Since the big announcement of Overwatch 2 in 2019, Overwatch fans have been anticipating the sequel to this amazing game since they’ve spent countless hours playing the original Overwatch game. If you have decided to turn your phone off over the weekend because you wanted to spend time with your family, you picked the worst weekend ever because BlizzCon 2021 took place and you missed it, but don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. And if you are a new fan, then join me on this breakdown of everything you’ve missed below:
New Maps Coming to Overwatch 2:
Jeff Kaplan allowed his team to share two real-life inspired maps which were, Rome and New York City. He and his team wanted to provide an authentic feel for each of the maps but also an Overwatch feel to it
Rome:
- Art Director, Bill Petras vision for this map was for it to have a “very romantic, powerful feeling of old-world architecture”
- Two featured locations: The Colosseum and a Grand View of the Hills of Rome
- A crew member returns from recent travels to Rome and has thousands of pictures. These pictures provide large amounts of detailing involving ancient architecture.
New York City:
- The artist’s inspiration with this map came from the 1920s to the 1950s with a deco style mixed with sci-fi elements in the mix.
- If you are from NYC, you will recognize its starts in the Village and goes to national landmarks such as Grand Central Station
Overwatch 2 PvP Updates and Changes:
From the current, it’s a rocket blasting into space from Earth with all the changes that are currently in development.
- Role Passives – Passive abilities that a hero has based on what role they are. For example, the tank heroes currently have knock back redemption and also experience less ultimate charge energy when enemies are shooting at them
- Damage healing heroes have movement speed bonus increased abilities
- Healing Heroes/Support Heroes has automatic healing that is activated once they have not taken damage over a period of time, similar to Mercy’s existing abilities but not as effective
- Tank characters have evolved in a sense, instead of standing back supporting teammates, they can now perform close combat. For example, Reinhardt gives two charge strikes in a smaller window of time, can now cancel a charge and also steer better while charging to use it more aggressively. Can also release his full arsenal more frequently as opposed to just holding a shield.
- Improvements to Reinhardt are not and my not be stay, however, their goal is to make characters fit their role more. If a character is aggressive, make them more aggressive.
Combat Upgrades:
More a weapon feels have been developed into each character and gun. From using each gun, the Combat Field Group is making the smallest change from sound to v-effects to the smallest details. Everything is being revisited, nothing is off the table.
- Gun fire sounds and general combat feels have been remastering to get it more of a realistic feel
- Quick melee has been revisited that every hero has been changed, new impact audio, new feel and visual effects when you hit certain objects or people a new animation being displayed
- Weapon 2.0 Sound Pass, gameplay and gunplay has been reimaged and reengineered to give a better and more realistic experience
Introducing Hero Missions to Overwatch 2:
The goal of Hero Missions is to provide a PvP co-op mode experience that is completely different from the multiplayer mode.
- This particular mode is not designed to be competitive nor for players to feel as they have a consistent grind to level up
- The team plans to create hundreds of Hero Missions which can be played night after night with dealing with the same missions over and over
- Hero Missions will not just be based on players personal preference, but they will also be based on what the mission requires, such as character types,
- These missions will be featured on all of the multiple player maps that have been created and some maps will have an expanded section and reimagine them to turn our beloved into eye catching all over again
- King’s Row now features a gate that will open and an entire new section will be added to the map
- Maps also feature different variations of the time of day, sun rise, daytime, sunset and different series of night
- Hero Missions can also be changed mid-match with different routes or dynamic weather conditions such as a sandstorm, snowstorm and rain storm
- Character selection is more valuable now because you must think before picking your favorite character and base your decision now on what the climate is
Progression Talent:
- Talent skill tree allows you to not only develop your hero in a different way and play as well
- Every different hero has different trees based on what they bring to the table. With unlocking each character’s tree skills, you will start to notice the difference
- Not only are you developing your character but you are also developing each character’s weapon
Null Sector Enemy:
With each objective you have with each mission they have different based enemies that have very specific actions they must carry out.
- Larger enemies have weak spots that can be exposed as opposed to smaller enemies which will be a little harder
- With enemies bodies reacting to being shot they will not lose body parts and be able to continue to fight until they are killed
- The Breacher – They have a bomb on their back and their mission is to march towards their enemy, once it reaches that objective, the bomb opens up like a flower and kills everything in its wake
- The Puller – She is a blinded folded enemy equipped with three orbs that act as a tractor beam, pulling you in and downing you unless it stopped
- The team is experimenting with different enemies far worse than anything we’ve ever experienced before
- Elite enemies are a little bit tougher to take down, once taken down an Elite Omnic Guard will breakdown and crawl towards you to try and blow up opposed to a normal Omnic Guard
- Enemy teams will have a sentry gun and you will be able to see the damage and these guns will even fall off and the enemy will beb effected by this with an animation
New Looks McCree, Pharah, Reaper & Widowmaker:
While maintaining certain characters signature looks and appeals, the team was babble to be make more changes to their established heroes by improving fabrics tech with colors and changing face rigs as well
- McCree has a signature cowboy look but they tried different ideas with is accessories such as his cape and hat. They grew out the bread
- Pharah armor colors pull from Overwatch’s primary colors blue and white with a change in her visor from black to translucent to show more emotions
- Reaper is armor is fully changed with a metallic cost color added and his mask is no longer bone grey
- Widowmaker has a treasure hunter vibe with a bond villain and with an overall theme of cyberpunk and still honing in with her long ponytail
Story Development of Overwatch 2:
The team is working to put together an amazing story that is going to take Overwatch 2 to the next level. Overwatch 2 will introduce backstories which will be including in-game cinematic intros and outros for story missions
- Every character will have a dialogue in each scene with multiple hero choices
- The environment will require you to talk with other characters to unlock certain things
- The heroes are disbanded but now need to be brought back together. This story was brought back to the ground level to create storylines
- The team brainstormed about everything they had in make it better, to ensure it was a seamless process
- Each story mission has a custom map, everything is different and nothing is the same and also has a history that will be explained through gameplay
“We really want Overwatch 2, to be a true sequel to the first game, not an add-on, it’s not a small part, it’s not an extension of the original game, this is an evolution and a replacement to the original game.” -Jeff Kaplan
Stay tuned for more updates for Overwatch 2!
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