First look at the player-versus-player changes coming to Overwatch 2
The Overwatch team put together a live broadcast to showcase changes coming to PvP in Overwatch 2. Missed the stream? Get all of the updates and see how the team is rethinking Overwatch’s PvP experience.
TEAMS OF FIVE
The core Overwatch PvP experience will shift from six players per team to five players per team. In the standard PvP game modes of Overwatch 2, each team will contain one Tank, two Damage, and two Support heroes. This evolution introduces a major shift in the way that the team approaches all aspects of the game, from map design to the dynamics between roles and how they interact as a team.
At the heart of this change lies the change in mentality surrounding the role of Tank, previously discussed during BlizzConline, towards one more focused on brawler-style gameplay. This shift from focusing on the protection of your team to in-your-face battling is anticipated to have impacts to the flow and pacing of the PvP experience. During the livestream, we got a firsthand look a new secondary fire mode for Winston and changes to Reinhardt’s abilities.
That said, Tanks aren’t the only role undergoing adjustments to account for this shift to five-versus-five. The livestream gave us a live look at the new Role Passives, introduced during BlizzConline. In its current iteration, these new passive abilities will have Damage heroes moving slightly faster than other roles, Support heroes regenerating health automatically after staying out of combat for a short period, and Tanks taking reduced knockback and providing less ultimate charge to opponents who damage them (compared to other roles).
On the level of hero-specific changes, we showed off updates to Mei’s Endothermic Blaster, which will slow and deal damage, but not freeze enemies in Overwatch 2. Other heroes like Bastion are being reviewed and reworked from the ground up, which will result in major changes to how the hero plays. This shift will result in rebalancing and adjustments across the board – We’ll aim to give you a sneak peak on how things are coming for some heroes later this year.
WAYS TO PLAY
Overwatch 2 introduces new ways to play the player-versus-player experience you’re familiar with today. During the livestream, we got a fresh look at Push, an Overwatch 2 game mode where players will clash to take control of a robot that starts in a central location and “push” it toward the enemy team’s base. First introduced during BlizzCon 2019, it’s undergone a number of updates now that team structures have changed!
In addition to Push, the team is currently working through introducing an additional new game mode to Overwatch 2. We don’t have any details we’re ready to share just yet, but we can’t wait to share more ahead of the Overwatch 2 launch. During the livestream, we also confirmed that the Assault (known colloquially as “2CP”) will be leaving the Competitive playlist in Overwatch 2, to be replaced with a new game mode. We intend to still have the existing Assault maps available for play in some capacity (Custom Games, etc) with the release of Overwatch 2.
EXPLORING NEW MAPS
We visited five maps and saw live gameplay footage from the Overwatch developers! After seeing Rio de Janeiro’s story mission during BlizzCon 2019, we got our first look at Rio’s Escort PvP map. As introduced during BlizzConline, we also got to explore New York City (Hybrid) and Rome (Push)! Finally, we revealed the never-before-seen illustrious Monte Carlo (Escort)!
NEW LOOKS
Building upon the ever-growing roster of new looks coming with Overwatch 2, we revealed Torbjörn’s new look! Plus, we got to see other new hero looks in action during the livestream, including McCree and Widowmaker.
These new looks also bear important changes to the UI and HUD for some heroes, including Mercy and Zenyatta. Check out the livestream to see how we’re improving these displays to better communicate important gameplay details.
The livestream is available in VOD format right now! We’re excited to share more about the development of Overwatch 2 later this year.