Overwatch 2 game modes, original heroes and cosmetics remain locked for veteran players
Overwatch 2 was officially released today and the launch has been kind of a mess. Between the long login queues, server issues (possibly brought on by a DDoS attack) and the numerous glitches and bugs, it’s about as bad a launch as one could imagine, albeit one we’re used to with big multiplayer games.
After waiting about 30 minutes in the queue, I was finally able to login into Overwatch 2. And what I found was despite having played the original Overwatch for years on PlayStation 4, the game believed I was a new player. And it appears I’m not the only one suffering from this bug.
Normally, I wouldn’t mind this, but Blizzard made the brilliant move to lock all original heroes and every game mode — including ranked play — behind its First Time User Experience. For those unfamiliar, this is a program designed to onboard new players without overwhelming them with all the different heroes and game modes at once. It’s supposed to gradually introduce elements of the game slowly.
In theory, it’s a great idea. If it worked properly.
As a veteran, it’s a big problem. One that needs to be fixed, and soon.
The restrictions placed on new players are extremely frustrating to experience as a veteran player. Right now I’ve got a limited selection of playable heroes. I have to play through beginner tutorials that teach me the basic mechanics I’m already familiar with. And perhaps most annoyingly, I’ve got to play through 50 unranked matches to access competitive play.
And it’s not just me experiencing this problem. There are hundreds of comments on Reddit with people dealing with the same situation.
It’s also not just the heroes and modes either. People are describing situations in which all of their cosmetics from Overwatch 1 are missing.
It’s possible this could have something to do with account merging. Or maybe it’s server related. Maybe it’s just a glitch. Whatever it is, it’s frustrating and apparently pretty widespread.
Now I did purchase the Watchpoint Pack which did end up unlocking all the heroes anyway. But now it’s the annoyance of having to play 50 unranked games.
My suggestion is to just wait it out and see if Blizzard will fix the issue. I’m sure they are focused on the server issues right now, and this could somehow be connected to that.
Next. Overwatch 2 server error: What ‘In Queue: 0 Players Ahead of You’ means. dark
But honestly, this launch is a straight-up train wreck. Blizzard has a list of known launch issues for Overwatch 2 but I don’t see any specific mention of this problem. Hopefully, it gets resolved soon.