It seems many developers of live-service games want players to experience the "good-old-days". Blizzard is the latest studio to jump on the nostalgia train, as Overwatch 2 is getting a series of new events aiming to bring back slices of gameplay from the original game as it evolved through the years.
Dubbed Overwatch: Classic, these events will fans "experience the original heroes, abilities, and maps in the classic 6v6 team-based action you remember." The first of these events is already live in the free-to-play Overwatch 2, which takes players all the way back to May 2016.
"Each Overwatch: Classic event will feature heroes and balance from popular moments in the game’s history, ranging from the fast paced and frantic gameplay of the 2017 Moth Meta to the triple-tank, triple-support style of "Goats"," explains Blizzard in a blog post.
The currently live Classic experience touts the 1.0 release"s high-risk high-reward gameplay, and throws out the role locks and hero limits entirely. This means teams can consist of all tanks, all Widowmakers, or any combination they can think of. This free-for-all hero picking session will only last a few days into the Classic event though.
Their Ultimate abilities will function like this:
In general, each hero will be able to power up their Ultimate ability a lot faster than in Overwatch 2, as the general Ultimate Charge cost was much lower back then. Also, any heroes that can be interrupted out of their ultimate can have a portion of their Ultimate charge salvaged depending on when the interruption occurred.
Alongside the classic hero selection, the original 12 launch maps of Overwatch are back too, which can be played across the Assault, Escort, Hybrid, and Control game modes.
The Overwatch: Classic event is live from today, November 12, through December 2 to play for free inside Overwatch 2. Moreover, while this mode does bring back 6v6, Blizzard says the plans it announced recently to bring back the much-requested player count revert will be a separate experience that"s yet to land in Overwatch 2.