Overwatch 2’s cosmetics are better than Marvel Rivals’ in one key way

Marvel Rivals’ cosmetics have a lot going for them, with some players preferring the comic and movie-inspired skins to what Overwatch has on offer. However, OW2 is better in one key area.

Overwatch has been criticized recently for its output of cosmetics, with many players disappointed at the state of the game’s skins. Many skins end up being simple recolors with a high price tag instead of detailed skins that are more frequently released in Marvel Rivals.

While Overwatch has been closing the gap in that department with the release of some recent skins, there’s one aspect of Overwatch’s cosmetics that are significantly better than Marvel Rivals. This isn’t a minor part of Overwatch either, and may propel Overwatch to superiority in the long term.

Overwatch has much more expression and interactivity

There’s certainly an argument to be made about the difference in quality when you compare skins from Overwatch and Marvel Rivals. However, one department where Overwatch wins is with emotes, voice lines, and how players can interact with each other with these cosmetics.

Overwatch has very distinct ways that players can interact with each other using these cosmetics. While saying “hello” to your teammates (or even enemies sometimes!) may seem insignificant, it provides so much character to Overwatch heroes that make them feel distinct. What’s more iconic than Winston’s “Hi there?” Marvel Rivals doesn’t have anything like that.

Blizzard

While Marvel Rivals does have emotes in the game, they typically aren’t as emotive or detailed as Overwatch. And while players like to mock Overwatch for the prices of its skins, Marvel Rivals’ emotes are usually gated behind bundles, while Overwatch’s emotes are friendly to obtain for free-to-play players.

Overwatch has already shown they can up the ante with skins with its recent Celestial skins, buckling under the competition of Marvel Rivals, and the conversation around cosmetics between the two games have created a double standard that’s not in favor of Overwatch.

Great skins in Marvel Rivals are nice, especially as you can see more of the skin thanks to the game’s third-person perspective. But so far, there hasn’t been an experience like gathering up every single player in a Quick Play game and having a dance party with each other.

And, while Marvel Rivals’ efforts to stay true to the comics and flesh out existing stories is more than admirable, Overwatch 2 really sells that these are original characters that the dev team at Blizzard put a ton of time and effort into bringing to life.