Review
Marvel Rivals
Fast, generous and genuinely fun. Whether it lasts depends on whether NetEase can balance it.
No. 18 in The Noteworthy 50 · Hero Shooter
Overwatch 2
Still the best-feeling hero shooter ever made, still carrying the reputational damage of how it got here.
It is important to separate the game from the corporate story, because the game is very good. Overwatch's hero design remains the benchmark: kits that are mechanically distinct, immediately legible in a fight, and tuned with a precision that its competitors have not matched. Tracer still feels like nothing else in any shooter. The maps are gorgeous and readable. The gunfeel is excellent.
The 5v5 restructure — removing a tank from each side — was the right call. The double-shield era of Overwatch 1 had calcified into stalemates, and the change restored pace and gave individual tanks real agency. Role queue, meanwhile, remains the correct answer to a problem Marvel Rivals is currently rediscovering.
The broken promise
Overwatch 2 was justified to players as a sequel bringing a full PvE campaign with hero talent trees and a persistent story mode. That mode was cancelled in 2023 after the PvP had already been converted to free-to-play and the original game switched off. Players who bought Overwatch 1 lost the product they purchased and received a monetisation model built for someone else. Blizzard has since delivered story missions as paid content, which did not help.
What sits here in 2026 is a good shooter with a persistent trust deficit, competing against a free rival that arrived with more goodwill. The 6v6 experimental modes and the return of earnable currency have won back some players. Mechanically it deserves a higher score than it gets; the number reflects what it costs and how it treats the people who were there first.
What works
- Hero kits remain the most distinct and best-tuned in the genre
- The 5v5 change genuinely improved match pacing and reduced shield stalemates
- Map and art design are among Blizzard's finest work
- Role queue keeps team composition sane, unlike its main competitor
What doesn't
- The cancelled PvE campaign was the stated reason for the sequel and never shipped
- Loot boxes replaced by a store with worse effective value for most players
- Support role remains a miserable experience in solo queue
- Long-term players lost earned progression systems in the transition
The Catch — what it will cost you
Overwatch 1 was a $40 purchase with free heroes and earnable loot boxes. Overwatch 2 is free with a battle pass, a store where individual skins run $20+, and — until significant backlash forced a change — new heroes locked behind pass progression. Most veterans calculate they now spend more for less. Blizzard's later course corrections were real but late.
Who it's for: Players who want the genre's most precisely tuned hero kits and can forgive the history.
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Apex Legends
Peerless mechanics, a squad design nobody has bettered, and a publisher steadily eroding the goodwill.