Overwatch 2 Release Date, Features, What to Expect (Free or Paid?)

Overwatch was one of the biggest launches of 2016 when it came out. The game promptly took the gaming industry by storm and I remember any game anyone would talk about was Overwatch. The game had amassed widespread mainstream appeal mere days after its launch. One of the reasons for Overwatch’s success was the name of its developer. This was Blizzard’s first new IP in almost a decade and fans were over the moon excited for the game.

Fast forward a few years and while Overwatch isn’t dead or forgotten yet. The game has lost a lot of its players over time. But this isn’t a history lesson on Overwatch, this is about its previously announced sequel Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2 was announced back in 2019 during Blizzcon and while the game still hasn’t been out, Blizzard themselves has shown off a lot of new content regarding Overwatch 2 at nearly every Blizzcon event. Below you can find everything there is to know about the upcoming Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2 Release Date

Overwatch 2 was announced back in 2019 without any actual release date, 3 years after its announcement while there hasn’t been a confirmed release date for the game. The game is launching for a closed beta on April 26. This confirms we can expect Overwatch 2 to release sometime later this year, if no further delays come up.

Closed Beta Content

The closed beta will launch with the following content on April 26:

• All maps from Overwatch 1 alongside 4 brand new maps made for Overwatch 2.
• New Hero: “Sojourn”.
• New Push Mode.
• Hero Reworks of Orisa, Doomfist, Bastion and Sombra.
• A new Ping system similar to games like Apex Legends.
• 5v5 instead of 6v6 like it was in OW1.

Players who want to opt-in for the Closed Beta can sign up here.

Overwatch 2 Features

Since its announcement, a lot of brand new content for Overwatch has been shown off, from a full-fledged PvE story mode where you play as certain heroes with their own dedicated skill trees to new maps and game modes.

PvE:

The biggest addition for OW2 is the co-op PvE story mode. Overwatch 2 will launch with a proper PvE story mode that players can play co-op with up to 4 players. This mode works similarly to something like Left 4 Dead where players will have to take on various missions alongside their time and fight through hordes of normal enemies while completing objectives.

Players will also be able to earn EXP and level up through a skill tree for each individual hero so we can likely expect a great deal of replayability and longevity from this mode.

Skill-Tree:

Every playable hero in Overwatch 2’s PvE mode will have a dedicated skill tree that customizes their playstyle in PvE, these changes will not carry into online PvP matches. The skill tree features a ton of interesting new skills that heavily alters how a hero plays. For example, May has a skill that can let her turn into an iced bowling ball.

New Maps:

Overwatch 2 will be launching with a new array of maps for it. One of the complaints with Overwatch 1 later during its life cycle was its lack of new maps and it seems OW2 is going to alleviate on the map. The Closed beta will launch with 4 brand new maps for the game with more to come on release.

New Hero – “Sojourn”:

Overwatch 2 is also introducing a brand new hero into the fray with Sojourn. Sojourn will be yet another DPS character for Overwatch as the pile of DPSes ever increases with every new hero. The developers have just released the following brand new gameplay trailer for their new hero:

Hero Rebalancing:

Following on complaints from a lot of players, Overwatch 2 is going to significantly rebalance a lot of the heroes in the game to be more powerful and relevant in the game’s current meta. Balancing had always been one of the most highly criticized aspects of Overwatch and I really hope that Blizzard can successfully tune the balancing in Overwatch 2.

Another thing Blizzard mentioned for Overwatch 2 is how certain roles are going to be altered to make every playstyle enjoyable. Healers are going to be tankier, tanks can also deal a hefty amount of damage and function as secondary DPSes and DPS characters are generally going to be faster and more rewarding for that aggressive playstyle.

Along with Rebalancing also comes new redesigns, the base look of every returning hero in Overwatch 2 has been slightly altered to imply that players are actually playing a sequel instead of an expansion pack.

Will Overwatch 2 Be Free To Play?

Just like Overwatch 1, Overwatch 2 will not be free to play. While there have been rumors of the first game going F2P for a while now, none of these rumors have been confirmed as of yet. Overwatch 2 is currently not available for digital pre-orders but can be bought through Battle.net for players who want to get it as soon as it is available.

As for the price, we can likely assume that Overwatch 2 will be at a similar price point as the first game. Overwatch 1 was $40 on release with an additional Origins Edition that included some very neat exclusive skins. We can expect Overwatch 2 to be in a somewhat similar ballpark in terms of pricing.

Is Overwatch Still Worth Playing?

We highly recommend giving Overwatch a shot. Despite not being the giant that it was in its early years, Overwatch is still a very entertaining game that I myself dumped over a thousand hours into.

While the game is starting to stagnate with a lack of new content, newcomers will have plenty of content to chew through if they buy the game today because of the huge assortments of newly added heroes, maps, and game modes.

Role Queue still sucks though.

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And that’s all you need to know about the upcoming launch of Overwatch 2. We hope to see you in the beta very soon on April 26. If you found this guide helpful consider checking out our other content in our Guides Section!