Overwatch: Classic has me reckoning with the fact that OG Overwatch kind of sucks, but also that Blizzard could learn a few lessons from it

Maybe Overwatch was bad. Maybe 2016 was a fluke and Blizzard’s hero shooter wasn’t worth spending the next eight years of my life sinking somewhere around 3,000 hours into it. Getting hooked from another planet by OG Roadhog or frozen solid by a Mei has me questioning why I ever thought this game had it all those years ago.

But then I get into a match where I’m the Roadhog or the Mei and the quirks of old Overwatch become a reminder of what it was like before rigorous balance changes snuffed out most of its charm.

Overwatch: Classic tore the rose-colored glasses off of me quickly. All it took was a couple matches getting overrun by three tanks or erased by a Widowmaker sniping me across the map to realize I remember a very different game. Blizzard didn’t even let me blame it on small inaccuracies in its recreation of Overwatch as it was the day it launched. Not only is every hero in the exact state they started in—Mercy has her resurrected ultimate back and D.Va dies to her own mech explosion—but obscure bugs techniques like Genji’s ledge dash are back too.

Esports writer and shitposter Bonnie Qu said it best: “If they released OW: Classic to make us realize how much better we have it now, it lowkey worked.” This was my exact thought while playing Roadhog and getting hit with every type of bullet in the game just trying to catch someone with his hook. It doesn’t matter if you’re a tank, every hero explodes as soon as a team sets their sights on them. Overwatch 2 can feel oppressive as a support, but the complete lack of burst healing and life-saving abilities in Overwatch: Classic makes everyone surprisingly fragile.

And the lack of mobility across the roster slows the pace of the game down to a crawl. When you don’t have heroes flying and sliding around like in Overwatch 2, everything just takes longer. But if you step out of cover too long, you’re toast. Timing your engagements is significantly more important in Overwatch: Classic because punishment for mistakes is so swift, which means if you watch these matches from a bird’s-eye-view, the heroes move like chess pieces. As Roadhog, I had to mentally go through a checklist of things that would kill me before making a move. You can imagine how hard that is when there are six heroes to keep track of, each with cooldowns I definitely don’t remember anymore.

Part of me thinks that the MOBA-like complexity Overwatch used to have is kind of beautiful. There’s still something deeply satisfying about playing Mercy and swooping in to resurrect three of your teammates while the enemies are busy fleeing from your Mei’s mini snowstorm. Or being the Zarya who knows exactly when to barrier her co-tank from certain death to supercharge her gun and melt the entire enemy team. Every little decision can lead to a big impact capable of turning the whole match around.

Then you screw one of those decisions up and watch helplessly as the enemy team takes turns shoveling dirt over your corpse. Overwatch: Classic’s rigid, rock-paper-scissors interactions are why Blizzard killed the original game and replaced it with a faster, smoother sequel. Simple things, like letting Roadhog move and heal himself whenever or giving Mercy the option to cut her flight short and slingshot in a different direction, make Overwatch 2 a significantly more intuitive game to play.

The cost, of course, is losing how distinct Overwatch used to be. You don’t get a hero like D.Va with an ability that deletes projectiles out of the air in a game where just shooting at your enemy first would solve the problem faster. Overwatch had to be a tactical FPS first so Overwatch 2 could soften those ideas for players who can’t be bothered to study every ability interaction to have fun. I think Overwatch 2 went too far, particularly with reworks to heroes like Sombra and new modes like Clash, but I can see how we got here. Overwatch 2 is simply an easier game to jump into and play and not have to worry about following every rule.

But I kind of miss some of those rules now that I’ve played Overwatch: Classic. I miss having powerful ultimates up more than twice a match; I miss thinking it’s all over a second before your Mercy revives your team for one more push; I miss having more than one tank on my side. Overwatch: Classic can be a nightmarish reminder of what we used to have, but it’s also a great example of what Overwatch 2 has been missing for the last two years, and I hope Blizzard is taking notes.