Overwatch has enough divisive elements and characters to warrant a page of its own.
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Base Breaking Characters, Story and Lore
- Reaper, the game's "grimdark" hero, has several divided camps. There are those who unironically appreciate his edgy design, those who appreciate it from a cheesy-but-effective perspective or an unintentionally-hilarious perspective, and those who find him obnoxious and annoying.
- While some applauded Zarya for being of a different build than all of the other female characters, others criticized her for being a stereotypical Husky Russkie woman with a far more simple and generic design than all of the other characters. Given the view that she was designed to appease feminist criticism of the game, debates regarding her can get quite heated. Her dodgy accent also doesn't do her any favors for Russian fans.
- Tracer's dodgy accent combined with her role as a hit-and-run oriented harasser who appears to have been designed specifically to cause as much annoyance for the opposition as possible has earned her the ire of some players, especially those who see her personality as cloying and one-note. Others find her frantic style of play to be exciting, fun, and rewarding and regard her capacity to remain so hopeful, kind, and upbeat in the face of such overwhelming darkness and adversity to make her one of the cast's most charming and likable characters.
- Being the Series Mascot also naturally opens her up to fire from some corners. Some think her unique combination of design, personality, and playstyle makes her a good choice that captures the game's spirit and stands out compared to the traditional shooter mascot, others wish her position was at least shared with other characters given the roster’s size and variety, and others go so far as to say that she "doesn’t deserve" such a status.
- D.Va has a few distinct camps of fan reception, mostly depending on whether you think her competitive, fanservice-y Gamer Chick persona is bratty and obnoxious or endearing or cute. The back and forth is often based around whether her character is too one-note or too tonally inconsistent; critics look down on her for being thematically divorced from the main Overwatch/Talon conflict, her very pointedly "cute" design that can be seen as cheap, one-dimensional "otaku bait", as well as the attempts of delving to her Beneath the Mask persona (such as with Shooting Star) as a flat, token attempt at pathos. Other fans adore her at face value and with her Hidden Depths, with an argument to be made that she serves an important role as a consistent source of levity in a series where even other "cute and cheerful" characters like Tracer and Mei come with some disheartening baggage.
- Symmetra's position in the lore makes her into an example of this. One camp considers her a sympathetic woobie who was deceived by Vishkar since childhood and a compelling Noble Top Enforcer with autism. Another camp believes that merely serving Vishkar (considered an evil hypocritical MegaCorp) and going along with or justifying their ideals (combined with a smug attitude) makes her one-dimensional, delusional, unsympathetic, and annoying. Since she can be given both Draco in Leather Pants and Ron the Death Eater treatments, it's hard to find a middle ground for her.
- Doomfist was added to escalate the threat and stakes of the main conflict, and while few question that he did, whether he should have and whether he helps or hurts the overall narrative is far more contentious. Some admire his prowess and see him as either an effectively intimidating figure whose performance, actions, and ambitions make him highly credible as a menace substantial enough to warrant Overwatch's return. Others see him instead as a flashy "threat-over-substance" villain who exists to generate conflict literally for its own sake due to his straightforward motivation, which for some just doesn't measure up to the emotionally complex standard set by his colleagues.
- Wrecking Ball's entire concept pretty much invites this: he's a weaponized hamster ball mech piloted by an intelligent hamster, which you're likely to think is either the most hilariously awesome thing to appear in the game yet or something so profoundly stupid, even by the standards of a cast chock-full of over-the-top characters, that it's broken the tone and preemptively tarnished any future chance of seriousness. Apparently, it was even a base breaker within the development team itself, with a big chunk of developers feeling that adding a hamster to the spherical robot would be too much.
- Hours after the introduction of Ashe, people have been divisive. Many believe that she looks and acts too similar to other heroes and adds nothing unique gameplay- or lore-wise, while others think her design is still quite entertaining and fits with the New Old West aesthetic of Deadlock and Cassidy. There's also her backstory as a filthy rich teen who became a villain for fun, which either frustrates fans for how boring and shallow her motivations are compared to Reaper, Widowmaker, or Sombra, or is a breath of fresh air for those who think not every backstory/character has to be complicated/tied into the larger plot or be extremely competent. That being said, Ashe's partner B.O.B. was very well-received by everyone.
Broken Base, Story and Lore
- The lore's distribution model, which is spread across multiple platforms. Some are fine with it, as they find the game itself very fun and appreciate not feeling pressured to follow its narrative while knowing it's there for them to experience at their own pace should they feel so inclined. But, considering how much emphasis the game itself places on the characters, others prefer to stay caught up and find it tedious to search and sift through multiple websites, blogs, videos, tweets, et cetera, and wish the lore was more centralized. Further compounding the issue is the game's large and growing roster. The lore already has trouble juggling everyone, especially with its frequent droughts of content, and representation varies wildly among the cast. Even at a rate of one new character every four months, many fans think the cast is expanding at a faster rate than the lore can keep pace without risking allowing some characters to fall by the wayside.
