Overwatch 2's new competitive season is as chaotic as ever, thanks to the new perk system, but it's still a huge step in the right direction
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
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