Overwatch 2 is a first-person shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. As a sequel to Overwatch, the game intends a shared environment for player-versus-player (PvP) modes while introducing persistent cooperative modes. A major change in PvP modes was to reduce team sizes from six to five, which required several characters to be reworked. Overwatch 2 is free-to-play on the Nintendo Switch in early access as of October 4, 2022 and features full cross-platform play.
Overwatch 2 is a hero shooter, where players are split into two teams and select a "hero" from a roster of 35 characters. Characters are organized into a "damage" class, responsible for offensive efforts; a "support" class, responsible for healing and buffing; and a "tank" class, responsible for the team's protection. Each character has a unique set of skills, made up of active, passive, and an ultimate ability. Overwatch 2, like its predecessor, primarily centers on player versus player (PvP) combat across several different modes and maps, and includes both casual and ranked competitive matches.
A major departure from the first game was the choice to remove a tank slot per team thus reducing teams to five players. According to game director Aaron Keller, developers hoped that losing a tank would speed up gameplay as they believed that the original six players scheme rendered gameplay slow. It is also intended to ease the amount of things players and spectators need to watch out for. New maps were designed to include more cover options to compensate for reduced tank-based protection. Additionally, Damage heroes now have an increased movement speed and Support heroes slowly regenerate, while Tank heroes were redesigned so they could take on a more offensive role. Heroes were visually refurbished as to reflect the few years of in-game time that has passed since the events of the first game.
