Overwatch 2 has been taking a beating in Steam user reviews, and game director Aaron Keller has responded to that pummeling as part of a broader blog post discussing the release of the game's Invasion update.
"We also launched on Steam last week, and although being review-bombed isn't a fun experience, it's been great to see lots of new players jump into Overwatch 2 for the first time. Our goal with Overwatch 2 has been to make the game more accessible than ever for more people than ever before," Keller writes.
'Review bomb' is a bit of a loaded term, but it generally refers to semi-coordinated efforts to tank a game's overall user review score for reasons that are unrelated to the quality of the game. Many of the negative Overwatch 2 reviews on Steam are pointed squarely at the state of the game and the disappointment around the cancellation of the much larger PvE mode the game was supposed to be built around.
Keller acknowledges that point in today's blog, though he doesn't go much deeper on it. "Many of the reviews on Steam mention the cancellation of the much larger component of PvE that was announced in 2019 as one of their primary reasons for dissatisfaction with the game," he says. "I get that. That announcement was about an ambitious project that we ultimately couldn't deliver."
Admittedly, there's a certain memelord glee to the tone and volume of the game's Steam reviews, with no shortage of references to the relative quality of the game versus the porn it's inspired. Even if a big chunk of the fanbase is unhappy with the state of Overwatch 2, is it really the worst game ever released on Steam, as user reviews seem to suggest?
There's another angle here that might not be obvious if you're reading this English-language article: a large portion of the negative Overwatch 2 reviews were written by Chinese players. As Asian games market analyst Daniel Ahmad pointed out on Twitter earlier this week, Chinese players have been venting about Blizzard's poor handling of the game's infrastructure in that region. They've even been dropping positive reviews for another bottom-of-the-barrel Steam game to ensure Overwatch 2 remains the worst-rated. At this point, that sure sounds like a proper coordinated review bomb.
Either way, Keller leaves the blog with an optimistic tone: "If we can’t turn back the clock, then what can we do? We can keep adding to and improving Overwatch 2. That is how we move forward. This means more maps, heroes, game modes, missions, stories, events, cool cosmetics, and features - an ever-expanding, evolving, and improving game."
There are only a few concrete notes in the blog, including the fact that Illari is likely to get some adjustments, "most likely to her Healing Pylon and Ultimate," before her introduction to ranked mode on August 24. The devs are also looking for more feedback on Flashpoint, and hope to add ranked matches to the mode "sooner rather than later."
Earlier this month, Keller addressed Overwatch 2 balance criticisms more broadly.
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