Blizzard Removes A Pair Of Heroes From Overwatch 2 As Bugs Crop Up
It seems that "Overwatch 2" is off to a rough start. A follow-up to the highly successful "Overwatch," the game was released on October 4, 2022, with every intention and chance to revive the interest in Activision Blizzard's first-person shooter. However, as is often the case with new titles, the game is not perfect right off the bat. In fact, some of the bugs are bad enough that Blizzard was forced to make a pretty controversial decision and remove two heroes from the game entirely.
The bugs are not the only thing that hasn't gone according to Activision Blizzard's plan. "Overwatch 2" was initially meant to launch in November 2021, but after a number of delays, it finally hit almost a year later. You'd think that an extra year would give the game studio plenty of time to clear up all of the bugs, but unfortunately, this first week has been less than smooth. Many players reported issues with server stability, disconnections, and SMS authentication. The company's community managers have been keeping the player base posted (via Twitter), sharing frequent updates on the status of the game and the bugs that are being fixed (via Blizzard Forums).
In terms of bugs, there have been plenty. Console players have reported issues with seeing the items they purchased, matchmaking was in a bit of a rough state, and many people reported random client crashes. Not all of these issues have been resolved so far. To fix the various bugs related to hero abilities, Blizzard made a drastic move and cut them from the game entirely.
Don't worry, the heroes will be back
The two heroes in question are Bastion and Torbjörn. They were removed because their ultimate abilities were bugged beyond what can possibly be acceptable, making these two characters game-breakingly overpowered. While that was undoubtedly fun for the person who was playing the character, the people they were battling against certainly didn't love the fact that Bastion and Torbjörn were pretty much impossible to beat.
Out of the two, it seems that Bastion was the one with a particularly unfair advantage. The hero was able to summon an insane number of artillery strikes directed at its enemies; instead of attacking as intended, gamers were able to mash Bastion's ultimate ability during the time window allocated to it, and each time, they'd be attacking the opponent. Obviously, that was not Blizzard's intention, so Bastion is currently gone from the game entirely.
Torbjörn, on the other hand, is still playable in Quick Play mode, proving that the bug that affects this hero is not quite as bad. Torbjörn's Overload can last twice as long if you press the ability at just the right time, but since Blizzard kept Torbjörn in "Overwatch 2," it's probably difficult enough to time that button press, meaning the bug likely doesn't affect quite as many players. Activision Blizzard acknowledged the situation on the official "Overwatch" Twitter account, promising that both of the heroes will be back soon. If you were hoping to play as one of them, sit tight; unfortunately, they won't be nearly as powerful once they come back all fixed.