Starting on October 4, the first phase of Overwatch 2 begins. The sequel to Blizzard’s successful hero shooter Overwatch, which is supposed to integrate seamlessly into the multiplayer of the first part. The developers want to focus on more heroes in the future that you don’t have to hit at all. We at MeinMMO summarize.
Where does this statement come from? In an interview with Dexerto, Lead Hero Designer Geoff Goodman talked about the future of support characters in Overwatch 2. A major point also relates to aiming in the well-known Blizzard shooter.
Aiming is not supposed to be that important anymore, especially for support classes. According to Goodman, future support heroes will be more oriented toward heroes like Mercy and Moira. Their abilities are largely seeking and, for example, as Mercy, it is sufficient to just look in the general direction of the target with the healing beam.
Why is this important? In the interview, the hero designer further explains that it should also be important in Overwatch to execute strong plays without really good aiming. According to him, a player’s “skill” is not only defined by how well they actually hit.
Much more, personal ability is defined by how you position yourself, which decisions you make, and when you revive whom: “We want to ensure that there are more ways to showcase your skill than just aiming well. Mercy was just an early example of that.”
He further explains that these heroes will be more focused on their own team than on dealing damage to opponents. However, they should still be able to make “big plays.” Goodman says that they want to have such heroes much more frequently in the future and not only place them in the support role.
You can see the newest hero for Overwatch 2 in this trailer:
Hero ban system is not off the table yet
What else does he say in the interview? Dexerto also asked the designer about hero bans. This concerns a system that would allow certain heroes to be banned before the match. League of Legends, for example, uses such a mechanic in its ranked games. However, this has not yet been possible in Overwatch.
A similar concept was already in Overwatch with the hero pool but was removed again. However, Goodman says that they have not fundamentally discarded the idea of banning heroes, even though game designer Aaron Keller is generally against implementing such a system.
“It comes up again and again, so I don’t think we will ever completely throw it out. There are issues with the system, and we have thought and talked about how it could be designed to work.” He refers to the poorly received hero pool.
Where are the problems? One of the biggest problems is that players could be specifically targeted on a competitive level, and their main heroes could be banned as a result. Aaron Keller also said in an interview with GameSpot that he is against removing characters from players. Mainly because some players can identify with the heroes.
So while hero bans are not something we should expect from the start in Overwatch 2, it is possible that the feature will be implemented later on.
What do you think about that? Are you looking forward to heroes with whom you have to aim less, or do you believe that only players who can hit well should advance? What do you think about hero bans? Feel free to let us know in the comments here at MeinMMO.
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