1 to 10 how would you rate what you saw so far in OW2 beta ?
Have in mind following things:
time invested to build what we were shown so far
amount of content that was brought to us
direction game is taking
does it feel good playing
I’ll go first:
solid 4 out of 10
For game that has been at least 3 years in development, and skipped concept phase since concept was already grasped by OW1 I feel like even if they served us 10 new maps and 5 new heroes it would still be underwhelming. I would really like to know how many people are working on the game since pace seems super slow.
Direction feels sloppy as well as gameplay, personally I dislike 5v5 and smaller new maps, while old ones seem too large. The joy of outplaying someone is not there, fights last too short, and for every balanced hero there are 3 completely broken - either too good or bad.
As for good things I like orisa and doom rework, they seem fun to play (exclude balance).
Surely, things might look a lot different once PVE, new matchmaker, clans and generally more new content is added, but so far - does not look like a new 60$ or even 30$ game, just larger patch with few maps, heroes and graphic engine update.
The UI and Sound definitely need more changes
The gameplay is stupidly fun until you got a match with Koreans, then the objective went from “Have Fun” to “Survive”
Trust me, you fight against Koreans long enough and you will beg for mercy.
And they also do a weekly blog now, so that’s nice I guess.
The time invested is about a year not 3. The majority of work team 4 has been doing has been pve which is not in the beta.
Amount of content being brought is 4 reworks and 1 new hero. That I believe is pushing the limits of any major release. When testing things you don’t want to test too many things or you won’t be able to give objective feedback. This beta risked too much new too quickly.
Direction is 5v5 which looks fun and fast paced. Also weekly updates with developer feed back is extremely refreshing.
Unfortunately as a console plebe I did not get to play so I can not say if it was fun or not so I’ll reserve judgement until I can.
I like the direction 5v5 has taken, I like the reduction (but not complete removal) of CC, I like most of the new maps although push kind of left me with a “meh”.
I like some of the new UI, but not the character select. I miss the old ult meter, but I do like the increase in time it takes to farm ults.
I don’t mind the new colour scheme, but I don’t think it was needed and I do think it takes away a little from OW’s identity.
I like the speed of matches, and I like that it pushes you to have to try harder. I can understand why some people don’t like that though.
I like the speed in which Blizzard has been trying to balance things, although I’m wishy-washy on some of those changes.
I’m not entirely sure going ahead with OWL on this beta was a great idea, but at the same time it’s nice to see what potential the 5v5 format has, as an expirement.
I like the scoreboard, but only because I know toxicity will always be there, it’s just nice to have a broader picture of what’s going on. For analytical and calm-minded people it’s interesting, if not useful.
Toxicity in my matches, as anecdotal as it’s been, after about 20+ some odd hours has been minimal. Of course, we don’t have a ranked system yet. Having gone back to play ranked on OW1 most matches last night, as an example, had some kind of negativity involved on one of either team if not both, however sometimes that can be a blessing/fun, if it isn’t too ridiculous.
And the Doom rework isn’t perfect, yet, but dramatically better than my expectations. Probably could be perfect with a bit more lethality.
Sombra rework is great. And makes the hero less annoying and more fun at the same time. And just generally more useful in the way people actually want to play her.
Bastion rework is good, which is still a bit off, but compared to solid F tier, that’s pretty amazing. Needs tweaking.
Mei/Brig reworks felt like necessary evils, and need revised later.
Skipping the rest of the Supports reworks was a good idea to ship code in time all this, and to have a somewhat polished/playtested version for OWL to start on
Sojourn basically feels like a character built to steal away Apex players, who are constantly slide jumping, and shooting full auto guns that are actually hitscan, except for the BFG Kraber sniper rifle, along with the area denial grenade from Fuse
Hog, Ult changes are great, but he can’t frontline because of Ana. But that’s fixable. (I.e. Give his selfheal a cleanse)
The rapid patches, and blog posts, those were exactly the right things to do, to make the community feel heard, and not let their fears spiral out of control. Damn that part was a relief.
Zen changes were surprisingly good and fun. Hey, you remember what “Fun” used to feel like?
Ana changes…well at least it was something, but I feel like they should skip a rework until after launch. Given the possibility of screwing it up, and the whole game getting unhinged without some sort of stun outside the Tank role.
Mercy changes, really buggy, but probably the right idea
Bap changes seem like a little too much, but if they took some power out of either that self heal or lamp, it’s getting there.
Moira/Lucio self heal changes were good, but probably need to be doubled