Overwatch 2's Season 16 began last night, and with it came a load of new features like perks and loot boxes, changes to the UI, and a rank reset. It's a big update for the start of the season, but one that was very much needed thanks to the new competition that Marvel Rivals has brought.
"We're obviously in a new competitive landscape that I think, for Overwatch, we've never really been in before, to this extent where there's another game that's so similar to the one that we've created," game director Aaron Keller says in an interview with GamesRadar.
"There's actually something kind of exciting about this for a few reasons." Keller goes on to explain that this new competitive ecosystem is actually the kick up the butt that the Overwatch 2 team needed: "This is no longer about playing it safe. And I really think that seasons 15 and 16 are us not playing it safe. But really, it's a forcing function to execute—and for a team of super passionate craftspeople, that's like music to their ears."
Watching the Overwatch 2 Spotlight, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much the developers had in store for the game, but I was even more astounded to see that perks, one of the biggest fundamental changes to the game we've seen since Overwatch 2's launch, were going to be added straight away into casual and competitive play. Usually, whenever the developers have a new idea, feature, or hero, it'll get tested over a weekend or in an arcade mode before it gets placed into the main game, but not this time. For perks, the developers are diving headfirst into it.
"There's a little bit of letting go of the fine balance that we've been chasing and see how it all plays out to some degree," lead gameplay designer Alec Dawson said during a roundtable interview. "We should be a little scared of what we're putting out there in terms of how it might affect the game. Within reason, of course." It's nice to see Overwatch 2 loosen up a bit when it comes to new features, especially since Marvel Rivals has been so flexible with adding new heroes and abilities to the game.
"I look at what happens in a game of Overwatch, and a lot of times, when you get enough hours in the game, it almost feels like you can be going through the motions," Keller says. "What we want to be able to do is to inject a bit of freshness into the game, but not just for variety's sake. We want to increase the depth of play."
Perks have definitely shaken things up a bit—I was excited to start the competitive season alongside these new features, and while the change isn't astronomical, it's just the right amount to make fights a little more interesting and change heroes up a bit.
During the first 10 competitive matches of the new season, I got to see pretty much everything that these perks have to offer, and while most of the new features are quite moderate, there were a few surprises. There were some nightmare moments in which a hero I was fighting against pulled something truly outrageous out of thin air, like Reaper's new Dire Triggers perk that lets him fire a long-range shot from his shotguns, or Pharah's Drift Thrusters perk that lets her move while using her ultimate. The last thing I shouted before getting a face full of mini-rockets was, "She can move?!"
Like most new seasons, there's also a meta emerging early on, but this time, it's influenced more by perks than buffs or nerfs. I've seen a lot of Orisa's so far, as her Fleeting Bulwark perk grants her an additional 100 overhealth, and her Protective Barrier switches out the Javelin Spin ability for her old energy shield, meaning she's now a very powerful defensive tank. Reaper is also a lot more lethal thanks to his perks, which grant him extra health and better range on his shotgun, making him a serious close combat threat and now fairly competent at longer-range fights.
Blizzard will definitely need to make some tweaks to perks post-launch, but I'm very happy to make the trade-off of having slightly busted heroes for a short while so we can have such a great new feature so quickly.
There's also a new UI overhaul, which has cleaned up players' profiles, and made the Play page nicer to look at, as well as adding loot boxes, which you can snag in the premium battle pass or get for free by completing challenges or just in the weekly rewards. There's a lot to appreciate at the start of this new season, and while Overwatch 2 may have been very slow off the mark to institute substantial changes like this and the upcoming Stadium mode, I'm not holding it against them—I'm just happy these changes are here.
