The tracer will not be deleted from Blizzard’s free-to-play shooter Overwatch 2 after users discovered a significant flaw with her damage fall-off, according to the game director. Last month, Blizzard temporarily withdrew fellow heroes Bastion and Torbjorn, as well as the map Junkertown, from Overwatch 2 to address exploits and balance concerns with the characters and map.
Despite being one of the year’s most anticipated games after the continued success of its 2016 predecessor, Overwatch 2 has been the focus of fan outrage since its launch due to a range of technical and gameplay concerns. Many fans of the first game have expressed their dissatisfaction with the free-to-play sequel, citing issues ranging from imbalanced characters to the need for years of gaming and thousands of dollars to acquire all of Overwatch 2’s cosmetics. For gamers who have already been dissatisfied with Blizzard’s response to the game’s numerous issues, the Tracer glitch may appear to be simply another symptom of a broader problem.
Many players noticed something weird about Tracer’s damage output after the recent Overwatch 2 patch. Instead of her damage diminishing as she travelled away from a target, Tracer now has no damage fall-off under 20 metres followed by a significant decline in damage as she moves away. Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller claimed in response to a post on the Overwatch subReddit pointing out this glaring issue with Tracer’s fall-off damage that Blizzard was aware of the issue and had no intentions to deactivate Tracer in reaction to the problem.
Keller agreed with gamers who were concerned with Tracer’s adjustments that the fall-off issue was “clearly a glitch,” but said that “her overall power level has been fine.” Rather than removing Tracer to address the flaw, Blizzard looks to be exploring character enhancements to compensate. After being substantially nerfed for her introduction in the game, some Overwatch 2 gamers may welcome future Tracer improvements. While Tracer’s pulse bombs may still make her a lethal opponent in the hands of a good player, many Overwatch 2 players believe she is still weak in comparison to the first Overwatch.
This Tracer glitch, as the newest of numerous flaws creating an annoyance for Overwatch 2 players, portrays an image of a game apparently in chaos, as does Blizzard’s casual approach to it. As the number of Overwatch 2 players grows, it appears that so are the frustrations of many of the game’s gamers. With Overwatch 2, moving to a free-to-play model helped Blizzard draw new fans to the game, but it may have come at the expense of being able to give the kinds of polished experiences on which the firm established its reputation.
Overwatch 2 is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
