Overwatch 2 is finally bringing back 6v6 with tests to decide OW’s future

simple@lemm.ee to Games@lemmy.world – 169 points – Overwatch 2 is finally bringing back 6v6 with tests to decide OW’s future - Dexerto
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Lol. After all these years they're thinking of rolling back the 5v5 changes. To quote someone from Reddit:

PVE was dropped, heroes are free again, and now 6v6 is back. Blizzard spent the last couple of years turning overwatch 2 back into Overwatch 1.

Edit: See also the developer's blog post about this, which goes into great detail explaining their decisions over the year and how we got here. Really worth a read if you are (or were) an OW player.

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I'm glad they're looking into 6v6, but I honestly like 5v5 better. Queue times are short, games play quick, and it's easier to keep track of what's going on. It does put a lot of pressure on the solo tank, but not so much that I don't enjoy playing tank.

I'm more interested to see where they go with some of the other queue changes they mentioned. If they can add some more flexibility than "1-2-2 only" in a way that doesn't totally break team comp, that could be a lot of fun!

Personally I get why 5v5 was done, but I utterly hate it. It removes all the things that made Overwatch 1 so cool compared to other FPS to me:

  • Slow TTK as a result of two tanks in front of the team.
  • High focus on healing, as someone who enjoys playing healers in all games this was heaven to me.
  • Lower focus on personal damage contribution and aim, as syncing ults, creating trap spots and selectively bursting targets was how you got kills, not just aiming.

In total, this resulted in me and my friends easily having a game we could all enjoy on a few characters each (me on Moira, Mercy, Torbjörn, Symmetra and Bastion, for example) and talk shit while just playing the entire evening.

This whole "social" spirit was lost as they slowly pitched the balance towards faster and faster TTK, and ultimately with 5v5. It's a "competitive FPS" now, but honestly, I don't need a competitive FPS. Never did. I did however need a social fun low-stakes FPS, back when OW1 came out. And that spot is no longer filled, sadly.

I completely gave up on the game after they killed the PvE / skill plans for 2 (around Lifeweaver launch), but I played quite a lot of 2 from launch and agree. I really like 5v5 and team structure wise to me the game felt in a great place with the change.

My guess is that they’re still bleeding players and looking for any shot in the arm to bring the oldheads back

Double tank was such a pain in the ass. The new tanks were built to solo tank. It will require an almost 100% tear down and rebuild to get back to 6v6.

I mean, they can undo the buffs to the other tanks, and do the equivalent nerfs to the new tanks.

Yea I actually really like 5v5. It changed the pace of the game to something that I actually like compared to Overwatch 1. That said, the game still failed to keep my interest weeks after release so maybe I'm really just not part of their target audience.