Blizzard anticipates that Overwatch 2 will ship with over 100 different missions, utilizing new maps as well as existing multiplayer maps expanded out to include new areas, and adding in dynamic effects, such as night and day modes and weather effects.
At least two PvE modes will be added: a story-based mission mode, where players are limited to their hero selection in replaying missions based on Overwatch 's lore, and Hero missions which allow all heroes to be used in fending off waves of enemies at various locations. In this mode, players can gain experience for the hero they are using, and at certain experience levels, unlock new passive skills called talents that boost the hero's current abilities, allowing them to customize how the hero plays. These are similar to the special seasonal events, which will feature four-player cooperative missions against computer-controlled opponents. The game will have persistent player versus environment modes (PvE). Some existing gameplay modes may be dropped in Overwatch 2 Kaplan has stated that two control point maps, such as Horizon Lunar Colony, will likely not be available in Overwatch 2 as these have been difficult to balance in response to monitoring gameplay and player feedback. Push will become part of the standard map rotation in the Overwatch League as well as be available for Quick and Competitive play. Ī new PvP mode, "Push", will be introduced, which functions like a tug of war, where each team is vying for control of a robot that is pushing a team's payload to the opponent's side of the map when a team controls it. The game includes a ping system similar to that of Apex Legends for players to easily alert teammates to points of interest on the map.
Heroes also underwent a visual update to reflect the few years of in-game time that has passed between the events of Overwatch and Overwatch 2. Tank heroes underwent the largest change to make them able to take on more offensive roles. Damage heroes have increased movement speed, while Support heroes slowly self-heal. Heroes have a general reworking within their classes as to make the game generally faster. New maps were thus designed to include more options for cover due to the reduced presence of tanks. This additionally simplified how much action there was to watch for both players and spectators. According to Aaron Keller, the prior allowance for six players per team and two tanks made gameplay slower than they would have liked, and by moving to five players and removing one tank, they believed this sped up play. The base Overwatch 2 game, like Overwatch, features primarily player versus player battles across several different modes and maps, and includes both casual and ranked matched play.Ī significant departure from the first game was moving to a five-on-five player-versus-player (PvP) mode, with a restriction of only allowing one tank in play on a team.
Each character has a different skill kit with a combination of active and passive abilities as well as a special Ultimate power that can be used after it is charged up. Characters are broken out into damage class, doing most of the team's offense against the opposing team support class, providing heals and buffs to teammates and tank class, having a high damage threshold which absorb damage for their teammates. Each week of the Archives event will feature one of the new missions and offer double credit for players.Overwatch 2 is a hero shooter, where players are split into two teams and select one of more than 30 established hero characters as of 2022. Finally, in Storm Rising, Thunderstorm enemies can damage groups of players with ease. In Retribution, there's Sympathy Gains, which makes incoming damage to one enemy heal surrounding enemies. In Uprising, players may experience Bulletproof Barriers, a modifier that makes Omnic energy shields impenetrable to incoming fire. The method of unlocking weekly challenge skins has also changed, possibly inspiring more people to give the co-op another look.Įven veterans of the Overwatch Archives missions will have challenges awaiting them this year. While there isn't a brand-new mission for players this year, Blizzard has introduced a few tweaks to the three existing Archives experiences to change things up. From now until April 27, players can participate in three co-op story missions in the arcade, unlock new skins inspired by history, and grab any Overwatch unlockables from past years' Archives. It's Archives season in Overwatch once again.