The beta for Overwatch 2 is now out! With large changes throughout the game, there is a new and refreshed feel. Just jumping into things might be overwhelming without knowing what you’re getting into, but that's what I’m here for!

Welcome to 5v5

Perhaps the biggest change in the game is the switch from Overwatch’s 6v6 gameplay to 5v5. Each team is still made up of two DPS and two healers, but now only one tank. The days of pouring bullets and abilities into shields are gone.

The game feels a lot faster with the reduction of a tank. The tank role, in general, has received changes to accommodate this new playstyle. All of the tanks got a little tankier by being given more health, more armor, or more shielding to be able to function on their own. Simply they are able to take more damage, and with there only being one, the tank player has become the most important member of the team.

Tanks also have a new role-wide passive to help them out. They’ll suffer less from knockback abilities, so one Lucio boop won’t ruin an entire teamfight. Also, they won’t give as much ultimate charge to the enemies that shoot them, so it will not be as productive for DPS to simply empty clip after clip into the tank. It also encourages your DPS to go for more high-value targets.

The Ping Wheel and Scoreboard

Also making its debut in the beta is the new ping wheel! Trying to encourage communication among teammates is never easy, but the ping wheel gives some new options to better coordinate with your team.

Communication was one of the biggest areas of concern coming from the first Overwatch. It was very difficult to coordinate with your team, and the team that did manage to do it had a big advantage. Not everyone was in the team chat, and even if they were, it was a real possibility that no one would talk. Now, at the very least you have more options to communicate with the team and will know at the very least you are being heard.

You can ping a countdown that indicates when to go in on an enemy, alert your team to the flanking Genji about to kill your backline, and let them know what angle you’re watching all in the new ping wheel.

Also making its debut is the redesigned scoreboard. The medal system that let your Moira think they were cracked is now gone. In its place is a new sleek scoreboard that lets everyone see damage, healing, eliminations, assists, and deaths for both teams. Theoretically, this should help players address the issues in their compositions and make switches to fix them.

Maps and Game Modes

Another one of the bigger system changes is that the two capture point map is a thing of the past so you can say goodbye to those long treks through Horizon Lunar Colony and Hanamura.

In its place is a new game mode called Push. In this mode, two teams compete to be the first to have the robot push the object along the track to the other end of the map. The catch is that the robot will only move when one team is present nearby. So you have to eliminate the enemy to get progress.

To highlight this new game mode there are new maps specifically designed for Push, but other game modes are feeling the love as well, with various new maps being implemented. The world of Overwatch now makes its way to Toronto, NYC, Rome, and Monte Carlo.

Toronto and Rome are the maps for the new Push game mode. One of the features of these maps is that they are symmetrical. Once a team pushes the bot a certain distance, they will get a forward spawn to help them finish the job.

New York City is a hybrid map where the players fight to unlock a point at a fire station, and then escort the firetruck across the map. Monte Carlo is a pure escort map that sees the players pushing the payload through the racetrack in the city.

The beta has limited map pools and game modes, with Quick Play with role select being the only official game mode available to players. Custom games, Skirmish, and Deathmatch are also available to players while they are in a queue.

Meet Sojourn

Also making an entrance into Overwatch is a new hero: Sojourn. Sojourn is a brand new DPS character that is launching alongside the release of the beta. She uses a railgun that has a primary and secondary fire. The secondary charges up when you connect with the primary fire. The more charge you have on it, the more damage it does.

One of her abilities is a grenade that slows enemies while providing additional charge for her secondary fire, and the other is a slide that gives her some decent mobility on the battlefield. Sojourn’s ultimate, Overclock, gives additional charge to the secondary fire of the railgun, allowing her to fire it multiple times at max damage.

Just because Sojourn is the only brand-new hero doesn’t mean that the others didn’t get their fair share of changes as well. Some of them have been completely changed to feel almost like new heroes entirely.

Hero and Role Changes

• All tanks have resistance to knockback abilities and provide less ultimate charge.
  
• DPS heroes have been given a passive that gives them a speed boost.
  
• Healers now all have a passive that gives them out-of-combat health regeneration.
  
• Doomfist has made the jump from DPS to tank. His increased health and new power block ability allow him to soak up a good amount of damage. He keeps a good amount of his mobility, so he slots in alongside Wrecking Ball as a mobile tank option.
  
• Orisa has a multitude of changes as well. Her gun now doesn’t reload and has a heat mechanic instead. Her trademark barrier is a thing of the past, it is replaced by a javelin that when spun destroys projectiles much like D.Va. Her halt ability is gone in favor of throwing the javelin, stunning and knocking back the enemy. The Orisa bongo ult is gone and a new ultimate called Terra Surge takes its place. She sweeps in enemies and anchors down, gaining damage, using primary fire ends the surge early.
  
• Mei’s primary fire still slows and deals damage, but no longer freezes foes in place.
  
• Winston can hold primary fire to shoot out a beam of lightning that is much longer ranged.
  
• Cassidy’s flashbang has been replaced with a magnetic grenade that homes in on targets and deals additional damage if it sticks to them.
  
• Brigitte’s shield bash is no longer a full stun, and now only deals damage and knocks the target back.
  
• Sombra can now see hacked targets through walls, she can hack while still remaining invisible, the cooldown has been reduced, and she now deals more damage to her hacked targets.
  
• Reinhardt now has two charges of his fire strike ability, instead of just the one.
  
• Zarya’s bubbles now have multiple charges, meaning she can store up to two of them and can use them on herself and her allies in any combination she pleases.
  
• Bastion now has a grenade instead of healing, his ultimate has been replaced with three artillery strikes, and he can move now while in turret form, but only has a limited amount of time before he returns to normal.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

So, if you get into the beta, be ready for a new version of Overwatch. Many of the familiar faces are there with some new changes to them. The game feels faster with only one tank on the field, and there is plenty of evidence that shows Blizzard is trying to address some of the concerns from the first game. Keep in mind though, that this is just the beta, and it is inevitable that plenty will be changed by the time the full game comes out. Enjoy all the changes and remember, the world could always use more heroes!