With new characters likely to arrive on a regular basis, it’s doubtless going to be tough for casual players to keep levelling up without eventually paying up. You don’t need them, but if you’re a completist about weapon charms and rare costumes, you might find your cursor inching toward the “buy credits” button. Some cosmetic items will only be available if you pay for a subscription or buy them directly from the shop. If you want to customise your costume and weapons – or play as Kiriko, one of the three new characters – you’ll either need to play a lot of the game, completing daily challenges and working your way through the tiers before the season ends … or just buy the Battle Pass. The game has been refitted to work with that infamous talisman of the free-to-play shooter: the Fortnite-style battle pass. The biggest change is economic: Overwatch has now gone free-to-play, meaning you can download it on to your PC or console and start blasting without paying a penny. This is the same team-based sci-fi shooter we’ve been playing since 2016, with mostly the same characters battling it out with familiar moves.

I f Overwatch 2 were a movie, it would probably be called a reboot or a reimagining rather than a sequel.

Free download overwatch 2 twitter