Review
Overwatch 2
Superb character design and gunfeel, undercut by broken promises and a monetisation model built on the ashes of a better one.
No. 16 in The Noteworthy 50 · Hero Shooter
Marvel Rivals
The hero shooter Overwatch fans wanted, delivered by the licence nobody expected to get it right.
Marvel Rivals arrived in December 2024 into a genre most people considered settled, and immediately took a large bite out of Overwatch 2's audience by doing two things right: it was generous, and it was fun before it was balanced. The characters hit hard, the ultimates are spectacular, and the licence is used with real affection rather than as a skin over generic kits.
The mechanical hooks are good. Destructible environments mean cover is temporary and a Hulk can restructure a chokepoint. Team-up abilities give small clusters of characters bonus interactions, which quietly encourages coherent drafting without a hard role queue. The third-person camera is a genuine differentiator from Overwatch, opening up peeking angles and making melee characters far more viable than a first-person view allows.
The balance problem
It is the biggest open question. NetEase patches frequently, but the swings have been dramatic, and the absence of role queue means a team that draft six damage characters is free to do so and lose. Overwatch went through exactly this argument a decade ago and eventually added role queue for good reasons. Rivals is betting that chaos is a feature.
A year and a half in, the audience has settled well below the launch peak — normal for any free launch of this size — but at a level that supports healthy matchmaking. The non-expiring battle pass remains one of the genuinely pro-player decisions in the category. The verdict is provisional but positive: this is the most fun the hero shooter genre has been since Overwatch's first two years.
What works
- Character kits are inventive and true to the source material
- Destructible environments add real tactical texture to fights
- Team-up abilities create genuine synergy incentives when picking
- Battle pass never expires — buy it, finish it whenever
What doesn't
- Balance swings hard between patches; some characters have been oppressive for months
- No role queue means team composition is a permanent argument
- Third-person camera favours certain characters and angles unfairly
- Long-term content cadence is still unproven
The Catch — what it will cost you
Unusually player-friendly: the battle pass does not expire, so buying it does not put you on a clock. Cosmetics are priced steeply but no power is sold. The main risk is not financial — it is whether NetEase sustains the content pipeline once the launch surge fades.
Who it's for: Lapsed Overwatch players and anyone who has ever wanted to play as Jeff the Land Shark.
If you like this
Review
Valorant
The best-run tactical shooter going. It just wants an unreasonable amount of money for gun skins.
Review
The Finals
Mechanically the most inventive shooter of recent years, held back only by an audience that never got as large as it deserved.