- Brigitte's body shape has drawn up a lot of debate and controversy within the fanbase, namely with how it's changed over time between comics, cinematics, and her in-game appearance. Is her more muscular appearance from the "Dragons" comic to Honor and Glory and her in-game model preferable to her earlier scrawnier appearance? Does her in-game model alter her design too much from her pre-rendered Honor and Glory appearance, and if so, to what extent? Does she look more generic with Power Armor? Is it “pandering”? If so, to whom? The list goes on.
- Masquerade in general caused a bit of a rift between fans who enjoyed it as a cool Villain Episode with some good set pieces that also helped reestablish Talon's menace and those who saw it as a directionless mess that tried to do too much in ten pages and felt like it was spiting anyone who cares about the heroes by effectively leaving them with no victories. In its wake, some have even gone so far to question if the story is even worth caring about at all anymore, since Blizzard has effectively set a precedent that one side of the conflict can now retroactively claim victory and undo the accomplishments of the other at any time.
- Sigma's design, especially his going barefoot, became hugely controversial after the designer artist stated
that he is barefoot to "sell the asylum look". Horribly stereotypical and offensive or Truth in Television? Another group doesn't really care and want people to focus on the rest of his design.
Base Breaking Characters, Gameplay
- Soldier: 76 has received a mixed response in term of gameplay, which has been deried due to its similarity to common FPS games such as Call of Duty and Halo. Next to the extremely colourful cast with their varied and interesting abilities, Soldier: 76 is extremely plain with his standard assault rifle and mundane sprint. Furthermore, his ultimate ability is essentially an in-game aimbot, which removes the necessity of aiming and got worse the better you play as him, further damning his status among fans. This has split the fanbase, as some accept the character as a gateway for newer players to make Overwatch more accessible, while others condemn him for the same reasons.
- Pharah. After her flight got a buff, allowing her to stay in the air longer, the fanbase has been fairly divided about her. Some say she's impossible to hit due to her aerial mobility limiting what attacks can reach her, rendering some characters almost entirely ineffective against her. Some say the complainers are just whining because they can't aim, that her pickrates at higher ranks do not support the argument that she's overpowered, and that her ultimatenote , overall damage per second when compared to other characters, and inability to inflict headshots balances out her advantages. Some say she's fine until a Mercy comes into playnote , and some say that she doesn't fit in Overwatch at all. The amount of threads on the official forums about her number in the hundreds.
- Doomfist's build-up made him highly anticipated among one section of the player base and dreaded among another for being, at the time, yet another offense-oriented character who would potentially further make tank and defense-oriented characters irrelevant. Once he debuted, his kit took some flak for being uninspired (a popular sticking point is how the ostensible melee character has a shotgun, apparently because Blizzard got cold feet about making a pure melee character), and his playstyle proved to live up to his hype a bit too well for a lot of the base; considered fair by some, by others as insufficiently balanced by his low range, and by nearly everyone as misleading due to some striking Hitbox Dissonance. Then, practically overnight, the dynamic flipped: patches reduced his hitboxes to a debilitating extent, bugs were rampant with his design, and players just gradually figured out how to counter him, sending him from the top to the bottom practically as soon as he'd arrived. Later patches have helped rebalance him to an extent, but players remain torn as to whether he is effective or easily countered; balanced or cheap; and memorable or now just another face in the gallery who made a chaotic first impression.
- Following massive damage nerfs to Roadhog in June 2017, just about everybody agreed that it was too much and he needs to be fixed, but there's been a heated discussion about how to go about it in regards to his unusual design philosophy and place in the metanote . What abilities should be buffed in compensation? Were his nerfs ever necessary and should they be reverted? Or should he just be overhauled altogether?
- Just about everything regarding Mercy's Season 6 reworkexplanation is wildly contentious. Fair, considering she could undo a pentakill with just the press of a button in her old playstyle? Or highly hypocritical, considering most offense heroes' ultimate similarly amounted to "press a button for potential team kill"? Is her new ultimate a fair compromise that makes her gameplay more interesting but remains stable, or is it just making her pander more to players that just want to play DPS and makes other heroes (like Zenyatta or Orisa) redundant? As well, expect any further changes (mostly nerfs) to be a point of contention.
Broken Base, Gameplay
- As is usual for any multiplayer exclusive title, the friction between casual fans who play for fun and competitive fans who play to win is just as intense here as you would find in any other similar community. Casual fans think Competitive mode is a pit of losers who take playing a video game too seriously and get inordinately angry at what should be considered entertainment. Competitive fans think Quick Play mode is a cesspool of morons who don’t even try to win.
