Canada
United States
New Zealand
Australia
Ireland
- The Menu
- Characters List
- Game Types and Modes
- The User Interface
- Tips and Tricks
Overwatch 2 did finally release on the 4th of October 2022, and apart from some server traffic and a massive DDoS attack, seems to be one of the highest-played online shooters today.
And if you bought into the hype, as we have, there is still a solid shooter beneath all of the microtransactions and meta games. And although understanding a new shooter with all different mechanics and character types can be daunting, we have a solution for you!
Here is, in its entirety, all you will need to understand Overwatch 2 and start having fun with it!
How To Play Overwatch 2: The Menu
Once you boot into the game and log in with your credentials, you hit the main menu of the game. With so many options to choose from, it can seem overwhelming at first, but let’s break it down.
The first option is Play, which simply lets you into all of the game modes that you can explore. More on that later.
Next is Heroes. Here you can see all of the characters, and the cosmetics that you can unlock for them. Study this menu in detail to learn about your characters’ passives and abilities.
Next up are Shop and Battle Pass. The Shop is the in-game cosmetics destination where you can purchase items such as skins and other trinkets for your characters. These can be purchased with several in-game currencies.
The Battle Pass is the seasonal reward system that, upon its purchase, gives you exclusive in-game cosmetic rewards that are unavailable for purchase or access otherwise.
Finally, we come to Social, Career Profile and Challenges. Social is your social hub, where you can see your friends who are currently active and playing Overwatch, and other opponents or teammates that you have come across.
Career Profile is exactly what it says it is. It tracks in-game stats that you have achieved, such as the number of defeats you have and the number of games you have played.
Challenges are daily, weekly, seasonal and competitive tasks set by the game for you to accomplish, rewarding in-game currency for each task set completed.
In the bottom left corner, you can see your Options menu. This is for tweaking the settings according to your preferences and customizing things such as the controls and the video output resolution.
Overwatch 2 Guide: Characters
Overwatch 2 characters belong to three archetypes – Tank, Damage and Support.
Tank
Essentially the frontline of the game, Tanks are the strongest characters in the game by way of overall health.
They can take a lot of damage and become part of an organized defence or an all-out attack, depending on the individual and the character’s strengths and weaknesses.
Examples of Tanks are Junker Queen, Doomfist and the newest addition, Ramattra.
Damage
Damage characters are the most hard-hitting characters in the game, acting as the main source of all of your team’s attacks.
They have a standard health of 200 HP but often make up for their lack of health by dishing out a lot of hits for your team, and getting a lot of kills.
Examples of this archetype are Reaper, Sojourn and Symmetra.
Support
Considered the healers by conventional standards, the Support role extends beyond the boundaries of just healing allies.
Support characters are meant to assist in battle whenever and wherever necessary, along with making sure that the other team members stay alive with their various healing abilities. ‘
Examples of this archetype are Mercy, Moira (ha!) and Ana.
How to Play Overwatch 2: Game Types and Modes
Unranked
This is a playlist made up of Unranked games, where casual players can go in to have some fun and get some games in. Unranked is a great opportunity to learn the game in a relaxed, depressurized environment.
Competitive
The hardcore side of the game, this game mode is meant for people who are trying to take the game more seriously. Well, it has been named Competitive for a reason.
Arcade
Arcade is a collection of interesting, jumbled-up game modes, including the flavor of the month types. They are a more fun version of the regular Unranked, with different rules and characteristics.
Custom Games
As the name suggests, Custom Games are where you can have some real fun with your friends, creating game modes such as Genji Ball and Super Fest.
You can also create or participate in practice and training sessions set by players around the world.
Practice
The Practice mode comes with its own unique, exclusive map. This is where you come to get to grips with the overall game. And if you want to learn any different characters and get used to their abilities and cooldowns.
Experimental
Often, there are experimental modes and maps in the game to test them out before they are released as official additions to the base game.
Alongside those, we have several game modes.
Push
The objective of Push is to reach a robot at a junction point in a map and push it to the enemy spawn point. If you die while pushing it, and there is no one left on your team to continue or contest the push, the robot reverts and starts pushing for the enemy team.
Control
The primary objective of Control is to control a zone of the map that unlocks a while after you start the game. There is a percentage meter, and when it reaches 100% on either side, the respective side wins.
Escort
In Escort, the two teams are divided into different roles; attack and defense. Defenders start the game early, setting up their defense to get ready for the attackers to come charging in.
The objective of the defenders is to guard a zone, similar to control. If they succeed, they win the game, but if they lose, they have to defend again, against the attacking team which now escorts a vehicle into their spawn area.
The vehicle can be pushed back, but if it reaches the defensive spawn point, the attackers win.
The User Interface
When you load into a game of Overwatch and select a character, you will see a host of abilities as well as stats denoting ammo and weapons.
In the bottom left corner, you can see your selected character, your name and health. For some characters such as Reinhardt and Moira, there are no weapons, since they use active rechargeable or infinite abilities to attack.
In the bottom right corner, you can see all of the abilities that your selected character has, along with what weapon they use. Depending on whether the abilities are active or on cooldown, these tabs will change colors.
How To Play Overwatch 2: Beginner’s Guide
Ok, now let’s talk about some Overwatch 2 tips. These are a few basic things that almost every player needs to build some solid fundamentals in the game. And these tips will take you a long way in establishing yourself among the game’s best.
Decide Your Investment Early
Although it can be hard to judge exactly what you will want in the future from the game, it is important to set expectations for yourself and decide how much time, effort and money you are going to invest into it.
If you want the Battle Pass, or want to put in long hours to try to complete every challenge possible, that’s a decision that has to be taken early on in your playing cycle.
Take Challenges Seriously
No, they are not just for decoration. Challenges can help you gain in-game currency and other rewards for just playing the game.
Since challenges are also based around efficiency and capability, you need to set expectations here as well. Slowly and steadily, you will build up to it.
Experiment
Experimenting with play styles and characters will help you learn the game faster, and stop you from making any single character a crutch to rely on.
Of course, there are going to be characters that you are good at, and those that you prefer. But experimenting will get you those results much earlier than if you did not.
Play To Win
We can’t stress this enough. While individual accomplishments and sick plays might be a great motivating factor or a figurative plaque to display on your wall of fame, playing the objective is what will decide if you win or lose a game.
So instead of going on that flank and dying every time, try staying back and communicating with your team to achieve your shared goal of winning.
Remember, they want the same thing you do, but how you get there depends on a consensus and shared effort.
Practice Camaraderie
While it might be easy to blame your teammates or somebody else playing unfairly on the other team, understand that getting good at any game takes time, effort and discipline.
Before you send a long hate rant, try to figure out what you could have done better to help your team out.
Teamwork decides games, individuals can only decide encounters.
And that’s a wrap. This should be everything that you need. Now you do know how to play Overwatch 2.
We will also have an Overwatch 2 advanced guide for the more experienced batch around here, so stick around and stay tuned!
