PvE in Overwatch 2 is dead. Or is it? MyMMO demon Cortyn played the 3 PvE missions anyway and was pleasantly surprised.
Like most Overwatch fans, I was quite stunned a few months ago when Blizzard just “casually” canceled the hero mode of Overwatch 2. The large, cohesive PvE campaign with customizable talents and character levels was scrapped. That was “simply no longer the plan”. But PvE would still come, in the form of missions tied to individual seasons.
Honestly: No matter what Blizzard would say, the outrage over the broken promise cannot be recaptured and the wounds will not heal quickly.
Despite everything, I was still looking forward to the PvE missions because I like the world of Overwatch and the characters. Accordingly, I grabbed a few friends and bought the 3 PvE missions – along with the Battle Pass, since we play regularly, for €15.
I assumed when making the purchase that I would end up saying: “Yes, it’s all rubbish, not worth it” – but that turned out to be a fallacy.
Heroes finally talking to each other
Each of the three missions is embedded with two cinematics that are played at the beginning and end of the mission. The cutscenes are an absolute highlight and finally show what fans have been wanting since the launch of Overwatch 1: Real interactions between the heroes.
- We see the kind-hearted but somewhat simple-minded Reinhardt, who is trying to inspire Torbjörn for the fight against Omnics again for “glory and honor”.
- We see Mei jumping into Reinhardt’s arms and creating an ice ramp with her weapon that both can escape on with Reinhardt’s “Charge”.
- We see Brigitte using her “Whip Shot” like a rope to save Lucio from a deadly fall.
There is absolutely nothing to complain about the cutscenes. They have an appropriate length, and you simply cannot help but smile with satisfaction when the heroes finally do what you’ve been waiting for over 8 years.
Linear gameplay – but it works
But let’s get to the gameplay itself.
A mission lasts about 20 minutes (varying by difficulty), and each mission is completely linear.
You can quickly grasp the “flow” of a map. There is an open, large area where a long fight awaits. Then you go through corridors or streets with few enemies and some dialogues occur. After that, you stand in the next open area, where another larger battle awaits.
This remains the case in all missions. It’s not particularly creative, and you’ve seen it all before, but it works solidly.
The objectives are various, even if it ultimately always somehow comes down to “kill all enemies”. Sometimes you have to protect a ship with limited health points so that refugees can escape.
Then again, you have to prevent a certain enemy type from getting too close to the civilians and being able to use a ability.
I caught myself several times excitedly shouting “Brain Suckers to the right!” or “Something is damaging the ship!” in Discord – so the tension is definitely there.
9 enemy types with their own abilities
The enemy types are also not as boring as you might expect from other Overwatch events. There are the small, agile Slicers who sprint straight for a mission objective to destroy the ship. The artillery units are large and massive and destroy Reinhardt’s shield with a few shots but are vulnerable to a charge attack into the next abyss at the right moment.
But the “Stalkers” were particularly cool. These eerily laughing Omnics strongly resemble “Banshees” from Mass Effect 3. They pick out a single character, lift them into the air, and let them slowly float towards them. Once the character reaches the Stalker, their health points are depleted very quickly – even Reinhardt is gone in 2-3 seconds, Tracer is eliminated immediately.
This “instant kill” can only be prevented by a stun or a push ability. Characters like Brigitte can free themselves with a charge, but Reinhardt cannot use his charge while being pulled in by a Stalker. This makes teamwork especially important.
A small highlight is also the PvE mission menu. It is Winston’s desk, and there is a lot to discover. Not only can you rewatch all cinematics but also view a lot of lore information. Especially the emails are a hit and are sure to bring a smile to some faces.
However, after playing the three maps, there remains an uneasy feeling in the back of your mind. The three missions are good and show a glimpse of what a real campaign for Overwatch 2 could have been. 20, 30, or even more interesting missions with many great cutscenes that have series-quality.
The three “Invasion” missions show that a campaign for Overwatch would have definitely worked – and it is precisely this knowledge that makes them somewhat hard to endure. Especially since it is completely unclear when we will get missions again. Because that might not happen until 2024.
This “bite-sized content” is simply not what the characters of Overwatch or we as the player base deserve.
Questionable difficulty – nothing suitable there
The only gameplay criticism for me is the difficulty of the missions. There are “Normal”, “Hard”, “Expert”, and “Legendary”.
The difference between “Hard” and “Expert” is so massive that we were not quite sure if that was intentional. On “Hard” you can basically roll through the map with the left mouse button pressed and only occasionally have to take cover. On “Expert” we had already encountered situations where strong enemies were so numerous that we were sure after dying: We would have only survived if we had at least 3 ultimates simultaneously.
Here, there was clearly a missing difficulty level that provided an appropriate, interesting challenge for my group.
Is it worth it? Yes, but no
Whether the PvE missions are worth it for the individual is hard to say. If you are still checking in regularly to Overwatch 2 and earning rewards from the Battle Pass, then in my opinion, the additional €5 for the 3 PvE maps is definitely worth the price.
However, if you would only start Overwatch 2 for the PvE maps and cannot make use of the Battle Pass, then €15 is quite a steep price for a few hours of entertainment with only a low – but present – replay value. In that case, it would probably be best not to buy the PvE maps.
Regardless, one must say that this way of releasing maps is quite a mess. If you could buy the 3 missions individually for €5, it would be a completely different situation. But as it stands, there is the forced situation that you can only access the PvE missions if you buy the bundle for €15.
These 3 missions are simply not worth €15, even if I have had a lot of fun with them.
