The first week of the Overwatch 2 beta has flown by. From reworked heroes to new maps, fans have explored all there is regarding Overwatch 2 in the past seven days—and Blizzard is actively keeping track of their feedback.
Blizzard released a developer blog post today reflecting on the first week of the beta and some of the new features that it implemented. The devs also took some time to address some of the more pressing issues that players have noticed, including the look of the beta and feel of the support role.
The Overwatch 2 team noted that, overall, they are incredibly happy with the response of the beta’s initial week. The new game mode, Push, has been widely received by players and many are grateful that the overall pace of the game feels much faster. They put emphasis on the continued struggle of game balance, identifying that the new five-vs-five structure will take some time for the team and players to fully adjust to.
The team also commented on the lack of updated hero portraits, new hero models, and elements of the menu that are not in the live beta yet. The devs plan to gradually implement these changes and more updated UI elements in future betas since they may not be ready to test before the current beta closes on May 17.
Fans clamoring for a competitive mode in the Overwatch 2 beta will have to wait until the future due to the limited-player scale of the beta. Ranked modes are also an area that the team is actively overhauling and they have not yet created something ready for public testing. To compensate for this, “Quick Play Classic” will be incorporated into the current beta, allowing players to test any of the heroes they want without sitting in long role queues.
Blizzard believes that many of the heroes, in their current states, are healthy. But the devs echoed concerns of the Overwatch 2 community that support heroes are feeling sluggish with one less tank per team and the sheer speed of DPS heroes. To resolve this, the devs are looking at ways to improve the existing cast of support heroes as well as introduce new ones, though likely no major changes will be implemented in the current beta.
“In the near term, our hero design team is also experimenting with significant, but shorter lead time, ideas including new and refreshed abilities for some existing support heroes,” Blizzard said.
The scoreboard was the last highlight of the developer post, with the devs noting their content with its reception when it launched for the first time in the beta. Because of the confusion surrounding interpretations of Overwatch’s medal system, the team opted for this more descriptive scoreboard that provides information on both teams—while also keeping personal achievements at the bottom.
To provide players with further statistics on the scoreboard, Blizzard will be adding a “damage mitigated” column to show damage reduced among players. The devs are also looking at changing the fire system, as well as looking at a few aspects of its UI that may be difficult for players to understand.
The current Overwatch 2 beta is expected to end on May 17, though more betas have been confirmed for the future.
