Overwatch 2 was not going anywhere with fans. There were few story updates, new heroes weren’t launching fast enough, and there was too much focus on collaborations and skins. It felt hollowed out. Stadium energized fans, but it felt like a sugar rush. Then Marvel Rivals launched, scratching the itch that many Classic Overwatch fans had. It looked like a slow death for Overwatch.
Then Blizzard revealed their biggest update with an opening cinematic headlining Overwatch’s refresh. It featured a grand return to that Pixar-esque animation style that defined Overwatch’s earliest days. It told a story that signaled change was coming in the narrative—and the whole game.
This cinematic was Blizzard’s acknowledgment that they understood Overwatch needs its characters and narrative to stay relevant. The core gameplay, skins, maps, and modes are secondary. The evidence is in hindsight: canceling PvE made Overwatch functionally just like every other live-service multiplayer game.
To affirm their understanding, Blizzard dropped five new characters.
I remember the first role queue Quick Play match I entered. Everyone chose one of the five new characters. It felt like a brand new game. No one knew what they were doing. People were pleasant in chat. Players had more fun just because Blizzard added new characters. The response clearly identified what players want from Overwatch. It also helped that every character was well-crafted, mostly balanced (Domina and Jetpack Cat aside), and had personalities that people enjoyed.
Anran quickly became my favorite DPS. She’s Genji 2.0—a flank-oriented hero with blazing fans that sets players on fire. She requires skillful alternation between her primary and secondary fire, and can’t dive as easily as Genji, but her two dashes allow for more calculated risks. Flanking enemies, lighting them on fire, watching them freak out, and escaping before anyone can tell what happened is exhilarating.
Emre felt the most natural. He certainly feels like a Halo-inspired character. His grenades soar when you throw them, and his 3-burst rifle is very close to the same kill time as Halo’s battle rifle. About the only thing missing is the same floaty jump as Master Chief.
Domina revived the tank class. Her kit is skillful, and she feels powerful. A well-played Domina is as tanky as a tank can get. She’s slow, but intentional. Other tanks use brute force to create space. Domina demands space just by existing. There are so many ways to manipulate players, whether it’s your position behind the shield, when you use your repulsor, the range of the gun, or Crystal Charge. Blizzard did a very good job with her design.
Mizuki is the most mechanically intense (good) and underwhelming (bad) of the five. It was hard to feel his impact. Was Katashiro Return defensive or offensive? Was his ultimate only defensive? When attacking, his primary attack range felt too short. His AOE healing wasn’t as clear as Lucio’s, either. Do you rotate between back-line and mid-line or pick one? He’s fine after some tweaks, but Mizuki is the type of complex hero for whom Blizzard should release tutorial videos that clearly explain how a kit should be used.
And then there’s Jetpack Cat. Adorable, sassy, ruthless. Any character that deliberately picks up enemies to drop them into the abyss is psychologically touched—even a cat. But it’s fun. The combination of cute meows juxtaposing the chaos you cause is delightful. Thankfully, the cat’s been nerfed, but its high-flying, jet-powered hovercraft makes Jetpack Cat a tough Support to take down. Playing as her feels devious in the most positively hand-wringing way possible. You can’t help but feel like a jerk, but it’s satisfying.
Conquest
Reign of Talon features a new mode called Conquest. This mode allows you to choose a faction—Overwatch or Talon—and play that game to complete challenges that earn progress for your chosen faction. At the end of each week, a winner is chosen and receives a reward. The intention was to invite more storytelling and be a community talking point, but it didn’t deliver as well as it could have.
In spirit, this was a fantastic idea. In practice, the systems trivialized the point. After earning the rewards from one faction, you could stay with the faction or become a double agent and join the opposing one, which was enticing because you could get the rewards from the other side. That created a fun internal conflict. Do I want the rewards or remain loyal? I wondered if players would stay or switch. And then seeing people lobbying for Overwatch and Talon on social media was fun, too.
But becoming a double agent meant nothing in the end because you can go back to a faction once you earn the rewards. What’s the point? The reason you can switch again is that the seasonal Conquest challenges required finishing eight tracks for each faction. Blizzard’s goal for constant player activity nullified Conquest’s potential. So much greatness left on the table.
What’s worse is that there were no story implications when a faction won. Week after week, Overwatch and Talon traded wins until Overwatch claimed the last one, sealing the seasonal victory. The contest was over. We received our reward. That was it. Totally anticlimactic. We invested six weeks in the event. There should’ve been a much bigger payoff.
It was nice to get accompanying story bits in the form of animated shorts and text from each week’s faction leader. The text was mostly inconsequential, but again, if there were story implications for doing what we were doing, it would be more interesting.
The challenges were easy to complete. Thankfully, they were based solely on playing the game and bonus progression when using a specific character or playing Stadium. What would be nice is if there were a challenge with infinite progression, so once you finished the dailies or weekly, you could continue earning rewards. That would mean earning more loot boxes, which would likely mess up the in-game economy, but that’s a problem for Blizzard to solve.
Battle Pass
Unlike the other additions from Reign of Talon, the battle pass was lukewarm. A few items were high-quality; the rest were uninteresting.
The Talon hero skins were very good. The charcoal black primary color with red trim looked cool on Vendetta, Moira, and Mauga. The sharp edges gave each of them a menacing feel. For Overwatch, the New Era skins were far less interesting. The blue, black, and white combination looked uncoordinated and uninspiring. Talon’s colors were always primary black and secondary red. For Overwatch, Lucio looked like blue was primary. Tracer had black. Baptiste, Brigitte, and Genji had an even combination of the three. I particularly like Baptiste’s, Brig’s, and Genji’s skins, but each looked muted compared to Talon’s intimidating uniforms.
Other exceptional creations were the name cards. The minimalistic cards united a white background with hand-drawn character art superimposed over pseudo-spray-painted portraits. Each name card combined style with cool-looking grace. They looked amazing for every character.
The sprays also felt particularly impressive—bright colors with expressions and poses I wanted to tag on walls throughout the levels.
The rest of the battle pass was uninteresting. I’m glad they added a dance for Zarya, but most of the icons, victory poses, highlight intros, and emotes were forgettable. The battle pass is a good time to add content for many characters that are commonly disregarded, and that wasn’t the case with this one.
Mythics
I feel like a separate article is needed for Mythics. Blizzard’s choices for who receives a Mythic are confounding. I imagine they are choosing characters that are used more often, and I don’t begrudge them for doing that, but the unfairness can’t be ignored when Mercy gets another mythic while other notable, even original, heroes aren’t shown love.
With that said, I can’t deny the Mercy Mythic skin is a good one. It plays up her angelic feel while looking powerful. And the additional colors and Aspects are marvelous.
Mei received her first Mythic, which feels atypical of her personality. I don’t necessarily mean that as a criticism. Some Mythics don't align with their heroes—Ana’s comes to mind. But I understand others, like Sigma’s Galactic Emperor or Tracer’s Adventurer, are more like extensions of their personalities—cosplays, per se.
Mei’s Mythic doesn’t fit that, though. It’s a great skin, but no one would have expected Mei to be a livestreaming gamer type with D.Va-like vivaciousness. I can imagine Sigma as someone who rules the galaxy, or Tracer as an eager adventurer. Mei as a livestreamer? Feels farfetched.
Reign of Talon Season 1 got off to a strong start. Much can be improved, but with how Blizzard is conducting hero design and thinking of ways to increase social activity, the future is bright.
