The new season of Overwatch 2 is jam-packed with updates to the game, and brings back the popular "On Fire" mechanic that rewards players for pulling off heated plays. While Season 5 of Overwatch 2 does have a lot in the way of new content to offer, a long list of hero balancing adjustments and a substantial overhaul to the Fire feature from the original game shows that the developers are determined to improve things on the gameplay front as well.
A relic from the predecessor to Overwatch 2, many fans were disappointed to find the Fire mechanic absent from the sequel when it first launched. This simple yet satisfying system made successful multikills feel that much more rewarding, adding a fiery cosmetic effect to a player's HUD whenever they stirred up chaos in the lobby. Though it had no practical effects on gameplay outside of making players look cool, hero characters that were "On Fire" would also speak unique lines of dialogue to announce their status to the rest of the team. Many players noted that these lines of dialogue were occasionally still spoken by characters in Overwatch 2, despite the feature being otherwise absent from the sequel until now.
Not only is the Fire mechanic back in Overwatch 2, it's been upgraded with several additional layers of depth. For starters, the "Blazing" status can now be achieved by players who keep the heat up for extended periods of time, though the short-lived nature of this state demands that players keep the fuel pouring on fast if they want to keep their streak going. Unlike in the original Overwatch, players can now achieve the "On Fire" status by dishing out healing and damage mitigation rather than pure damage output, and can light themselves on fire quickly by eliminating an opponent that's on fire. One player on Reddit under the username xQcIsLove even made a post demonstrating how the Fire's color on the HUD can be changed, allowing for custom themes.
The new and arguably-improved Fire system boasts even more new additions that make it easier to tell who's on fire, though not all fans feel like the changes were necessary. Some feel like the simplicity of the feature in the older Overwatch suited the idea best, and while the overhauled mechanics will likely see some tweaking in the near future as the community experiments with them, the new layer of depth certainly makes the fast-paced combat feel even more engaging.
Whatever the case, the changes made to the Fire system are among the least controversial topics regarding Overwatch 2 at the moment. It's no surprise at this point that the game's story-driven PvE mode has garnered plenty of criticism after Hero Mode and talents were revealed to be scrapped, but Overwatch 2's PvE fiasco has only gotten worse after the mode's controversial pricing and accessibility were recently announced, leaving some fans to wonder if the game will actually have anything good to offer outside its PvP.
Overwatch 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
