The game director of Overwatch 2 is trying to smooth things over and reassure. There is still PvE and that is coming soon – only one mode is missing.
The last week has been quite a disaster for all Overwatch fans. The development team of Overwatch 2 explained almost “in passing” during a stream that was actually about one of the current events that the “hero missions” for Overwatch 2 have been canceled.
Now the game director is trying to sweep the shards aside and clarify a few things. After all, Overwatch 2 is still getting PvE missions – even if they turn out differently than previously announced at BlizzCon.
What were the hero missions? The hero missions were supposed to be a PvE content with high replay value. It should have been possible to level the characters individually and change them with special abilities in the form of a talent tree – basically the dream of every MMO fan.
Even though there are some voices that are still positive and eager, the majority of the community is negatively inclined – and that is putting it politely. There are insults and great disappointment everywhere. Most simply cannot comprehend that the main feature that was supposed to define Overwatch 2 will not appear.
PvE in Overwatch 2 – What is still to come
What is true, however, is that Overwatch 2 has not completely scrapped PvE. Blizzard intends to “advance the story of Overwatch” for the first time in the upcoming seasons. This means there will be “large” PvE missions with cutscenes and a clear focus on the story. Aaron Keller describes it more precisely in a blog post:
Story missions focus on fast co-op gameplay as well as story, cinematics, and cutscenes that expand the world of Overwatch. Story missions tell a linear narrative about the heroes of Overwatch reuniting to fight the new threat of Null Sector. This advances the story of Overwatch for the first time since the original release of the game.
These missions take place on large maps with new enemies and new cinematics. We will begin releasing them in Season 6. The work that has been done here is fantastic and far exceeds anything we have had in PvE so far, and I can’t wait for our players to see it.
Whether the PvE missions can really convince and satisfy the hunger for co-op PvE even without the “hero missions” remains to be seen. Blizzard continues to withhold specific information about the extent of the PvE.
The major concern is that there will only be “snacks” of content – that is, one or two small missions per season that might entertain for 15-20 minutes. But that also remains to be seen.
The debacle of Overwatch 1 – What happened?
In hindsight, it seems strange how Blizzard handled Overwatch after the release. For nearly two years, there were regularly new content and fresh updates before the flow of innovations stopped. The reason for this was revealed at BlizzCon 2019 – Overwatch 2 was supposed to have an extensive PvE campaign, offering a fully-fledged co-op experience with talent trees and customization.
For this reason, resources were withdrawn from live development, and more and more developers were assigned to Overwatch 2 and the PvE content.
The consequence: Overwatch 1 was completely neglected, months went by without significant updates, and the community shrank further. This was certainly exacerbated by the fact that the Overwatch League also failed to resonate, which was probably less due to the developers than to the eSports team at Blizzard. Participation in the league was expensive and complicated – and the major commercial success remained largely absent.
Most fans seem to be unable to understand what has actually happened.
With Overwatch 1, one had practically a game and a new franchise with a grand future.
Many are asking – and rightly so – why Blizzard did not expand the team around Overwatch. The better decision would have probably been to continue developing Overwatch 1 with regular updates and put a larger team on the PvE content instead of letting Overwatch 1 completely “die out”.
In hindsight, one is always smarter, but this could have been known beforehand – at least that is the prevailing opinion in the forum and Reddit.
Community and streamers are shocked
Many of the big streamers have spoken out en masse about the change of plans for Overwatch 2. Like in the community, the general tone here is rather negative.
Asmongold said about this:
The main thing that Overwatch 2 should do will not happen. You know, the only thing you should be looking forward to in Overwatch 2? That’s not coming.
xQc also reacted quite shocked to the developers’ announcement. In his reaction video on YouTube he said:
If they are not working on PvE and are no longer doing that, where has all the time gone that was put into it?! We are talking about thousands of hours that are just gone. Where are they?! I am confused! Brother… because Overwatch 2 wasn’t even an update. It simply wasn’t. It was just… the updates that the main game never received that came out at the same time.
What do you think about the current “Overwatch 2” debacle? Isn’t it so bad that the hero missions have been canceled? Or is the game “dead” for you now?
