player hit the town and ended up winning a fourth place at his local pub’s trivia night. Cheers.
Read More: Overwatch 2 Beta Visuals Aren’t Helping Perception That It’s Barely An Update
Hour: 4 Queue status: 20 people ahead of me Emotional vibe check: WE MOVE
The promised time was finally upon me. Much like the Creation of Adam, Junkrat’s grubby fingers touched my own through the Xbox controller and I was greeted with a gratuitous slow-motion shot of Genji’s new epic skin, attempting to entice me into giving this game more money than I already had by buying loot boxes in Summer Games past. But my willpower held strong because all I was concerned about was how my sweet babies, D.VA, Mercy, and Moira, were looking in OW2. Lo and behold, all my skins and emotes were still there, albeit updated with OW2’s new character models. It literally pays to be grandfathered into OW2. The only thing yet to see was if I could still hang in-game.
Read More:Overwatch 2 Is Sounding More And More Like A Free-To-Play Nightmare
As you can see, this old boy still has the moves. And by moves, I mean maining healer and tanks because OW1’s queue times were abysmal if you were trying to play a damage character. Of the five games I played last night, including OW2’s new push map, I only lost one. As far I’ve played so far OW2 basically plays the same as OW1 just with the added bonus of character models looking more detailed and its maps being at different times of day.
The major gripe I have with OW2 so far is that firefights no longer feel like wars of attrition in which applying team-based strategies in narrow chokepoints feels rewarded. Instead, OW2’s larger maps and 5v5 gameplay feel more akin to team deathmatches in Call of Duty in which individual pop-off plays are the focus.
One upside to OW2, in comparison to its closed beta, is that the outcome for matches no longer feel like foregone conclusions if you or the enemy team have an early advantage. This is due to OW2’s new passive healing and damage attributes where, if you are working your ass off, your health and movement speed gradually increase. I found this update to the game to be a welcome change in making characters across the board feel more durable in lieu of reintegrating OW1’s dreaded barrier meta. No one liked every character and their mother having a barrier you needed to whittle down, or getting stunned left and right by annoying heroes. (Looking at you, Brigitte.)
However, my hubris over actually getting into the game would very soon catch up, leading me to ruin. Sharing my PotG clip to the interwebs to let the people know I’m “that guy” came to bite me in the ass because by the time I returned to the game OW2’s servers had decided to log me off and banish me back to the login queue shadow realm with the rest of you plebs. Sad.
Hour: 5 Queue status: 400 people ahead of me Emotional vibe check: Sleepy
Ultimately, just like with its predecessor, what saved my jimmies from being rustled by Overwatch’s many shortcomings—long droughts of content, perpetual log-in errors, or the promise of a canonical story that constantly received retcons—were the memes that poured in from the community. Y’all were in full force last night and made me remember why I love playing this cursed game in the first place.
Read More: The Internet’s Biggest Overwatch 2 Questions, Answered
Playing Overwatch meant being able to hang out with my friends across the country during late-night sessions. It didn’t matter whether we got aggressively rolled during multiple games or pulled off a monumental game-winning strategy; At the end of the day, OW served as ambiance akin to keeping my favorite film playing on mute while I caught up with house guests. Weekly challenges were less for the procurement of skins and emotes, and more to have an excuse to call up a friend and schedule a playdate—something that I hope to continue with OW2’s weekly challenges, because I ain’t gonna be paying for no Watchpoint pass. That’d just ruin the fun of getting items by playing with my friends.
The best part of waiting to play OW2 wasn’t finally getting in, it was seeing the memes everyone made while we waited. It was heartwarming to see our Overwatch community was still alive and kicking in the only way we could be, by sharing memes from our folders for when Overwatch 2 is good and for when it inevitably fails. Hopefully, by the time I feel the urge to get back into the fight and maybe play some of those new characters, Blizzard will have sorted its servers.
Today, Activision Blizzard announced three programs coming to Overwatch 2’s competitive and casual scene. These aim to foster a healthy environment, with a focus on its new and returning LGBTQ+ player base.
In a blog post titled “Calling All Heroes,” the Overwatch team and its competitive E-Sports program, Overwatch League (OWL), announced it would co-develop an in-game Defense Matrix, Challenger’s Cup, and Caster Camp. Blizzard said the goal of these programs is to “focus on equity, visibility, and community support for underrepresented genders.”
To ensure that its mission statement is upheld, the Overwatch team announced that it will be rolling out a gameplay system called Defense Matrix. Named after D.VA’s projectile blocking ability, Blizzard said the program will act as a system to “protect gameplay integrity and promote positive behavior in Overwatch 2.” How it’ll do so might be slightly invasive given it will involve the use of your phone under its new program, SMS Protect.
“Defense Matrix fortifies Overwatch’s security and game experience through aspects like SMS Protect, audio transcriptions, and the all-new first-time user experience, to name a few,” Blizzard said in the blog post.
If you were wanting to opt out of SMS Protect, it’s looking like you won’t be able to play Overwatch 2 at all. Because come October 4, players across all platforms will be required to have their phone numbers attached to their Battle Net accounts in order to play Overwatch 2.
Read More: Overwatch 2 Pre-reviews Say It’s Worth A Sequel, But The Grind Is A Major Bummer
Coupled with the announcement of Defense Matrix, Blizzard also revealed two new LGBTQ+ programs called Challenger’s Cup and Caster Camp. Alongside its partnership with Radiant, a production company that highlights “underrepresented genders,” Overwatch is developing a Challenger’s Cup, a competitive tournament that will run alongside Path to Pro, its developmental competitive Overwatch program under Overwatch Contenders.
“This tournament is not a replacement for the Path to Pro; rather, we hope it will serve as an entry point for underrepresented genders to jump into the broader Overwatch esports ecosystem, and we encourage all who are eligible to participate in both Challengers Cup and Path to Pro,” Blizzard said in the blog post.
The applications for the first qualifier rounds for Challenge Cup begin on October 21.
Additionally, Caster Camp will feature broadcasters like OWL’sSoe Gschwind and Matt “Mr. X” Morello. The plan is for them to share the skills they’ve learned as professional Overwatch commentators to folks within the LGBTQ+ community hoping to build upon their skillsets and make connections within the industry. Its registration will run from September 30 through October 28.
Read More: The Internet’s Biggest Overwatch 2 Questions, Answered
Although Overwatch 2’s imminent launch on October 4 as a free-to-play game is riddled with all the things that make for F2P nightmares, it is commendable that the game maker is going beyond the platitude of saying it’s pro-LGBTQ by pointing at its gay characters and leaving it at that, especially considering the high probability of its LGBTQ+ player base getting swept up in a wave of bigotry come the sequel hero shooter’s release.
Seeing as how two of its flagship characters, Tracer and Soldier 76 serve as the game’s confirmed LGBTQ+ representation, it’s nice that Blizzard at least recognizes that its player base might be in dire need of obfuscation in case any returning bigots of the game return with its sequel. Though the jury is still out on whether SMS Protect is on the up and up or not.