Blizzard has opened up about the impact Overwatch 2 “review bombers” have had on the team, acknowledging that the “dissatisfaction” stems from “the cancellation of the much larger component of PvE that was announced in 2019 […] that Blizzard ultimately couldn’t deliver”.
In a statement posted to the game’s official website, Aaron Keller said that while being review bombed “isn’t a fun experience”, the plan was to “move forward” by “adding to and improving Overwatch 2”.
Developers were right to be in fear of Baldur’s Gate 3 resetting expectations. This isn’t close to all of the reason for this backlash, but for me it’s a notable part.
Here we all have for contrast suddenly an expansive, complete, player-respecting game that isn’t trying to squeeze money out of you at every turn… it reminds me of old PC games, before the enshittification of the industry began, before the corporate rot set in. When I bought my copy of Heroes of Might and Magic 3, it was complete. It was expansive. It was before micro-transactions were really a thing, so it was a finished product. BG3 makes me think of those games, but with modern technology. My gaze shifts back to the allegedly “modern” games we have now, to Overwatch 2, and it just feels cheap and disgusting. A minimum-viable pile of gameified gambling covered in greasy MBA penny-pincher fingerprints, shrouded by half-truths from marketers trying to puff it up to look like a complete experience. It is still possible to deliver the better experience. It’s clearly just a matter of “want”.
I feel like I’ve just come from a family-owned restaurant on the beach in Cabo and came back home to a McDonald’s in a roadside casino, and I’ve just realized how genuinely shitty it all is.
I think I would actually rather just go outside or start a new hobby than touch “games” like this ever again.
Aren’t these review bombs prior to Baldur’s Gate 3 though? I’m pretty sure they were just put out when OW2 was released on steam.
Certainly all of Overwatch 2’s issues were known and well documented before Baldur’s Gate 3’s release, I think people have just put two and two together (or more aptly, put the two next to each other for comparison).