The story of Overwatch is really tragic: What once was one of the most innovative team shooters that had been released in 2016, with a huge base of loyal players to back it up, was slowly losing its reputation due to the constant bad decisions of Activision-Blizzard.
In 2019, a sequel was announced, something that many fans saw as unnecessary, since it was easier to keep updating the original title with more characters, maps, modes, etc. But they promised that the existence of Overwatch 2 would be justified with the inclusion of a new PvE mode (Player vs Environment) with a plot, levels, upgrades for the characters, etc. But this week, we received sad news: This PvE mode was canceled by Blizzard.
Goodbye to Overwatch 2’s PvE Mode…
In a special statement that was published on their different social networks, the game director, Aaron Keller, talked about some changes and updates that are coming in Overwatch 2. Among all this, he confirmed that the highly anticipated PvE mode, called “Hero Mode” was no longer being produced, and that instead, it would be modified into another smaller and less ambitious PvE mode. It should be noted that Overwatch 2 was released in October of last year, without its biggest selling point. Only with multiplayer.
A lot of people had bought it, hoping that they would add the “Hero Mode” later, and now that’s never going to happen. Many fans feel cheated, and their frustration is 100% justified. If they wanted to continue exploiting the multiplayer mode of Overwatch, they could have continued releasing expansions and updates for the original game. But they preferred to sell the public a sequel that, in addition to the classic online battles, would have an ambitious single-player campaign. Now, that promise was not fulfilled and consumers have to settle for a multiplayer mode that could have been a free expansion of the game they already had. It’s a real disrespect to their most loyal fans.
In the official blog, Aaron Keller shares a more detailed explanation of this cancellation: He explains that the team was prioritizing the development of the PvP mode (Surely, because they knew it was a very important part of the Overwatch community) and that they had trouble finding a true base from where to start. The original Hero Mode was an ambitious project and the developers had poured a lot of passion into it but, at the end of the day (and I quote) “They couldn’t” do it. Nor could they go back on their promise, so they continued developing a new PvE mode, but that will not have the same level of ambition or dedication.
The development of a “Triple A” video game is extremely long, expensive, and difficult. We will never question that. But this explanation smells like a typical “corporate apology” and does not give a real context of why they decided to cancel the #1 reason why people bought Overwatch 2 in the first place. Since this announcement, a few days ago, the Internet screamed bloody murder, claiming that this “killed Overwatch forever”. These are some spicy comments about it:
- “What were they doing during that period of time when they were supposed to be developing? (Genuinely curious)”
- “I feel like this should have been communicated when OW2 was released. Especially if they planned to reduce so much the goal and gameplay they showed before”
- “This is false advertising. The main reason people had to buy this game that had been promised to the audience since 2019 is now nothing. So why not better make a patch for the first game?”
- “Literally I have no idea what the hell they were working on for this game because OW2 is literally OW1 Why did they bother?”
- “Blizzard lied and spent all this supposed development time making skins for the virtual store”
The saddest part of all this is that Overwatch’s universe is very interesting and has a lot of potential for a solid single-player campaign: A world invaded by robots that has to move on thanks to a group of honorable heroes, all with unique designs and interesting powers. Not to mention that Blizzard’s numerous animated trailers made to promote these games show us that a good story could elevate Overwatch’s quality even more. Everyone was looking forward to a good PvE mode and now those dreams were shattered forever (Or until Blizzard announces Overwatch 3)
This is not a good time for online multiplayer shooters. Something similar happened with Halo Infinite: This modality of “Live Service” in which a video game is released incomplete, and players have to settle for little while these multimillion-dollar companies are slowly releasing content is frustrating and insulting. As everyone had paid to buy Overwatch 2 months ago, now Activision-Blizzard can do whatever they want. Total, they already have their money What’s the moral of the story? Never buy a new video game that doesn’t come with most of its content. The promises of these companies are often empty.
About Overwatch 2:
Heroes never die! The sequel to the GOTY 2016 winner invites us to enjoy fun 5 vs. 5 confrontations against other players in this futuristic action FPS title. Discover which role (Tank, offensive, support) suits your style of play best and dominate the battlefield with your skills and teamwork.
Overwatch 2 is now available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X and PC through Battle.net platform.