Overwatch 2 was one of a couple of major announcements made by Blizzard at BlizzCon this year, and as the sequel to what’s probably among the most highly rated games of this generation, it’s obviously an announcement that’s got a lot of people very excited. We know that it’s coming out on the PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC, and even though we don’t yet know when it will be out, there’s a lot of other details that Blizzard shared to go along with the game’s announcements.
Plenty of new things are being added to the Overwatch experience with the sequel, while some are being expanded, and others are being improved, and all in all, there’s already plenty to talk about. So here, we’ll be going over the five biggest talking points for Overwatch 2 that have emerged in the wake of BlizzCon. Without further ado, let’s get started.
STORY MISSIONS
Overwatch was a completely multiplayer-centric title, and as good as it was, if you’re not the kind of player that enjoys competitive multiplayer play, there wasn’t much to appeal to you. With Overwatch 2, the multiplayer is, of course, going to be a central element once again, but it’s not all that will be on offer.
Overwatch 2 will also have PvE missions, which will come in two varieties. The first of these is story missions, which make up the game’s campaign. These are co-op missions, focusing on a variety of different heroes from Overwatch’s massive cast as they take on Null Sector. There’s not a ton of other details on story missions right now, but we do know that players will be able to use item pickups during these missions to get various boosts.
HERO MISSIONS
Hero missions are the second kind of PvE missions in Overwatch, and they differ from Story missions in several ways. These are single player missions that you can play as any character you want, as opposed to the Story missions, which are designed with specific Heroes in mind. Hero missions will allow players to level up heroes, and unlock new abilities and customization options for them.
According to Blizzard, Hero missions are being designed to be “deeply replayable,” while Blizzard also says that they will also have changing objectives. These missions are designed to encourage players to experiment with every Hero in the game’s roster rather than sticking with just a couple of them, the way most players usually do in multiplayer.
NEW MODE
Though the bulk of new content in Overwatch 2 is coming in the form of PvE missions, there’s going to be some new things to dive into on the multiplayer side of things as well- it is Overwatch, after all. And one of the most interesting new things that Blizzard talked about is Push.
Push is a new type of multiplayer mode, and is looking so far like a very interesting twist on payload objectives. Two teams go up against each other, of course, and both of them will be fighting each other to gain control of a robot. What does the robot do? It pushes two barriers back and forth across Push’s symmetrical maps, and at the end of the match, whichever team has pushed its barrier deeper into enemy territory wins. It’s a unique idea, and doubles down on Overwatch’s squad-focused gameplay, while its symmetrical maps should also (hopefully) make for some excellent design that will play into matches in interesting way.
Interestingly enough, Push will also be coming to Overwatch 1 (this is going to be a recurring theme for this feature going forward).
NEW MAPS AND “SHARED MULTIPLAYER”
Of course, with a sequel to a multiplayer game, new maps are always going to be in the equation, and it seems like Overwatch 2 is going to have plenty to offer on this front. There will be several new maps added as part of Push, which we’ve already discussed, one of which – the one that was shown at BlizzCon – is Toronto.
A few other maps have also been revealed- namely, these are Monte Carlo, Rio de Janeiro, and Gothenburg, though details on all of these are scarce for now (we should hopefully be learning more about them at a regular clip going forward).
All modes will receive new maps with Overwatch 2, but curiously enough, every single new map in the sequel will also be added to Overwatch 1. In fact, Overwatch 1 and 2 players will also be able to play with and against one another in PvP matches. Any cosmetics you have unlocked Overwatch 1 will also carry over into Overwatch 2 should you dive into the sequel.
NEW HEROES
It goes without saying that Blizzard will also be introducing several new heroes with Overwatch 2 (all of these will also be made available in Overwatch 1, incidentally), but just how many of them there will be is unknown right now. In fact, only one new hero has been revealed so far.
And that is Sojourn. She is a Canadian soldier with cybernetic enhancements – including a badass looking gunarm – and (based on the little we saw of her in gameplay – a focus on damage and some mobile movement. We’ve seen Sojourn here and there in bits and pieces in Overwatch 1 in some shorts, and we know some things about her thanks to the lore and backstory of other characters, but it’ll be cool to finally get to play as her.