Blizzard Gives Up On Original Vision Of Long-Awaited Overwatch 2 PvE Hero Mode
When Overwatch 2 was announced back in 2019, the developers unveiled big plans for the game, including the addition of a high-quality PvE gaming experience that would broaden the game’s scope well beyond its PvP assets. However, according to a new live stream from the Overwatch 2 developers, the core PvE experience promised in 2019 is now going away, due to a change in development to focus on the live content in Overwatch 2 — rather than building this one massive PvE update that was promised to players. As a result, the new PvE system that is now coming in Overwatch 2 will be a shadow of its original inception.
The original version of PvE was supposed to be a core part of Overwatch 2, with an “always-on” and “deeply replayable” PvE experience featuring full-blown missions, a dedicated hero mode with talent trees, long-term power progression, boss battles and more. The gameplay trailer in 2019 hinted at a massive story arc for the PvE modes, with all the heroes teaming up to fight a war against an army of robots. The PvE missions were also supposed to dive deep into the lore behind each hero and strengthen the relationships between Overwatch’s heroes between themselves and players alike.
According to Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller and Executive Producer Jarred Neuss, development of the game’s original PvE mode was not going as well as expected, to the point where no-end date was being scheduled for the first release of the game mode. As a result, the Overwatch 2 team decided to pull the original implementation of PvE entirely, so the team can focus on content for Overwatch 2’s seasonal updates.
Going forward, the Overwatch 2 team will be providing a toned-down version of PvE, with seasonable updates featuring story missions, and custom game modes — similar to the current Starwatch hybrid PvP/PvE game mode going on right now. These new experiences promise to provide a lot of new and exciting features to the game, but they won’t be anything like the original version with its envisioned long-term progression, talent trees, and dedicated hero mode.
