I fell off Overwatch rather hard when its sequel, Overwatch 2, took center stage a few years back. I missed the feel of original Overwatch, and the epic plays my friends and I would make never felt as impactful or as frenetic as they once had. As someone who spent hundreds of hours soaring around a battlefield healing with Mercy or sneaking behind enemy lines to hack the opponent with Sombra, the magic was lost somehow when Overwatch 2 came online.
However, the recent Overwatch Classic event was enough to get me to reinstall the hero shooter, making me literally wonder whether or not my feelings here were simply fueled by nostalgia, or if there was something to the old version of Blizzard’s hero shooter that retained the magic it once held over me.
In short, yes to both.
Overwatch Classic is a new limited-time event in Overwatch 2 that literally turns the clock back to 2016. The original 1.0 version is brought back to the game almost unscathed (like World of Warcraft Classic, Some Changes cannot be avoided), giving players the chance to either relive the hectic battles of Overwatch’s earliest days, or experience a sense of what they were like if you came to the hero shooter late to the party.
Some of the quality-of-life improvements that we take for granted now in Overwatch, from hero and role limits to balancing hero skills, are gone from Overwatch Classic, and it was immediately felt that first match I jumped into. As a Mercy main, I wanted to specifically find out if Mercy was in better shape now compared to launch or if I was looking back on those days with rose-tinted glasses on.
Within the first match, I was reminded why I loved Overwatch at launch. It was fast-paced, with chaotic plays happening left and right. Ultimates charged with reckless abandon - I’m fairly certain I was the victim of at least three Pharah rocket barrages within the first round of a Convoy match - and every single engagement had the push and pull I felt was somewhat missing in the 5v5 matches of Overwatch 2 when the sequel first launched.
I was also reminded of why Mercy’s Revive ultimate caught a nerf. As the clock wound down on my second match of the day, my team of two Bastions, a Winston, Lucio, and a Widowmaker found itself getting cut down by the enemy, the lone Mercy the only one left. Thankfully I had a revive in my pocket and I fired it off, bringing my entire team back from the brink. This one move turned the tide of the match and we ended up defending the point long enough to wipe the attackers out and steal victory.
Another match saw my all-DPS team (except for my Mercy, because Mercy Main) take on a team in a control matchup that comprised three Mei’s. Seeing Mei’s ultimate get triggered one right after another after another was its own challenge we had to overcome, but overcome we did, thanks again in large part to that group Revive.
These early matches were nothing but barely contained chaos, and they were so fun. One match reminded me of just how powerful Bastion and Reinhardt can be, especially when you have a Genji or another DPS disruptor player sneaking behind enemy lines to drisrupt things as much as possible. In one match I played Lucio, tearing up Zenyattas, blasting Widowmakers off the map, and all around just wreaking havoc, despite having the most healing at the end of the match.
Yet it wasn’t all incredible wins. One match already had two healers so I stepped out of my comfort zone and played Reinhardt, a character I’ve never been good at, but was the best pick for the situation. The amount of times I charged off the map would have frustrated me back in day, but I howled wildly each time it happened during this match, that was the fun I was having.
It’s not perfect, and I’m clearly reminded why many of the balance changes and updates had to happen to get Overwatch into a much better, healthier state months after its launch. But this glimpse back in the past really reminded me of why I fell in love with the shooter to begin with.
Jumping back into a match with friends last night brought back wave after wave of nostalgia: from forgetting that some characters weren’t there at launch to adjusting our team comp to try our hands at providing some semblance of balance to the rest of our group, we were cheering and furiously defending points within no time at all. Setting a Bastion turret atop the payload while my Mercy fed it DPS-boosting energy, all while our D.Va playing friend tried to tank for us brought me back to 2016 clearly, especially as the rest of our team started to adjust to our meta and bring out characters to support the strategy.
Overwatch isn’t the only game right now dabbling in nostalgia. Fornite recently announced its classic mode will be a permanent fixture in Epic’s battle royale starting next month, while Apex Legends is bringing its game back to its roots for a limited time event. Personally, Overwatch Classic should go the route of Fortnite and make this a permanent mode in Overwatch 2 moving forward. It’s fun, frenetic, and recaptures a piece of old Overwatch that just doesn’t exist anymore after Overwatch 2 replaced the original in Blizzard’s launcher.
Personally, I’ll be logging many more hours in Overwatch Classic before the event ends in December, and this might just be the thing to get me to try Overwatch 2 more earnestly in the weeks and months to come. Either way, please bring back to group revive in the current version of the shooter - it’s just too good to leave in the annals of history.
