Confirming the rumors and leaks, Blizzard Entertainment today announced Overwatch 2, a direct sequel to its popular hero shooter from 2016. See the brand new cinematic announcement trailer above, which sets the stage for the new game, where the heroes are gathering together to fight against a global Null Sector attack.
Overwatch 2 is primarily about putting gamers together for four-player cooperative missions. These are split into Story and Hero missions, with the former focusing on advancing the plot surrounding the aforementioned robotic invasion, while the latter are "highly replayable" missions that have teams accomplishing more standard objectives like defending cities and taking down Talon agents.
Hero Missions are also where players will be able to level up heroes and go on special ability customization sprees, such as where Tracer"s pulse bomb can be upgraded to offer a chain reaction and Reinhardt’s Fire Strike can set fire to nearby enemies, among other enhancements.
Blizzard says the game"s engine has gone through various upgrades for the sequel to make possible the much larger maps needed for co-op missions, visual enhancements, as well as the wider variety of new enemies and factions.
"With Overwatch 2, we’re building the cooperative, narrative-driven game experience that players have been asking for since the original—and that we’ve wanted to make for a long time," said Blizzard Entertainment president J. Allen Brack. "We’re looking forward to telling the next chapter of this epic story in-game, and we’re excited to give players a whole-new kind of co-op experience built around progressing and customizing their favorite heroes—all while providing even more of everything they love about Overwatch today."
All this doesn"t mean Overwatch 2 will solely be cooperative, however, as Blizzard also said the sequel will be the "beginning of a new era for the series’ world-renowned competitive 6v6 play."
All of the 31 heroes, as well as maps, and modes from the original game will be present in the sequel, alongside multiple new regions as well as characters - like Sojourn that we see in the gameplay trailer above. All progression of players and their cosmetic loot are being carried forward from the original as well, so everyone will begin their journey with all their gear intact.
There will also be a brand new game mode named Push, where the two teams will be competing to build a robot that pushes an objective over to the opponent"s side to win.
However, the original hero shooter - now 50 million players strong - is not being left behind, as cross-play is happening between the two games. In addition to the regular content, Overwatch players will also be able to join Overwatch 2 maps and use its heroes in PVP multiplayer, basically stopping the playerbase from splitting by gathering everyone into the same servers.
No release date or pricing information was revealed for Overwatch 2 today, though we can expect more details about the game to be revealed as BlizzCon continues. Head over and explore the new Overwatch 2 portal Blizzard has set up on its website to get glimpses of the new maps, visuals, missions, and more.