While Overwatch has been an incredibly popular game right from the day it was released, the multiplayer shooter has faltered over the years when it came to maintaining an ongoing narrative. Now, with Overwatch 2 making something of a comeback after a controversial launch, game director Aaron Keller is still hesitant to say that the title is “firing on all cylinders”. In an interview with streamer Jay3, Keller spoke about the perception of Overwatch 2 making a comeback this year, and how the series has “dropped the ball” in the past.
In the interview, Keller said that “one of the things we hear our players talk about a lot online is it kinda feels like Overwatch has dropped the ball when it comes to story and lore.” He went on to talk about how the Overwatch team “used to put a few more of the big animated shorts out than we do nowadays.”
For context, the large majority of the story in Overwatch was told through the release of animated shorts that focused on a few characters at a time, giving us a sense of an overarching story happening in the background. While multiplayer shooters don’t really need much of a story, the shorts in Overwatch served as a way to introduce new characters to the game without making them feel out of place. The characters of Overwatch also got incredibly popular with its fan base thanks to these shorts.
Further in the conversation, Keller also spoke about how narrative plans for Overwatch 2 fell through because of the originally planned PvE co-op mode that was going to arrive at launch was ultimately cancelled. “We did have a big plan to go after story in the game, that was the PvE with the campaign… that didn’t work out,” he said.
Ultimately, Keller believes that the universe and characters of Overwatch are its “best parts”, and that Blizzard can only really call it a comeback once it gets back to continuing the game’s main narrative beats.
“So there was kind of a reset moment for us when that happened,” Keller said, about the PvE campaign getting cancelled.
“We would like to get back to it. One of the best parts of Overwatch is the universe and characters,” he continued. “For me, personally, for us to say that Overwatch 2 is firing on all cylinders, we need to have some of those [shorts] come back.”
Overwatch 2 is currently getting ready to kick off its next season on June 24. Dubbed Season 17: Powered Up!, the game will be getting quite a few new features, including additional heroes in Stadium. The update also brings with it a new Mythic Weapon Skin for Reaper, and a new Mythic Skin for D.Va. As for seasonal content, Overwatch 2’s next season will also bring a limited-time 8-bit mode, as well as additional maps for Stadium. Players will also be able to share builds with each other thanks to the Stadium Forge tools.
Overwatch 2 is available as a free-to-play game on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, with cross-play across all platforms.
