Blizzard Cancels Ambitious Mode in Overwatch 2; Players Disgruntled
The highly anticipated Hero Mode for Overwatch 2 has been canceled. Players are upset because it was supposed to be an ambitious PvE mode with an elaborate storyline and character progression system.
Blizzard Entertainment has just severely disappointed its fans. The team has announced that it is dropping plans to add the so-called Hero Mode, an ambitious PvE mode, to Overwatch 2.
- Hero Mode was supposed to be a permanently available mode, in which we would complete missions while fighting AI and level up the character of our choice within a skill tree.
- This mode was originally supposed to debut with the game, but the devs decided to delay it. Now we know that ultimately we will not receive it at all.
- The developers argue the decision on the grounds that they were unable to realize the original vision. The mode required too much work and it would have been at the expense of the pace of development of the PvP mode, which is the heart of Overwatch 2. They explain that the development of Hero Mode in practice would have meant that the team would have to be preparing two separate games in parallel, which would have shared only characters.
- Abandoning Hero Mode does not mean that players shouldn't expect any PvE elements. Those, however, are supposed to be mainly time-limited events, made available within specific seasons. Hero Mode was supposed to be a much more ambitious mode that would be available all the time.
Great disappointment for fans
The absence of Hero Mode is very disappointing. When the game was announced, it was this mode that was the biggest news and the main element that justified the development of a sequel with two in the title instead of further development of the first game.
Players are, of course, greatly disappointed. Reddit thread for the game is filled with critical posts.
"The cancellation of this mode is like a punch in the gut. 4 years of waiting, and they just dropped it."
"You remember that the whole reason for the creation of Overwatch 2 was the story/co-op mode?"
"That's complete insanity, given that they said they MUST make a Overwatch 2 with an updated engine to realize all those PvE elements that weren't possible in OW1. Hilarious."
Adding to the anger is the fact that the developers have only now revealed the abandonment of this mode, even though they realized over a year ago that they would not be able to implement it. Some fans even accuse Blizzard of deliberately hiding this fact so as not to spoil last year's launch of Overwatch 2.
"The developers wanted the release of OW2 to be as good as possible, so they (apparently) blatantly lied that PvE was only delayed to avoid bad PR."
Game development plans
However, the developers also had good news for fans, revealing what we can expect from the next two seasons.
Season 6
The sixth season will offer, among other things:
- story missions - it seems that these will use some of the elements developed for the abandoned Hero Mode;
- a new character (Support);
- Flashpoint mode which is a variation of King of the Hill, except that the point on the map for which players will fight is expected to change during the match;
- players will be able to polish their skills on the shooting range and in mastery missions.
Season 7
Quite a few highlights are also to be offered in the seventh season. The most important novelties are:
- a new hero (Tank);
- a new map for Control mode;
- a winter event;
- More mastery missions;
- Refresh of two characters (Roadhog and Sombra);
- The return of several popular gameplay modes.
Activision Blizzard
Overwatch 2 debuted last October 4 on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. The game uses a free-to-play model with microtransactions.
