‘Overwatch 2’: Downsized Story Release Date Announced, But It’ll Cost Ya

Activision Blizzard is hoping players will just pretend this is better than what they promised before.

Overwatch came out in 2016 and solidified the “Hero Shooter” genre as more than just Team Fortress 2 while also killing Battleborne as hard as possible. The game was a huge hit and only got bigger with new characters, events, skins, and more with very few microtransactions. Any paid content was loot boxes with everything else just coming with the game. Activision Blizzard decided this model wasn’t working and announced Overwatch 2 officially announced in 2019.

Overwatch 2 was immediately considered pointless by everyone still playing Overwatch 1 since nothing they showed seemed like it was needed. They were going to change how some characters played, looked, and make teams smaller by limiting them to 1 tank per team. The only interesting thing going for it was a brand new in-depth story PvE mode that would justify Overwatch needing a sequel instead of just updating the original game. Well, that mode was canceled and it was announced they were still going to give PvE content, just not anything nearly as promising. We finally got new info on this mode and people are not happy with it already.

Invasion!

Activision Blizzard has announced on its Overwatch site that the scaled-back story missions would start rolling out on August 10th. The story will be continuing off of the “Zero Hour” cinematic shown 3 years ago that teased the original version of the story mode. They gave a synopsis of what to expect to learn story-wise from the new PvE:

“In Zero Hour, we saw the rogue Omnic group, Null Sector, invade Paris. It was thanks to Winston, Tracer, Mei, and a handful of other heroes that the city was saved from destruction. However, the global invasion has only just begun.

Null Sector is bringing utter destruction to every city and seems to have an ulterior motive to kidnap Omnics for an unknown purpose. It’s up to the new Overwatch team to find out what their plans are and put a stop to them, but they’ll need help from past allies and new faces alike if they hope to stand a chance.”

via Activision Blizzard

The mode is called Overwatch 2: Invasion and will have 3 missions that take place in Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, and Gothenburg with players fighting a variety of enemies and completing complex objectives. This mode is most likely similar to some of the story missions made for Overwatch 1. Unlike that game though, this stuff isn’t free.

15 Bucks, Little Man

You read right, this new story content will be paid DLC for the game and will minimum cost you $15 USD. They will be offering special bundles that will give players permanent access to the story missions as well as some special content with the bundles.

The Overwatch 2: Invasion Bundle for $15 USD will give players:

• Access to the Overwatch 2: Invasion Story Missions, during the season and permanently after
• 1,000 Overwatch Coins (equal to the Premium Battle Pass, $10 USD value)
• A brand-new Sojourn Legendary skin ($19 USD value)
• Permanent access to Sojourn as a playable hero for new players: unlocked upon completing Story Mission challenges.

via Activision Blizzard

That is the cheaper bundle amount with there also being an “Ultimate Invasion Bundle” that will cost you $40 USD. Buyers of the Overwatch 2: Ultimate Invasion Bundle will receive to everything in the other bundle as well as:

• The Null Sector Premium Battle Pass with 20 Battle Pass skips ($30 USD value)
• An additional 1,000 Overwatch Coins, for a total of 2,000 Overwatch Coins ($20 USD value)
• Two additional Legendary skins for Cassidy and Kiriko ($38 USD value).

This information has fans upset since they would have gladly paid for the original PvE and having to pay any amount of money for this scaled-back version feels like a slap in the face to them.

But wait, there’s more!

The update promises to be the game’s biggest yet, so the story stuff isn’t the only stuff coming on August 10th. It will also have a special co-op mission on King’s Row where players will be guiding a ” well-armed TS-1 push bot” on a mission to save Iggy and the rest of the Omnic Underworld from Null Sector. This new co-op mission will have new objectives and Null sector enemies on the map. 

The new content will also have a whole new PVP core game mode available for all players in Quick Play or Competitive Play called Flashpoint. The mode will introduce 2 new areas that will be the biggest PvP maps in the game yet.

via Activision Blizzard

The last update for it will be “Hero Mastery Mode” which will be a set of training courses designed around each hero where players will compete for the highest leaderboard score. It will be for only a select set of heroes at first but will have more later on.

I’d say to give the game a chance with all this content except Activision Blizzard has shown they can’t be trusted more and more to just not be greedy. They even announced starting August 10th that there will just be bundles to unlock all the current heroes for $5 for the original Overwatch 1 roster with some extras or $20 for them, the newer characters, and even more extras.

Overwatch 2 is the biggest waste of a very popular new IP I have ever seen. The franchise went from one of the coolest, laid-back shooters out there into basically a predatory mobile game with how much it wants to take your money. If you are still playing Overwatch 2 because you still like it, more power to you. If you are on the fence still about the game, this new content doesn’t look like it will be changing anyone’s mind. Long live Overwatch 1. We miss you. 

“I tried being reasonable. Didn’t take to it.” – Cassidy, Overwatch

Author: Spider-Mike

Spider-Mike is a staff writer who is a regular co-host on the let's play channel Rage Select and regular contributor to One of US.net for over 5 years. Born in Austin, but raised on the border of Texas and Mexico. He has been gaming since the NES and jokes that he has a Masters in Spider-Man, Superman, and Dragon Ball.