With the incredibly successful Overwatch launching in 2016, fans are clamouring to know more about the anticipated sequel, Overwatch 2. First announced in November 2019, Overwatch 2 is pitched as a fully-fledged story sequel to the first game. It will still remain a multiplayer game through and through, but Blizzard is taking this opportunity to properly expand upon the rich backstory that the world of Overwatch has to offer.
Here is everything we know so far about Overwatch 2.
Narrative Missions
The key draw of Overwatch 2 will be a proper campaign story. PvE missions have existed in the original Overwatch before, but only as limited-time event modes. These missions in Overwatch 2 will remain in the game permanently for you to play and replay at your desire.
There are two types of missions: Story Missions and Hero Missions. Story missions will explore a narrative thread using a specified set of heroes. Hero Missions are more like the traditional PvE events that we’ve seen before. You’ll face off against waves of enemies while completing an objective. These missions are intended as a method of levelling up your hero characters, allowing you to customise them through the new talent system. Speaking of…
Talent System
In the first Overwatch game, each hero has the same abilities no matter who is playing as them. In Overwatch 2, this changes with the introduction of skill trees. Player’s will be able to customise each hero to their own personal playstyle, so no two characters going up against each other will operate in the same way.
Introducing talents creates a new depth to Overwatch’s gameplay beyond a player’s pure mastery of a character. It also opens up the possibility for some of the wackiest team compositions we’ve ever seen.
New Heroes
We won’t just be playing the same old heroes in Overwatch 2. Though the original 32 characters will transfer over to the sequel, we’ll also be getting a few new faces to play as.
The only character officially confirmed so far is Sojourn. As a new DPS character, Sojourn carries a fully automatic energy rifle with a secondary rail gun firing mode. She has booster rockets strapped to her legs, allowing her to slide around the map on her knees and looking wicked while doing it. That’s about all we know about Sojourn for now, but we expect to hear much more over the course of the year.
Updated Visuals
Alongside the new heroes, the original cast is receiving a welcome facelift. Each of the character models is to be slightly redesigned, adding more clarity to each of their outfits to match the newly updated rendering engine.
It’s not a drastic change, and some may argue that it’s not entirely needed – Overwatch 1 still looks plenty beautiful with its Pixar-like art style. That said, a brand new lick of paint on the new release won’t hurt.
Overwatch 1 players won’t miss out
If you’re worried about losing your progression and cosmetic rewards from Overwatch 1, don’t be. All loot box and progression rewards are set to carry straight over into Overwatch 2. Blizzard doesn’t want to leave any players behind, which is why Overwatch 2 players will still be able to play with those on the original game.
Blizzard is even looking at ways to move away from the loot box reward system. In a recent interview, Jeff Kaplan mentioned that the team is looking at systems like Diablo 3’s ‘season journey’, a free battle-pass, as a means of replacing the loot box rewards in Overwatch [via PCGamesN].
Release Date
As for when this is all releasing? We have no idea yet. All we do know is that it probably won’t be this year. Activision Blizzard CFO, Dennis Durkin, recently announced that we won’t see Overwatch 2 until at least 2022.
Still, at least we have the announcement cinematic and the Blizzcon behind-the-scenes videos to tide us over until then.
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[Featured Image Credit: Blizzard]