To say Overwatch 2 had a rocky launch would be a huge understatement. Eager players have suffered from long queue times, account merging issues, and servers being hit with two DDoS attacks. Despite the vast number of people who want to play the game, simply getting into Overwatch 2 has been a pain.
Things differ for players once they get into the game. Fans of the original Overwatch who were able to get their accounts merged will find they can play all heroes from the get-go, including the battle pass-gated Kiriko. But those who are starting Overwatch 2 fresh or are unable to merge their accounts will have to put in some effort to unlock the roster. There is a lot of controversy surrounding this new unlock system, but there are some benefits to gating Overwatch 2 heroes.
How Overwatch 2's Hero Unlock System Works?
New Overwatch 2 players start with the latest heroes Junker Queen and Sojourn, as well as healers Lucio, Moira, and Mercy; tank heroes Reinhardt, Winston, Orisa, and Zarya; and damage heroes Tracer, Pharah, Reaper, Soldier: 76, Torbjorn, and Widowmaker. This makes 15 available heroes of the current 35-hero roster, which is a good place to start for those who are just getting into the game.
Overwatch 2 gates a number of heroes behind challenges. While this may seem daunting, all this means is that players have to get through a certain amount of matches to unlock specific heroes. Wins grant double progress toward hero unlock challenges, so winning matches can, in theory, cut hero unlock times in half. Genji is the first unlockable hero, acquired after completing a single match regardless if players win or not. Players will then work their way down the roster until they finally unlock Echo, who takes a whopping 150 games to unlock.
Overwatch Players Don't Want to be Left Behind
Seeing as Overwatch is a franchise that is meant to be all-inclusive, gating more than half its hero roster isn't a good look. Players want to use the heroes they like or find interesting, and forcing them to play hundreds of games to unlock a specific character just emphasizes the grind and projects an almost pay-to-win nature on Overwatch 2. This likely put people off from picking up Overwatch 2.
What's strange is that the first Overwatch already had a good hero unlock system in place: there wasn't one. Players would pay an entry fee to own the starting roster, and every succeeding hero would be free for everyone. Activision Blizzard could have thought up a better way to ease new players into Overwatch 2 than just gating heroes behind challenges, such as incorporating a system like in Apex Legends. What this new system ends up doing is forcing new and free-to-play players to go up against veterans who have unlocked all the heroes.
Drip-Fed Mechanics As a Learning Experience
From a gameplay standpoint, adding a hero unlock system in Overwatch 2 makes sense. The hero roster has ballooned to 35 from the original Overwatch's 21. This creates a substantial learning curve to enjoy the sequel to the fullest extent, and by giving newbies easier heroes first, they can master the basics. As an example, fans of FPS titles will tend to gravitate towards Soldier: 76 rather than a hero like Echo, whose base abilities are more complex and whose Duplicate ult draws on players' knowledge of how to play every existing hero. In this regard, it's understandable why a hero like Soldier: 76 would be free and Echo requires 150 played games to unlock.
Yet the sequence in which Overwatch 2's heroes can be obtained doesn't always make sense. Genji is the first hero that players unlock, and he's a pretty complex character to learn with his refreshing Swift Strike and advanced Dragonblade ultimate ability. Contrast that to a hero like Mei, whose Ice Wall and Cryo-Freeze abilities make her a damage hero with high survivability. While Genji requires only one played game to unlock, Mei requires 70.
Overwatch 2's hero unlock system has good points, but the convoluted order in which players unlock heroes, coupled with limiting the roster, overwhelms the good with the bad. Having to play hundreds of hours just to get the full Overwatch 2 experience won't sit well with new players, and there isn't a way to circumvent this system by paying for the original roster. When the game's heart should depend on the heroes that players can choose from, starting with a reduced roster shortens the amount of fun they can have from the get-go.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
