The Overwatch 2 beta has been over for a few days. On April 27, the beta started very successfully, also thanks to Twitch drops. A short time later, however, the mood tipped into an uninterested shrug of the shoulders or even into the negative. The conclusion of the community was that Overwatch 2 was hardly different from Overwatch 1, and therefore a disappointment. The numbers on Twitch crashed, with a full 99% of viewers turning away compared to the Twitch drop.

But now that the beta from the second part is over, fans of Overwatch 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 no fun anymore.

“Most players have realized that OW2 is actually better than OW1”.

What did players think of Overwatch 2? While we in the editorial team thought that almost everything remained the same in Overwatch 2, it still felt like a completely different game. But those who have been on gaming forums, Discord communities, Twitch or YouTube have heard otherwise.

In particular, a video by well-known YouTuber Jason Yevgeniy “videogamedunkey” Gastrow has contributed a lot to the image that Overwatch 2 changes big things, but is still the same game at its core. He said that “you can’t escape the feeling that you’re still just playing Overwatch 1.”

How has the mood changed? Since May 17, however, the beta for Overwatch 2 is over. So anyone who plays Overwatch regularly (again) will have to play the first part. And now the fans of Blizzard’s shooter realize that part 2 has done much more differently than they thought.

On reddit, you can find posts with titles like “The OW2 beta must stay. OW1 has been unplayable since I played [Overwatch] 2” (via reddit).

This sentiment is also reflected in the comments:

• “I think most players have realized that OW2 is actually better than OW1”.
• “After playing so much of the beta and really enjoying it, I now feel like I’m pretty much not enjoying OW1.”
• “It just feels worse when playing… Also, the support wait times are much worse.”
• “OW2 feels like what Overwatch was always meant to be: a combat-heavy, movement-intensive, adrenaline-fueled game. OW1 is slow, clunky, tedious, and frustrating.”

Overwatch 2 changes many 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 most important changes in the beta:

• There are only 5 players in each team instead of 6.
• There is now only one tank per team, so DPS characters are more deadly.
• Shields of the tanks have been strongly generated or completely removed, which makes for more aggressive gameplay.
• Changes like higher speed of all DPS or passive healing on support heroes also makes gameplay faster and more aggressive.
• Most “crowd control” abilities have been completely removed. So players will be stunned, frozen, or pushed away much less often or not at all. Sombra hacks now also only interrupt abilities, not completely shut them down.
• The hated game mode “2CP” has been completely removed from Overwatch 2.

While all of these changes are comparatively small individually, they make for a larger domino effect that changes the entire feel of the game. That’s why many of the heroes that fans already know inside and out from Part 1 play differently in Part 2. Thus, some very surprising characters were the strongest in the beta.

When will the next beta start? That is currently unknown. However, the date for it is supposed to be announced on June 16. It is also unknown when Overwatch 2 will celebrate its proper release. However, it can be assumed that at least the PvE part of the game will be released in 2023.

Regardless of the game itself, there was a huge discussion around Overwatch the other day. It was about a tool that Activision Blizzard used for diversity purposes, which caused a lot of criticism: Activision Blizzard wants to be diverse, gives Arabs 7 out of 10 points – Triggers a catastrophic reaction.