Overwatch 2 second beta impressions: Despite hiccups, things keep getting better and better

The Overwatch 2 beta wraps up on July 18, and despite a few areas left to iron out, things are actually coming together quite nicely when it comes to gameplay and overall feel.

Overwatch 2’s second beta came at a time of a lot of uncertainty about the upcoming sequel. The first beta period had left a lot of questions and laid bare plenty of issues with the new build.

However, the second beta has actually taken care of a lot of problems players had with the first playtest, and put to rest many fears about how the game will transition from 6v6 to 5v5 come October.

There are still plenty of areas to improve on, and balance issues to address, but if devs can keep fixing the things that need fixing like they have been, there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic about Overwatch 2.

What does Overwatch 2 need? Balance

We’ll start with what still needs work in Overwatch 2: balance. It’s great to see changes being made to heroes we know and love, but as it currently stands some are just massively OP compared to others (looking at you, Moira).

However, in Moira’s case it is somewhat understandable, as she’s gotten a massive rework to her kit that will take some time to tweak and get just right.

On the other side of things though is Sojourn. At the time of writing we’re a few days away from the end of the second beta, which means players have had time to play with her and get fairly proficient with her abilities.

In this author’s opinion, Sojourn is the most OP hero currently on the Overwatch 2 roster, and needs some serious work before October 4. There have been plenty of instances where a halfway-decent Sojourn is able to shred an entire enemy push, without even using her ultimate.

To put things simply: Sojourn is far too powerful, even for a damage hero. Her ability to one shot not just other DPS and Supports, but close to full health Tanks is simply overkill, and will make her a must-pick going forward unless something is done to rein her in.

What does Overwatch 2 do well? Fun!

Overwatch 2 does a great job at bringing back the feeling of fun from the early days of Overwatch that seems to have become harder to find in recent years.

There’s no doubt about it: Junker Queen is very fun to play, as well as the entire Tank role as a whole. You really feel like you’re putting the team on your back — though the long queue times can be a buzzkill.

Support also feels much more critical. If you don’t have both healers doing their jobs, it will be very easy for the enemy team to exploit this and punish your lone tank.

Sure, some of this fun might be chalked up to so much being new and could wear off as time goes on, but if you’ve played the beta as a returning Overwatch player, you’ve probably got a feeling of fun you haven’t in quite some time.

Hopefully, Blizzard can keep making the changes they need to in order for Overwatch 2 to be the roaring success we’ve been waiting for since 2019.