BlizzCon 2019 officially kicked off yesterday and despite the gathering protesters outside the event hall, Blizzard announced a few new game titles. One such title happens to Overwatch 2, the sequel Blizzard’s 2014 PVP title.
According to the information posted on the game’s official page, Overwatch 2’s timeline takes place sometime well after the recall of Overwatch and In media reis of an attack by Null Sector, an extremist Omnic Group, on a global scale.
In the official announcement trailer, we see Winston – along with Mei and Tracer – flying into the heat of a Null Sector rampage in Paris, France. As the trailer goes on, the three-man team is joined by other familiar faces. Including, Reinhardt, Brigitte, Mercy, Genji, and Echo, an AI-driven robot who we saw being rescued by McCree.
From what we can see, Overwatch 2 will also be introducing several new feature and gameplay elements. As a start, this is will be the first Overwatch title in the franchise to get a single-player campaign. No doubt focusing on several characters as they take on Null Sector and, judging from a glimpse within the gameplay trailer, the terrorist group, Talon.
Moving, the gameplay trailer also showed that Overwatch 2 will get a new PVP mode called Push, as well as the co-op mode that allows up to four players to play together in a single mission. Additionally, Overwatch 2 will also feature a level progression system of sorts. If the brief demonstration is anything to go by, players will be able to choose from a choice of two skills at three different level tiers.
Besides the characters that have been shown in both trailers, Blizzard still hasn’t released the full heroes roster for Overwatch 2. And while most have been named, there are some characters that make a brief appearance in the trailer, such as Zenyatta, DoomFist, and Widowmaker.
Blizzard didn’t provide an official release date for Overwatch 2 during its announcement. However, it did say that players who own the first Overwatch will have all their achievements and collection carried over to the new game upon availability. This includes skins, player icons, sprays, and emotes.
There are also rumours floating about that the original Overwatch will go free-to-play once Overwatch 2 hits the market. However, that rumour should be taken with a very liberal shake of scepticism, especially since Blizzard itself did not make any mention of such a move during the conference.
(Source: Blizzard via PlayOverwatch, Game Rant)
