Overwatch 2 Will Make New Players Grind For Old Heroes

thegamer.com:

Overwatch 2 continues to stir controversy with its latest decision. We already know that players won't get access to new heroes right away (unless they're willing to pay for the privilege, of course), and now we're finding out that new players won't even get access to the full Overwatch roster.

In the game's latest blog update, Blizzard said it wants Overwatch 2's "First Time User Experience" to be more gradual than the original Overwatch. This is in large part due to feedback from new players saying that they felt "overwhelmed by numerous game modes and heroes."

Related: Overwatch 2 Is Already Making Some Weird Mistakes With Its Battle Pass

So, instead of having the full Overwatch roster available right away, new players will only have "access to a limited set of game modes, heroes, and some other restrictions to onboard them more gradually." First, first-timers will unlock Overwatch 2's game modes as well as its in-game chat. After that, new players can expect to unlock the original Overwatch roster over the span of 100 matches.

"This focused experience eases new players into the world of Overwatch by teaching them about different modes, rules, and other high-level aspects of the game in an approachable way," explained Blizzard.

Even if each match is just five minutes long, that's still quite a few hours of gameplay before new players will have the full roster to play with. Users are rightly skeptical if this is going to be as welcoming to new players as Blizzard said it wants to be.

Competitive mode is also being restricted to new players until they've completed 50 Quick Play matches. Blizzard says this is to give "new players time to prepare for the higher expectations that come with Competitive" and to optimize