Overwatch 2: Where is it Now?

The announcement of overwatch 2 had a lot of players concerned about their credits and skins owned in the original one. Overwatch used to have in-game purchases as well as a loot box system which you could earn through playing and redeem random rewards. Several players had amassed a large sum of credits and skins through sheer dedication, and it was one of the best features of the game in an era of battle-passes and paywalls. It seems that their concerns were not without cause. Overwatch 2 was revealed and with it the dreaded battle-pass and removal of loot boxes. Skins had ludicrous prices with bundles selling for $20. After receiving much criticism, they dropped the price to $15 but many were still unhappy and believe the price is still too high. Players of the original game had all their skins carried over to the new game, much to their relief and their credits were added to the sequel as ‘Legacy Credits’. Much to their chagrin however, Legacy Credits could only be used to buy specific cosmetics and the more premium skins were only purchasable through normal credits.

If the backlash from the new monetization model wasn’t enough, they were soon swarmed by complaints from the public on their inadequate content moderation. Several players reported spotting custom games with extremely inappropriate names and even more inappropriate content. They consisted of themes such as sexual harassment and rape. A Blizzard spokesperson told PC Gamer. "Inappropriate or explicit content has absolutely no place in our game, We immediately removed the user-created game mode once made aware of its existence. We are continually working to improve automatic filters to prevent inappropriate user-created content, and manually removing any that are not caught by the system." However, PC Gamer reported at the time of publication the custom game was still accessible using its unique five-digit code, despite being removed from listings, which suggests Overwatch 2 has significant moderation issues. Overwatch 2 has also been facing DDos attacks and auto-purchase bugs. They even had to disable heroes Mei and Bastion due to the discovery of game-breaking glitches.

Amidst the chaos, Blizzard released a gameplay trailer for the upcoming new hero ‘Ramattra’. The tank will have an omnic form and a nemesis form which will have different abilities and weapons. In his omnic form, Ramattra uses a staff called the Void Accelerator. His secondary ability ‘Void Barrier’ is an extremely strong shield with a small duration to keep it balanced. His nemesis form is focused on close combat with his primary weapon being Pummel which bashes his enemies with massive fists and sends energy waves which can go through shields and hit multiple enemies. In this form, his secondary ability is Block which reduces damage from the front but slows down movement and leaves his back exposed. His third ability Ravenous Vortex fires a nano ball which explodes on the ground, spreading a damaging field which slows and pulls down enemies, a near complete counter against flying agents such as mercy, pharah and echo. Finally, his ultimate ability called Annihilation allows him to enter nemesis form and create an energy swarm around himself which lashes out at nearby enemies. Blizzard refers to the new agent as a ‘tempo tank’ due his two forms.

According to the lore, Ramattra was built as a Ravator during the omnic crisis to destroy humanity, but he only wished to create a better future for his people. After the war, he joined a monastery of peace-loving spiritual omnics known as Shambali. There he recruited a fellow omnic, the hero Zenyatta, into the order and they became as close as brothers.

Despite his attempts, discrimination against the omnics continued. Seeing no peaceful way to save his people, Ramattra left the Shambali and created the omnic extremist liberation faction ‘Null Sector’ and declared war on mankind, transforming himself into a hulking robot in the process. Later, Ramattra was contacted by Talon council member ‘Doomfist’ to arrange a meeting in Cairo. Results of the meeting are unknown as Doomfist was arrested by an Overwatch strike team about 3 weeks later in Singapore. Overwatch 2 is off to a rocky start, but many still enjoy the game and long-time fans still hold out hope for redemption. Now we can only wait and see if Blizzard will meet our expectations.

This article is written by Gaurav Advit