Highlights
- Overwatch 2’s PvE content has gone through significant changes, with promised hero missions and skill trees being canceled.
- Fans have been eagerly waiting for updates on the next set of story missions and are concerned about the lack of information from Blizzard.
- The slow release of story missions and long gaps between batches have caused the momentum of Overwatch 2’s PvE content to halt, potentially losing casual players’ interest. In season 9, some kind of progress update on the upcoming story missions would be reassuring.
PvE content within Overwatch 2 has had a turbulent history to say the least. Originally used to justify the existence of a sequel, a full PvE campaign was promised in addition to hundreds of replayable hero missions and deep skill trees for each character. Unfortunately, this would not come to pass, with the hero missions and skill trees officially canceled in 2023. As for the campaign, the decision was made to release the story missions in batches, with the first set releasing in Season 6. However, since then, fans have been waiting patiently for updates on the story mode.
The last update Blizzard shared about Overwatch 2‘s story missions was that none would be coming in Season 7 or Season 8, as the company was planning to take feedback about the first mission set, Invasion, into consideration. With complaints about the missions’ pricing, a lack of replayability, and repetitiveness, there are some clear areas to work on, making this approach understandable. However, with the end of Season 8 less than a month away at the time of writing, fans could desperately use some kind of confirmation that more story content is not far off.
While Trials of Sanctuary was a fun PvE LTM during the Halloween season, and the Hero Mastery Gauntlet mode could be highly replayable, story missions are especially exciting because of their cinematics and character interactions.
Overwatch 2’s Big Healing Change is Coming at a Risky Time
Though balancing changes in Overwatch 2 are often controversial, talk of a heal passive for all roles coming in Season 9 may be incredibly risky.
Where is Overwatch 2’s Second Set of PvE Missions?
The Lack of Info on The Future of Overwatch 2 PvE is Worrying
While game director Aaron Keller and Executive Producer Jared Neuss have done a terrific job of keeping the Overwatch 2 community updated on PvP changes as of late, ensuring that the overall state of the game is healthier than it has been in quite some time, essentially nothing has been said about PvE since Season 6. With several months having passed and the calendar being flipped to usher in a new year, lore lovers are desperate for some kind of indication that the next batch of PvE levels is still on track. After all, the more time that passes, the less likely fans are to stay invested in the story Blizzard is trying to tell.
The entire goal of Overwatch 2’s PvE mode was to move the story forward at a faster pace after the original game essentially kept things stagnant for years. While the full story mode that was originally planned would have accomplished this, as players could have experienced a lengthy story in one sitting, releasing a batch of missions every six months has essentially taken Overwatch 2 right back to square one. Once again, the story is moving at a snail’s pace, and with so much time passing between mission drops, casual players have likely forgotten what happened during Invasion. While the wait between the second and third batches of missions will hopefully be shorter, assuming that Blizzard rectifies the issues fans had with Invasion, the gap between the first and second mission sets has killed the momentum of the hero shooter’s PvE content.
Overwatch 2 Season 9 Has to Provide Some Kind of Update on PvE
Whether it is via a big or small info dump from Blizzard, Overwatch 2’s next season should let PvE fans know what is next for the story missions. Ideally, a larger roadmap that tells players when they can expect the next few batches of missions (and how many more batches there will even be) would be exciting. However, if Blizzard is still unsure about when it will be able to continue the story that it started with Invasion, then just giving players a loose release window for the next batch of missions would still be helpful. Given how disappointing 2023’s PvE update was, any more bad news would be truly heartbreaking, though it is hard for players not to worry about the future of story missions when so little has been said about them lately.
Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2 is Blizzard’s free-to-play team-based first-person shooter. The title features some new heroes like Junker Queen and Sojourn, as well as returning favorites.
