We know this sounds a little harsh, but saying Overwatch 2 is something of a disappointment for fans of Blizzard’s hero shooter franchise feels fair. Abhorrent monetisation and tragically-slow progression aside, this game just hasn’t delivered what it promised to, and the altered ten-player multiplayer experience is far from an improvement on Overwatch’s original six-versus-six gameplay. Still, Blizzard is committed to bringing PvE, narrative-heavy content to the hero shooter – even though we’re well-over 100 days since the game’s launch. However, you shouldn’t expect to see any of this arrive soon.
In an interview with NME, Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller has revealed that the developer is “still finalising” how content for this half of the game will be rolled out. And, while exploring the “overarching narrative” is something Keller is keen to do, this is apparently “not something you can really do in the middle of a multiplayer game” – so, this PvE content is our only hope when it comes to any sort of advancement on the story Blizzard has spent years building through Overwatch.
Discussing the decision to release the multiplayer portion of Overwatch 2 ahead of the PvE portion of the game, Keller explains that the studio “found [itself] in a position where [it] couldn’t release all the content that [it] was building for Overwatch 2 until the campaign was finished”; the development of said campaign, as you can guess, was going a lot slower than Blizzard intended.
So, as NME uses Keller’s comments to explain, “it was a “really difficult” decision to split the game up”. However, it was still the right call – even if Overwatch 2 is a bit of a mess right now.
Why? Well, because Blizzard found itself saying that it was “going to keep withholding content from [its’] players so [it] can release everything together” – provided it continued to follow the original strategy set-out. We don’t know how long it would have taken to complete if Blizzard didn’t have to deal with a live service game, but we doubt Overwatch 2 (with a PvE campaign) would have released by now if it was bundled together.
While that is a shame, at least the Overwatch 2 development team is “incredibly passionate” about exploring the universe established through the multiplayer game. We just don’t know when we’re going to be able to explore that further. It doesn’t look like the Overwatch 2 Season 3 release date will see a new hero released – and the last animated short did little to tie Kiriko into the wider narrative we mentioned above.
When you consider this alongside the fact that Overwatch 2’s content roadmap expresses new PvE experiences “beginning in 2023”, but there’s been a drought of information since then, we could be waiting months for more.
Overwatch 2 has the potential to be one of the best competitive FPS games out there, like its predecessor, but maybe Blizzard should focus on the PvE element a little more. Even if they’re low on our Overwatch 2 tier list, this game is full of incredible characters and a story that players have been waiting since 2016 for.