Review: Overwatch 2 explained to parents

Overwatch 2 Featured Ecran Partage

What parents need to know

Overwatch 2 is a first-person shooter that is played as a team in matches between 5 players and 5 others.

Jump into the fast-paced and fast-paced action of Overwatch 2’s competitive matches between two squads of heroes and heroines with complementary abilities. Choose your character and use your skills to attack or defend a variety of objectives.

You don’t have to have played Overwatch 1 to play Overwatch 2. However it helps to understand the game, unfortunately Overwatch 1 is no longer available at all and has been replaced by the 2 everywhere.

Overwatch 2 is a competitive multiplayer game. Players choose characters to attack or defend an objective. When players die, they can often reappear relatively quickly afterwards. The main objectives are to defend or attack an area, or to accompany a robot or convoy to its destination, escorting it to advance.

The characters in the game normally have a role to play within a team: some characters like Mercy and Ana heal their allies, others, like Reinhardt or Roadhog have more life and protect their team, while others have powerful weapons and are tried to kill members of the other team, like Cassidy or Soldier: 76. They are divided into 3 categories: Defense, Attack and Support.

The different characters have skills like explosives, fortifications, reconnaissance gadgets, or specialized weapons, which different players must use to win each round.

Overwatch 2 Gameplay 1 Screen Sharing
Overwatch 2 Gameplay 1 Screen Sharing

Details

Release date: October 4, 2022

Developed by: Blizzard Entertainment
Published by: Blizzard Entertainment
Available on: PC Battle.net, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch

Type of game: FPS, competitive
Average game time: 15 minutes

Estimate of the total duration of the game: Infinite

Themes: Fights, action.

Business model: Free to download and play. Has many in-app purchases.

Number of players:
1 player per console or PC.
2 teams of 5 players online. 10 players per game.

Available in digital format (download).

AgeNeophytesIntermediateExperienced
3+
7+
12+
16+
18+
Requires knowing how to move and aim at high speed in a 3D environment. After a time of adaptation, the game can become exciting. Matches can become very competitive and there is level among online players.
Violence, fear, nudity?
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Presence of violence. The characters shoot themselves with guns, knives, grenades. Remote or hand-to-hand combat. However, there are no blood splashes. Everything is done to make it look like cartoons.

Minimum reading level required
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Ask to read.

Language level used
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The language level of the game is approachable for the youngest and teenagers. The characters do not utter insults or refer to adult themes. Players from both teams can use the microphone feature or built-in chat to communicate inappropriate messages. Be warned.

Positive message
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Overwatch 2 represents a variety of characters and encourages teamwork. The characters offer a wide variety of ethnic and physical diversity.

Difficulty
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Because of its competitive online environment, to become good in the game, you have to learn the strategies in addition to learning the controls. Players on a team must work together to succeed.

Minimum level of execution on the controller required
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The character can use weapons and skills. Several buttons are used and you have to know them well to defeat the opponents. Combat in Overwatch 2 is fast-paced and requires the player to adapt. All the buttons of the controllers are used, require good coordination and good reflexes.

On consoles, there are not enough keys for all the functions of the game, some are hidden behind menus. On console, there is also another problem, with the characters Echo, Mercy and Pharah, you can usually hover in the air, holding the jump button. Except that in a game where you have to avoid opposing shots while aiming and fighting back, it is impossible to have the same finger on the jump button, and on the right stick with the default configuration.

Fortunately, it is possible on Nintendo Switch to use the gyroscope built into the console/controller to aim while hovering. On Playstation, Xbox, and Switch, it is possible to reconfigure all the buttons. You can put the jump button on one of the triggers and put one of the powers on one of the front buttons of the controller instead.

For now, and unlike Fortnite , it is not possible to play keyboard and mouse on console.

Additional costs ?
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The game is free, but it was very expensive to create. So developers need to use aggressive monetization tactics in order to make money and enjoy their work.

We have dedicated a page specifically to this monetization in order to lighten this test.

Local game modes

Overwatch 2 doesn’t have modes that play solo. The game is exclusively online and requires a constant internet connection.

Online gaming modes

Overwatch 2 is free to download so there’s no need for an online subscription on your console to play it.

You must create or use a Blizzard Battle.net account to play.

The game is cross-play/cross-platform, Playstation, Xbox, Switch, and PC players can play with each other. However by default, console players play with each other, and PC with each other, because the comfort and speed of execution provided by the keyboard and mouse of the PC provides a disadvantage for console players. However, it is possible to play with friends on all platforms.

The basis of Overwatch 2 is its multiplayer mode, where two teams of five players compete against each other. There are several ways to play this mode.

“Uncategorized” mode

The player joins a team, chooses a character and must defend or attack the objective. This mode is a way to play without the pressure of the competitive mode, but some players are still demanding of their allies.

“Competitive” mode

The player joins a team, chooses a character and must defend or attack the objective. This mode includes a ranking system, which places the player with players of similar caliber.

Mode Arcade

Many game modes with fancy rules compared to the traditional modes mentioned above. Their availability varies every day.

Overwatch 2 Arcade Games Screen Modes Sharing
Overwatch 2 Arcade Games Screen Modes Sharing

Training mode

Has a tutorial, shooting range and training against opponents controlled by the computer/console.

Overwatch 2 Training Modes Screen Sharing
Overwatch 2 Training Modes Screen Sharing

Personalized parts

Play with the rules you want, change the game principle thanks to the very powerful rule modification tool.

Does not count for player rankings.

Conclusion

Overwatch 2 has been a very popular game since its release. Parents should be warned about its methods of making people spend as well as about its themes. The game is recommended for teenagers, because of the lack of adult themes. An excellent competitive game with fast and intoxicating gameplay.

It is a very good game that has benefited from more than 9 years of development and iteration thanks to its version 1.

For people who want to land in the game now, the fact that it is now free, will help a lot. However, there are currently 35 heroes in the game, and it will take a lot of play to understand the powers, their effects, their scopes of each of them to avoid losing too often.

Overwatch 2 Hero Gallery Screen Sharing
Overwatch 2 Hero Gallery Screen Sharing

The heroes are fantastic, varied, very well designed and everyone will be able to find pleasure with one or more of them.

Overwatch 1 players will not be disoriented, only 3 new heroes are available, and some new maps are explorable. The new maps are fabulous and represent varied, known and colorful environments.

There is a way to have a lot of fun with this game, as it is well designed. For now, monetization is present but not yet forced.

The developers and publishers of the game want to acquire many new users. Once they are acquired to the game, the tactics to make them pay will multiply.

Overwatch 2 is a GaaS, a Game-as-a-Service, a game considered a service. It will constantly receive new content over several years, as long as the user pool is considered large enough by Blizzard, the publisher to pay people to work on it.

Game tested on PC, Playstation 5, and Nintendo Switch in its version: 2.1.0.1.106172.

More information about the game: Official website of the game

About Marc Shakour

Former video game programmer, columnist, teacher, competitor ... Marc has always been very familiar with the world and industry of video games. He decided to help neophytes about it, to discover new universes, worlds and fantastic creatures.

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