There are plenty of things to cheer on or complain about in Overwatch 2, particularly when it comes to 5v5 or hero balance. If anything the beta showed that now that many of us have seen it in practice, 5v5 either is or isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be depending on who you ask. Plenty are happy Overwatch 2 feels like Overwatch 1, and others have been underwhelmed.
This list however, has little or nothing to do with those, and are instead some things I’d love to see in Overwatch no matter which version it is. Two are light-hearted (mmm, pizza) but the rest are things I find important, and a few are even things some of us have been asking for forever.
I was going to make a comment about the scoreboard, but we found out in a recent blog that outlined some of the changes coming to the scoreboard.
While numbered, they are presented here in no particular order.
When I booted up the game last week this was the first option I turned on and was surprised it was off. Maybe I’m just used to it in Overwatch 1 and it doesn’t need to be there, but gosh is it nice to hear. I’m glad it’s an option at least.
I think it’s commendable and a great goal for the default UI to be as unobtrusive as possible. That said, I also feel the user should get more say in what they do or don’t find unobtrusive. I don’t know if allowing mods like World of Warcraft does is in order, but I would certainly like the ability to customize the size of the kill feed, personal health bars, or even the location of the indicators such as Zenyatta’s orb targets.
With maps cycling between time of day, allow me to set day, night, and dawn/dusk presets. Better yet, allow me the option to set presets for each map. That might be a bit much, but advanced options like this would be amazing.
This one is silly. It took us far too long to get basketball respawns, so Blizzard please make sure on Midtown it doesn’t take years to get a pizza respawn button.
We’ve got the googly eyes that don’t stay long enough, but we also need the Push Bot moonwalk to come back during the event as well. (BadPachimari)
Guns in real life are loud. The guns in Overwatch 2 sound great! However, we are also in a video game and it’s much harder for me to hear things I need to hear. From enemy backcapping the point or Reaper walking up behind me, making no effort to be quiet, it can be so hard to things I should hear. And I know it’s not just a case of “git gud” because it’s not just me having trouble hearing some enemies. Let me adjust some of these things individually!
The current accessibility options in Overwatch are failing dramatically. While there are some options for some levels or degrees of color-blindness, those who could make use of such features have been calling for more options for years. For audio, while there are options to add subtitles, there is no in-game context for where the lines are spoken, and not being able to tune out line spammers is a failing. An enemy footstep indicator would be immensely helpful, and I know players who would benefit from an option to switch audio to mono without outside software.
A small arc to the top-right of the player shows an enemy is moving nearby in that direction. (image source: Polygon | Epic Games)