- The game's forms of long-term monetization throughout the years have proven to be a constant source of debate:
- For lootbox system of Overwatch as initially released: some players were content with the lootboxes being purchasable with real money, arguing the game gives them away every level up and in arcade wins, and that the mechanic being solely for cosmetic rewards kept its gameplay integrity intact, a generous offering considering other games that pounced on the lootbox trend began integrating more pay-to-win mechanics. Other players feel that the inclusion of such an element tarnishes the game's business model — the game already had an upfront retail price, so asking for more microtransactions was unnecessary — and that the system can be extremely frustrating when good things refuse to drop. Another argument against the system is how, while cosmetic in nature, the system doesn't take away from the fact that it's still tapping into players' urge to dress up their character, tapping into ethical debates around fear-of-missing-out and gambling.
- Overwatch 2 made the game free-to-play and instead swapped out lootboxes with the battle pass system, and reactions became even more polarized. Supporters of the new system found that the more linear method of gaining rewards is much more appealing than limiting them to a dice roll of a mystery box, but critics have also accused it of being even more ruthless in terms of demanding players engagement, especially in light of having to pay for seasonal premium-level passes that introduce even more FOMO.
- The new hero unlocking system in Overwatch 2 was its own can of worms: initially unlike the first game, where every hero was available with no restrictions, all new heroes could only be unlocked by either by grinding the free battle pass, upgrading to the premium version or just buying the heroes with premium currency after the season ends. Defenders of this system claimed that the grind isn't that bad and no different from other games like Apex Legends and Valorant that also have unlockable heroes. In contrast, detractors of this system were against it enabling potential pay-to-win scenarios (espeically given the trend of new heroes being overpowered at release), further criticizing the comparisons to other similar games as unlike Apex and Valorant, Overwatch emphasizes switching between heroes mid-match as opposed to options that are hard-locked for entire games, which were themselves defined by general gunplay more than hero-specific abilities that often take precedent in Overwatch. By March 2024, Blizzard came to agreeing with the detractor camp, and announced that starting season 10, they would return to the previous method where all heroes would become available for everyone to play on release.
- Due to the variety of playable characters with unique playstyles, many players often disagree on a few characters' places under Overwatch's Damager, Healer, Tank labelling system, which is a problem especially for competitive players due to the importance of team composition. Is Symmetra a DPS or Support hero? Is Mei a DPS or an off-tank? Is Zenyatta a Support or a Damage with a healing ability like Soldier: 76? Is Sombra really a DPS hero with her low damage or an aggressive and unique Support? Conflicts like this can be troubling when forming proper team compositions, due to equal parts of players who try to form teams on individual attributes to players who follow the game's recommendation system to a T.
- Mobility versus Crowd Control versus Barriers. During Dive Meta, players claimed to notice a building "mobility creep" in Overwatch, with many characters receiving buffs to their mobility (Winston, Widowmaker, Hanzo, Mercy, and Symmetra, just to name a few) and new, highly mobile characters being introduced (Sombra, Doomfist, and Wrecking Ball, in particular). This came to a head when, for more than a year, a "Dive Meta" featuring extremely mobile heroes (Tracer, D.Va, Winston, and Genji) was nigh-unbeatable at high levels. Blizzard made several attempts to reign these characters in, culminating in the release of Brigitte, a character that excels in AOE damage, stuns, and knockback to thwart the mobile heroes. But this shifted complaints to the abundance of "crowd control" introduced to the game since launch (stuns, knockback, disabling, etc.). Case in point, of the eleven new characters introduced, EIGHT of them have at least one type of CC, while most have multiple types. This has sparked a debate over which is more overpowered: too much mobility or too much crowd control. Naturally, some players don't care what's more broken and would like to see both reduced so that characters who rely solely on aim or single-point defense could finally be viable again. ...And then, they got their wish after Sigma was released. Sigma became the third Tank after Reinhardt and Orisa to produce an exceptionally powerful barrier and, when partnered with one of the aforementioned Tanks, made it nigh-impossible for enemy teams to deal damage. Naturally, this led to complaints about barrier creep, which was seen as even worse than mobility creep or CC creep, because at least with the former two, things can still die.
- Healing Creep versus Damage Creep. Since the introduction of Moira, there have been complaints about "healing creep" — an accusation that healing is way too strong and, thus, DPS characters are undervalued. Moira's introduction led to teams experimenting with a "Slambulance" comp note which could outlast any form of damage. It wasn't seen as very viable at the time because it lacked too much damage as a trade-off for more tankiness. When Brigitte was released, however, she provided the perfect blend of tankiness, damage, and healing that allowed Slambulance to evolve into GOATS note which was argued as "proof" that healing had become far too strong. This perception continued even after GOATS was rendered impossible by Role Queuenote , due to the release of Baptiste — another exceptionally strong Healer. However, the counterargument has always been that these strong Healer characters were specifically introduced into the game to counter dominant Damage heroes (Genji for Moira, Tracer for Brigitte, and snipers in general for Baptiste). Slambulance and GOATS, likewise, came into being because professional teams were looking for solutions to being one-shot by Widowmaker, and settled on adding more Tanks whom it was impossible for her to kill with one shot.
