Overwatch 2 Opened Up To Steam Reviews, And It’s Not Going So Well

gameranx.com:

Blizzard and Valve have finally opened up Overwatch 2 to Steam’s reviews system. Unfortunately for them, the game isn’t exactly getting a glowing reception.

As reported by The Gamer, Overwatch 2 is sitting at a Mostly Negative sentiment, from a staggering 7,500 reviews. Particularly popular is a review from Steam user Ornge, who describes the game as “”an attempt to pry open your wallet while masquerading as the game it used to be”.” 6,000 people marked that review as helpful.

Blizzard knows full well the reason it’s getting this critical drubbing. The fans have long had a love-hate relationship with the franchise, in particular because of its aggressive monetization. While regulators stepped in to end Blizzard’s practice of propagating lootboxes, Overwatch 2’s current monetization model, based around the new in-thing, season passes, is still (probably rightly) deemed too aggressive, and that will obviously turn the fans off.

However, the big narrative that Blizzard can only blame themselves for, is in relation to Overwatch 2’s PvE content. For months Blizzard promised sprawling ambitions for Overwatch 2’s narrative. Fans had hoped that Blizzard would flesh out the still potent storylines that were mostly grazed on in the original Overwatch. Blizzard sold their fans on the dream that we would be able to play these stories out, about its past and future, and that it would amount to one of the biggest narrative shooter experiences the industry had ever seen.

And then, just like that, they threw it all out, well after Blizzard had successfully shut off the original Overwatch’s servers. Blizzard’s reasoning for the abrupt change is hard to parse, and obviously, the fans don’t buy it. Whether this is a story of Blizzard not