Blizzard announced Overwatch 2 today at BlizzCon… but it’s not a sequel in the traditional sense. The game is first and foremost a cooperative shooter where players can team up together to take on narrative-driven Story Missions in a future where the Overwatch has reformed:
In the sequel’s action-packed cooperative Story Missions, players will experience the advent of a new Overwatch as Winston, Tracer, and other members of the original Overwatch join forces with a new generation of heroes. Players will take an active role in the Overwatch saga as a new global crisis unfolds through a series of intense, high-stakes four-player missions. As the story progresses, players will team up as different sets of heroes and fight to defend the world from the omnic forces of Null Sector, uncover the motives behind the robotic armies’ attacks, and come face-to-face with rising new threats around the globe.
Co-op players might also be interested in Overwatch 2’s “highly replayable” Hero Missions:
The battle continues in Hero Missions, where the Overwatch team will be called upon to go beyond their limits as they deploy across the planet, defending cities against robot invasions, taking on elite Talon agents, and battling the villainous forces laying siege to the world. In this highly replayable mode, players can level up their favorite heroes and earn powerful customization options that supercharge their abilities in co-op play—such as altering Reinhardt’s Fire Strike to ignite nearby enemies or modifying Tracer’s Pulse Bomb to cause a devastating chain reaction—granting the extra edge they need against the overwhelming odds.
While this might sound similar to some of the limited events that Blizzard rolls out from time to time, Overwatch 2 will also feature larger maps and “visual enhancements” that give each a new look. And speaking of Heroes, Overwatch 2 will introduce multiple new Heroes to the game’s universe, including an Omnic named Echo and former Overwatch commander known as Sojourn.
Overwatch 2 will also include at least one new gameplay type, Push, which pits two teams against each other as they try to help a robot push an objective to their opponent’s side.
While all of these new features sound like typical sequel things, Overwatch 2 is also cross-compatible with the original Overwatch. Overwatch and Overwatch 2 players will be able to compete against one another in PvP modes. Overwatch players will even be able to play on Overwatch 2’s new maps and every new Hero introduced in Overwatch 2 will also be available in the original Overwatch.
Overwatch 2 is currently in development for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. It doesn’t currently have a release date, but you find two new trailers for the game after the break.
