Blizzard messes up PvP in Overwatch 2 and makes it 5 vs 5 players
Overwatch 2 gets some significant changes to the PvP gameplay compared to Overwatch. The Blizzard developer team has announced this. The main change is that the game is now 5v5, instead of 6v6.
In a two-hour developer update, the developers talked about the various changes to the yet-to-be-released game Overwatch 2. They got straight to the point: the online PvP changes from 6 versus 6, to 5 versus 5 players. Roles are fixed: two support heroes, two DPS heroes and a tank. There is no need for a second tank.
The main reason for this is to make the game more balanced and clear. “There’s a lot going on in an Overwatch game,” said game director Aaron Keller. “Sometimes it’s just difficult to keep up with what eleven others are doing. Taking two of those players out makes a game much more manageable.” He also says, “Tanks can be problematic.”
Rebalanced
The fact that the game is now five against five has major consequences for the heroes. Tanks get even stronger because they are alone and get more abilities. They are also less affected by crowd control. Other heroes are rebalanced. For example, the attackers, the DPS heroes, get a higher movement speed and support characters get passive healing.
Specifically, Reinhardt gains two Fire Strike charges and more wiggle room for his Charge ability and the option to cancel it. Zarya holds two bubble charges, but she can choose to give them both to herself or to her teammates. Winston gets an alternative long range shot. Mei can no longer freeze enemies with her primary. Instead, she can slow them down and her Endothermic Blaster will deal more damage. The developers haven’t said anything about changes to other characters yet.
Maps and UI
The Blizzard team took a good look at the maps in Overwatch 1 and decided they should be less linear in the upcoming Overwatch game. They become less choke sensitive, but gain more angles to attack from. The new maps in Overwatch 2 are New York, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Monte Carlo.
In addition, the UI and HUD in the game will be adjusted to be clearer. Blizzard showed no new heroes in this developer update and no release date has been announced yet. A month ago, Blizzard announced that game director Jeff Kaplan is leaving Overwatch. When he left, Aaron Keller said that Overwatch 2 will not be released this year.