Steam adds one of the most popular game of last year completely free – but fans are furious

STEAM has added a massive free-to-play game to its library, but players are furious.

Not because the game was added to Steam, but because they believe it has been in decline since launch.


Overwatch
Pricey microtransactions has seen players turn from Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2 has been widely criticised for aggressive microtransactions, and high prices on items and characters.

However, until now players have not had a review system to share their displeasure outside of review aggregate site Metacritic.

While it has a Critic Score of 79, fans were far less pleased, giving it a 1.4 out of 10.

The majority of complaints surround the in-game purchases, calling the game ‘stressful’.

Due to the high price of items, and the low output of coins from playing matches, people feel they need to spend money in-game. 

Others have complained about purchased items being removed, or not having enough time to earn their desired skins.

Overwatch 2 has been live on Steam for just one day, and there are already 42k reviews, the majority of which are negative.

It currently stands with a score of 2/10 with an ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’ rating.

One of the top comments reads: “If you are willing to drop $20 for a skin for a single character, you can drop $25 for Risk of Rain 2.”

Another writes: “Overwatch 2 has no respect for you.

“It’s an attempt to pry open your wallet while masquerading as the game it used to be.”

The general consensus seems to be summed up with this comment, which reads: “They released Overwatch 2 as a free-to-play business model, which leans more heavily into microtransactions, overpriced skins and predatory behaviour. 

“To make matters worse, they shut down the first game, making it unplayable for people who purchased it, meaning the player base had to move over to this free-to-play business model to keep playing the game.”

Overwatch players were also promised a campaign mode which would come with the second game, and make up for the loss of the original.

However, this never happened, and players saw the addition of a short campaign at an extra cost as an insult.


Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.