Overwatch 2 Introduces Radical Changes, Adds More Player Choice, More Chaos

Sometimes, Overwatch 2’s support ace Ana Amari just wants to Nano Boost herself. The ultimate ability grants a burst heal alongside a damage boost and a reduction to incoming damage, making it a versatile combat tool that can totally turn the tables on the enemy team. But Ana can’t “nano” herself. 

At least, not until next week. 

With the launch of Season 15 on Feb. 18, Overwatch 2 is adding a new ability-upgrade mechanic that changes how heroes work. It’s arguably the biggest shakeup to the game since it launched in 2022. Players can now set hero perks, which are pickable bonuses unique to each hero that alter their abilities or other gameplay. Perks come in two stages, minor and major, with the former making a slight change to your kit and the latter substantially changing what you’ll be able to do.

One of Ana’s major perk options, “Shrike,” also applies the Nano Boost to Ana whenever she uses it on a teammate. Sure, it increases the value of your ultimate because you essentially double the casts, but it also significantly increases your strategic options. Traditionally, you cast a Nano Boost on any teammate who’s actively fighting because it makes them kill enemies faster while also making them harder for enemies to kill.

But with the Shrike perk? Sure, that same option still applies. But you can also use it for the burst healing and damage reduction on yourself, potentially saving yourself when the enemy team jumps you. Or you can find a flank angle on your enemies and use the Nano Boost to threaten major damage from yourself and whichever teammate you’ve boosted. You can even use your ultimate on the first ally you see just to give yourself a significant advantage in a 1v1.

Perks and new Stadium mode give players lots of choices

Perks are arguably the biggest change announced in the Overwatch 2 Spotlight developer update, and players will be start choosing them in quick play and competitive modes when the new season begins. But the game’s developers also announced a surprising variety of changes coming over the course of the year, including new game modes, new heroes, hero bans and map votes alongside the usual news of new cosmetics. 

It’s a precarious time for Overwatch. After years of being the de facto king of hero shooters, the game found itself with a formidable challenger when Marvel Rivals launched in December. Rivals offered fans familiar superhero faces, plus new features like third-person perspective, destructible environments, team-up abilities as well as hero bans at higher ranks in competitive mode. It also used the same 6v6 open-queue team structure that Overwatch had at launch before eventually moving to role-specific queues and later dropping a player on teams in favor of a 5v5 format. 

Rivals was an immediate success, hitting 20 million players just a couple of weeks after launch. Suddenly, Overwatch had serious competition for its players. The changes announced today weren’t whipped up in two months, but they still feel like Overwatch making a statement that it’s willing to adapt and give players more and new reasons to play this game. Perks, for example, give existing players new ways to engage with the game and overall make it a more dynamic experience because you’re picking your own perks as well as reacting and adapting to the ones chosen by teammates and enemies. 

Is it a risk? Yes. Will it need tuning and adjustments as players figure out optimal perks? Yes. But I’d much rather see the game take big swings like this instead of letting the game rust over while newer games take the spotlight.

The new Stadium game mode, which will launch with Season 16 sometime in April, offers even more customization, adding MOBA-like progression elements to the game. Players will queue for their preferred role in a best-of-seven format that rotates multiple maps and game modes into each match. And between each round, players will spend time in a shop where they can buy items and powers for their heroes, substantially changing the ways those characters play. It also allows the option of playing in a first- or third-person perspective. 

Again, this a major departure from the game that launched almost a decade ago. But live service games need to adapt. Maybe Stadium will flop, or maybe it will be Overwatch’s Fortnite: Battle Royale moment. The only way to find out is to put it out there and see what players think.

Because it’s a fundamentally different game mode than traditional Overwatch, Stadium will launch with its own ranked mode. It will only launch with 14 playable heroes out of the game’s current 42-hero roster, with more being added over time. 

Season 16 will also introduce hero bans to competitive mode — a feature the community has been asking for and debating for years. Later in the year, the game will also allow players to vote on maps when entering a match. 

All of these changes speak to one theme: More player choice. “We wanted to find new ways to challenge and delight our players, and giving you more in-game choice seemed like the perfect solution,” said Alec Dawson, Overwatch’s lead game designer in a blog post. “Enter Perks — a system that allows us to inject a layer of strategy into each match without completely reinventing the game you know and love.” 

Whether it’s the banning an overpowered hero from your competitive match, voting to skip your least-favorite map, playing an entire game mode built around building out your hero’s kit or just giving yourself the option to Nano Boost yourself as Ana, these changes are putting a lot more choice in your hands.

What else to expect from Overwatch 2

In addition to the more groundbreaking changes, Overwatch also teased the more standard suite of upcoming heroes and cosmetics. The next new hero, Freja, a crossbow-wielding bounty hunter, will be playable in a trial later in season 15 before her official release in season 16. She appears to be a damage hero with mobility. 

Later this year, in season 18 (expected in August-ish), we’ll also get a new hero codenamed “Aqua,” who will have the ability to change the battlefield with his water abilities. 

Upcoming seasons will also introduce mythic skins for Zenyatta, D.Va and Juno, as well as weapon skins for Mercy, Reaper and Widowmaker. 

The new competitive weapon rewards replacing last year’s jade weapons are galactic weapons — astral purple weapons that seem to shimmer with the light of stars. 

The unlikely return of loot boxes

Loot boxes are back. The original game used loot boxes as its distribution system for cosmetics — if you wanted a new skin or spray, you had to buy loot boxes and pray until you eventually got what you wanted. Over time, though, as loot boxes became easier to unlock and as the game added duplicate protections, longtime players could reliably get new cosmetics from just a few, often free-to-earn boxes. 

Overwatch 2 is introducing loot boxes as weekly and event rewards, as well as legendary loot boxes (with guaranteed legendary items) in the free and premium battle passes.

Overwatch 2 is fighting for its future

As someone who’s played the game for eight years, watched metas come and go, survived a multi-year content drought, and watched its popularity rise and fall, I think this is one of the most important moments in Overwatch’s history. There’s a lot in these announcements, even if the changes aren’t all dropping at once, and they’ll substantially shift the feel of things over the course of the year.

My take: This is good for the game. 

Yes, things like perks and the Stadium mode are going to make the game much more complex and chaotic. But, honestly, this game could use a little more chaos. Part of what has made Marvel Rivals so successful, in my opinion, is that it evokes a sense of unbridled chaos that’s very similar to the early days of Overwatch.

Left unchecked, that chaos can make a game feel impossible to parse, or make it feel like victory is entirely out of your control. But just the right amount of chaos makes things fun. It keeps you on your toes. It makes everything feel fresh and different, and that’s what this game needs right now.

The Nano-Boosted Ana is coming for you.