Overwatch 2 Season 10: Before You Play (And Buy The Battle Pass)

By Sydney Seymour

Introduction

After playing Season 10 of Overwatch 2 almost every day in competitive and quick play since its release on April 16th, 2024, I’ve recognized some questionable decisions on Blizzard Entertainment’s part as well as some favorable additions and changes within the season. Overwatch 2 is a free-to-play, first-person shooter game where, every nine weeks, new seasonal content is released in a live-service method including a corresponding battle pass and either a new map, hero, or game mode. While I haven’t had any major grievances with the season, players playing with friends or in a group that have what the game is considering a wide gap in your rank, queue times can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Streamers have been joking about how they could get a whole match of Fortnite while waiting for an Overwatch  2 ranked match to queue up. In my review of Season 10, I will go over the season’s theme, the major differences and changes the season brought like the Mythic Shop, and the new character and game mode.

This season’s aesthetic 

The season's theme, “Mirrorwatch” was highly anticipated by the community ever since it was first announced in Blizzcon 2023. This mirror universe theme provided several mirror universe skins where Talon villains become Overwatch heroes and vice versa, which intrigued me as someone who knows the Overwatch and Talon backstory. Two characters, Zenyatta and Symmetra, who are impartial to Talon and Overwatch, had their own spin-off version of mirror universe egos, which I thought were the strongest skins of the season. Every season there is a mythic skin attributed to a different character that has a variety of customizable colors, weapons, outfits, accessories, and visual and voice line effects. While it’s not the best mythic skin Blizzard has produced, this season’s mythic skin is for the support character, Mercy, and has very detailed visual effects like maroon flames and a red glow when Mercy uses her abilities and weapons, which is unlike any of her other skins. 

Mythic shop, monetizing, and more battle pass changes  

The release of Season 10 came with the release of the Mythic Shop. Rather than earning a mythic skin by leveling up a paid battle pass, players can now receive mythic prisms by leveling up the paid battle pass and then use those prisms in the Mythic Shop to purchase a mythic skin. Here lies my main grievance with the season because the mythic shop ultimately plays out the exact same in the sense that players must buy a battle pass to get mythic skins. If the player doesn’t want to buy the battle pass, they can pay $75 for mythic prisms for one mythic skin instead! Now that there is a concrete number for how much a mythic skin is apparently worth. Ttyo me, that’s extremely steep and the Mythic Shop is just another one of Blizzard’s monetizing strategies. 

On the other hand, one exciting and pretty great battle pass change is that going forward new heroes are now free and available to all players regardless of whether they purchase the battle pass. This is a really great change because players who are not buying the battle pass can now play new and previously new heroes, which unlocks Kiriko, Rammatra, and others for many. Instead of a “pay to win” mentality where players had to pay for the battle pass to play the overpowered and new characters, having new characters available to all boosts accessibility for more casual players. 

Clash trials and errors

Season 10 also allows players to try the new Clash game mode for a limited time until April 29th. This game mode, set on the Hanaoka map, a remake of one of my favorite maps, Hanamura, involves both teams battling to capture five checkpoints. It’s very fast-paced and hectic, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. My brother and I felt very frustrated playing this game mode competitively because team coordination is so crucial. According to Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller in an interview with Gamespot, he said, “This mode is really about momentum and how you come together as a team in order to stop the enemy team’s advance, then regroup and start pushing into enemy territory.” Even if a team captures four points, losing one team fight, which is easy to do when the enemy spawn is so close to the last checkpoint, slingshots the other team forwards and the battle is fair game again. The good thing is that it was just a testing trial and with the feedback from the players, Blizzard can make the appropriate changes before they release it later in the year. 

Drilling into the competition with Venture 

The most notable addition of Season 10 is the brand new damage hero, Venture, who is a globe-trotting archeologist and explorer who can shoot seismic charges and burrow into the ground with their drill. In my opinion, Venture is a nightmare to play against and I dread them as an opponent every time. In terms of representation, however, this was a step in the right direction considering the gender bias the past gaming industry holds. In Graeme Kirkpatrick’s article, “How gaming became sexist,” he argues that in the 1980s the political economy of the gaming industry created specific conditions under which games were codified as exclusively masculine through gaming magazines and game titles and storylines themselves. He said, “In the early 1980s, there were a number of titles that seem to bear out the idea that games were always aimed at men and whose existence implies that the cultural setting in which they were produced was saturated with gender bias.” In contemporary times, representation of non-white heteronormative gamers has become more mainstream, and the presence of a nonbinary character in Overwatch 2 reflects and reinforces a gaming culture that is not only accepting of women but of all genders and identities. In “Mainstreaming and Game Journalism” by David Nieborg and Maxwell Foxman, they define mainstream acceptance as “broad appeal–popularity among not merely one large homogenous group but rather widespread adoption across regions and intersectional categories” (Nieborg, Foxman 20). Having a playable non-binary character in a fairly well-known game with an active player base provides an opportunity for players to interact with and encounter a badass non-binary hero that will hopefully appeal to them no matter how they identify. 

End-of-review summary 

Season 10 of Overwatch 2 has been a season of frustration, excitement, and innovation. The season’s aesthetic, “Mirrorwatch” appealed to both lore enthusiasts and casual players with its uncanny twist on alternate universe character skins. The Mythic Shop, while introducing a way to purchase past mythic skins, raised concerns about Blizzard’s monetization strategies. However, the decision to make new heroes free and accessible to all players marked a positive step towards a more inclusive and accessible game. The introduction of the Clash game mode brought frenzy-like energy, and the standout addition of Season 10 is Venture. Venture not only diversifies gameplay but also shows the evolving landscape of the gaming culture, embracing gender and identity diversity with playable characters.