The "2" is Gone, and the Magic is (Mostly) Back

It’s refreshing to see a developer swallow their pride and put in the work to fix their mistakes. Dropping the “2” from the title is symbolic, but it genuinely reflects the effort Blizzard has made recently to get this game back on track. If you left during the Overwatch 2 era like I did, it is absolutely worth coming back to.

The Good:
The character roster and their unique powers remain the best part of this game. No other shooter quite captures the distinct playstyles and team synergy of the cast.

The game runs flawlessly on Linux right out of the box. Running this on CachyOS with a recent GE-Proton version is completely smooth. Just drop RADV_PERFTEST=gpl MANGOHUD=1 %command% into your Steam launch options and it runs perfectly with flat frametimes and zero shader stutter.

The Bad:

The player base can still be very toxic, especially the second you step foot into Competitive play. You will definitely need a thick skin to deal with the chat sometimes. To Blizzard's credit, their reporting system is highly responsive now. When you report toxic behavior, they take quick, noticeable action. Getting those "action taken" confirmations when logging in is real nice.

The core gameplay loop is as good as it has ever been, just be prepared to make liberal use of the mute button in competitive lobbies.