Right now Blizzard printed a prolonged Overwatch 2 Director’s Take addressing the Reinhardt-sized elephant within the room: whether or not or not the sequel ought to revert again to the unique sport’s 6v6 format. Written by sport director Aaron Keller, the large weblog publish traces again to Overwatch 1 and the main adjustments made all through its lifetime and up by the shift to 5v5 for the sequel, explaining Blizzard’s thought course of behind the franchise’s greatest changes. However by the top of the almost 4,000-word weblog publish, it’s clear that the staff remains to be struggling to outline Overwatch 2, which as soon as once more leads us again to the query: Why does it exist within the first place?
Overwatch 2 was initially meant to exist alongside the unique sport, bringing new PvE components and a shared multiplayer ecosystem throughout each titles. That modified moderately drastically forward of its October 2022 launch, a lot in order that Overwatch 1 was fully shut down and changed by the sequel. The promised PvE modes had been stripped down and was one thing far much less fascinating that we might by no means see extra of anyway, however its greatest controversy was the swap to a 5v5 staff composition moderately than the 6v6 construction that outlined the sport for six years.
The Overwatch 2 downside
As Keller outlines within the weblog publish, Overwatch has undergone three main gameplay adjustments since its 2016 launch: Hero Limits, which solely allowed one participant to play as any particular person hero, moderately than having the ability to stack a staff of six Genjis; Position Queue, which helped stability matches by forcing a 2-2-2 (two tanks, two DPS, two assist) format and dropped queue occasions; and 5v5. All of these adjustments have led to the place we’re right this moment, a spot that many really feel is stagnant and unenjoyable.
Position Queue ensures you’re not enjoying aggressive matches with no healers (which was extremely irritating within the authentic sport), however Keller acknowledges that this consistency made Overwatch “begin to really feel samey.” I’ve performed lots of of hours of aggressive Overwatch 2, and so lots of my matches have blurred collectively right into a streak of sameness. “May there be an in-between model that softens the unique issues with out fully fixing them and likewise isn’t fairly as reactive as our present Position Queue system?” Keller wonders.
Sadly, the shift to 5v5 additionally considerably flattened Overwatch 2’s gameplay. “The world of 6v6 may have actually excessive, highs however reaaaaally low, lows,” Keller wrote. “One of many design objectives of 5v5 was to attempt to elevate that ground, despite the fact that it was on the expense of a few of these excessive moments.” The 5v5 change eliminated the secondary tank function, which helps stop matches from getting stunlocked and drastically reduces queue occasions, but in addition basically alters the best way each single function is performed.
Help gamers, now not tasked with holding two large tanks afloat, should be extra aggressive, including their injury to an already high-damage pool due to the twin DPS characters. And the tank, moderately than having a secondary, or off-tank, to assist them, is now the most important hero on the sphere and the most certainly to bear the brunt of each enemy participant’s injury and utilities. Tanks now play to exist, to remain alive, moderately than playmake.
“Having two [tanks] allowed one to give attention to defending their backline whereas the opposite held floor or pushed into the enemy staff,” Keller writes about 6v6. “The tank function had a variety of depth in understanding find out how to work with the opposite tank on the staff.” And as Overwatch gamers have identified, so lots of the tanks’ current kits are tailor-made for 6v6 play, which too-often renders off-tank selections like Wrecking Ball fully unviable, particularly in aggressive matches.
The wrestle to stability tanks for 5v5 play has persevered for almost two years. In June, Blizzard admitted that tanks had been depressing to play after a injury hero passive weakened therapeutic and made them really feel like they had been fabricated from glass, and a subsequent tank-focused patch wildly overcorrected, making them far too highly effective.
“The previous 12 months and a half has proven us that there are points with balancing tanks for 5v5, as effectively [as 6v6],” the weblog publish reads. No shit.
5 versus six
The crux of what many gamers imagine is the problem with the 5v5 swap is that almost all of Overwatch 2’s characters, maps, and modes had been constructed for 6v6 play. Some counsel that Blizzard, moderately than making main adjustments like nerfing shields (which might render problematic Overwatch 1 metas like pirate ship ineffective), the staff simply pulled the second tank. Pulling that second tank removes freedom of alternative for tank gamers and robs us of the number of gameplay types and approaches that comes from discovering the right stability between two tanks.
It additionally places extra strain on the helps to maintain that singular tank afloat, whereas guaranteeing that DPS gamers have to decide on particular heroes to counter the singular, beefed-up enemy tank. To not point out the burden the singular tank participant has to bear—if they’ll’t sustain with the enemy tank, matches are wildly unfun for them and their squad.
Warring staff composition factions inside the Overwatch group are almost break up proper down the center, as evidenced by a March ballot from former OWL esports participant Jake Lyon, during which 51.9% of gamers mentioned they most popular 5v5 to the unique 6v6 supporters’ 48.1%. That nearly-even break up tells me one factor: that is extra about private choice than what’s objectively higher, as there are downsides to each codecs. As Keller writes within the weblog, “Our gamers have completely different opinions and preferences in regards to the ideally suited variety of gamers in an Overwatch match, and so does our staff.”
For extra versatile, top-down gamers, 5v5 is a superbly effective expertise, as they’ll simply swap between any character of their function’s roster to make sure the match is successful. For individuals like myself, a former Moira one-trick who expanded her assist roster to 5 or so strong picks, 5v5 can really feel extremely limiting—and due to this fact irritating. As Keller and others have made clear, there are professionals and cons to each variations of Overwatch’s core multiplayer mode. There’s no singular, simplistic answer to this downside that Blizzard has inadvertently created.
Now what?
Keller’s weblog publish is obvious: Blizzard is “centered on making 5v5 one of the best expertise that it may be.” However, the staff can also be “open-minded to re-evaluating our choices based mostly in your actions and suggestions.” As we’ve seen within the final 12 months or so, Blizzard has experimented with gameplay adjustments in its Fast Play: Hacked mode, together with growing the velocity of goal captures and payload motion (a change it finally stored within the sport). An upcoming Fast Play: Hacked will experiment with staff comps in methods “that aren’t fairly as inflexible as set composition however not as free as Open Queue.” However what about 6v6?
“We’re operating a sequence of occasions to check out completely different core staff composition codecs in Overwatch 2,” Keller guarantees. He doesn’t define what these occasions might be or what they’ll entail, however I don’t envy the work Blizzard must do if it plans on implementing 6v6 in any kind. As a lot as myself and different disgruntled Overwatch gamers wish to assume it’s so simple as providing each 6v6 and 5v5 Quickplay and Aggressive modes, there’s a lot occurring below the hood that would break.
Overwatch 2’s up to date UI and improved graphics may creak and pressure with the addition of two extra heroes in every match, and adjustments made to hero’s kits may really feel both completely balanced or wildly off relying on whether or not you’re in a 5v5 or 6v6 match. And Keller voices considerations with “opening Pandora’s field” in the case of queue occasions, which can doubtless enhance with the inclusion of an additional participant in your squad. “The staff was not capable of remedy this downside beforehand,” he admits. However would 6v6 loyalists even care that they’ve to attend longer to get their most popular sport mode again?
This newest Director’s Take guarantees that “this isn’t the final time [Blizzard will] be moving into 5v5 or 6v6,” so I’m certain the controversy will proceed on for a lot of extra months. I simply wish to get out of gold in assist, please.
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