PvE in Overwatch 2 is dead. Or? My MMO demon Cortyn still played the 3 PvE missions and was pleasantly surprised.
Like most Overwatch fans, I was stunned a few months ago when Blizzard “in passing” canceled Overwatch 2’s hero mode. The large, coherent PvE campaign with customizable talents and character levels has been eliminated. It’s “simply not the plan anymore”. But PvE was still to come, in the form of missions tied to individual seasons.
To be honest, no matter what Blizzard might say, the outrage at the broken promise will never be recaptured and the wounds won’t heal anytime soon.
Regardless, I still looked forward to the PvE missions because I love the Overwatch world and characters. Accordingly, I grabbed a few friends and bought the 3 PvE missions – together with the Battle Pass, since we play regularly anyway, for 15 €.
When I bought it, I assumed that I would end up saying: “Yes, it’s all rubbish, it’s not worth it” – but that turned out to be a fallacy.
Heroes finally talking to each other
Each of the three missions is embedded by two cinematics that play at the beginning and end of the mission. The cutscenes are an absolute highlight and finally show what fans have been asking for since the launch of Overwatch 1: correct interactions between the heroes.
There is absolutely nothing to complain about in the cutscenes. They’re a reasonable length and you just can’t help but grin in satisfaction when the heroes finally do what you’ve been waiting for for over 8 years.
Linear gameplay – but it works
But let’s get to the gameplay itself.
A mission lasts around 20 minutes (varying with the level of difficulty) and each mission is completely linear.
You can see through the “flow” of a card quite quickly. There is an open, large area in which a long battle awaits. Then you go through corridors or streets in which there are only a few enemies and some dialogues take place. Afterwards you stand in the next open area, where another bigger fight is pending.
It stays that way in all missions. It’s not particularly creative and you’ve seen it all before, but it works solidly.
The goals are different, even if in the end it always comes down to “kill all enemies”. Sometimes you have to protect a ship with limited life points so that refugees can escape.
Then again, preventing a certain enemy type from getting too close to the civilian and being able to use an ability.
I’ve caught myself excitedly yelling “Brainsucker right!” or “Something’s damaging the ship!” on the Discord a number of times, so the tension is definitely there.
9 enemy types with their own abilities
Also the enemy types are not as boring as known from other Overwatch events. There are, for example, the small, agile slicers that simply sprint straight through to a mission objective in order to destroy the ship, for example. The artillery units are big and massive and blast Reinhardt’s shield with a few shots, but are vulnerable to a charge attack in the nearest abyss at the right moment.
But the “Stalkers” were particularly cool. These eerily laughing omnics are reminiscent of “Banshees” from Mass Effect 3. They pick a single character, lift them up in the air and let them slowly levitate towards them. If the character reaches the stalker, his life points are used up very quickly – even Reinhardt is gone in 2-3 seconds, Tracer even dismantles it immediately.
This “instant kill” can only be prevented by a stun or a shove ability. Characters like Brigitte can free themselves with Butt Strike, but Reinhardt can’t use his Charge while being pulled in by a Stalker. This makes team play particularly important.
A small highlight is also the menu of the PvE missions. That’s Winston’s desk, and there’s a lot to discover there. Not only can you see all the cinematics again, you can also see a lot of lore information. The e-mails in particular are a hit and should put a smile on many a face.
Nevertheless, after playing the three cards, this uneasy feeling remains in the back of your mind. The three missions are good and show a glimpse of what a proper Overwatch 2 campaign could have been. 20, 30 or even more interesting missions with lots of great cutscenes that have series quality.
The three “Invasion” missions show that an Overwatch campaign would have worked no matter what – and that knowledge makes them hard to stomach at times. Mainly because it’s not at all clear when we’ll get missions next. Because that might not be the case until 2024.
This “bite content” just isn’t what Overwatch’s characters or we as a player community deserve.
Questionable level of difficulty – nothing suitable there
The only gameplay point of criticism for me is the level of difficulty of the missions. There are Normal, Hard, Expert, and Legendary.
The difference between “Hard” and “Expert” is so massive that we weren’t quite sure if it was intended that way. On “Hard” you can roll through the map with the left mouse button pressed and only occasionally have to take cover. However, on “Expert” we already had a few situations in which strong enemies were so numerous that after death we were sure: We would only have survived that if we had had at least 3 ultimates at the same time.
There was clearly a lack of difficulty here that was a reasonable, interesting challenge for my group.
Is it worth? Yes but no
Whether the PvE missions are worthwhile for the individual is difficult to say. If you still check Overwatch 2 regularly anyway and earn rewards from the Battle Pass, then – in my opinion – the additional €5 for the 3 PvE cards are clearly worth their price.
But if you’re just starting Overwatch 2 for the PvE maps and don’t care for the Battle Pass, then $15 is a pretty steep price for a few hours of entertainment with little – but existent – replay value. In that case, it would probably be best not to buy the PvE cards.
Quite independently, it has to be said that this type of map publication is quite a mess. If you could also buy the 3 missions individually for 5 €, that would be a completely different situation. But it is the forced situation that you can only enjoy the PvE missions if you buy the bundle for 15 €.
These 3 missions are simply not worth 15 €, even if they were a lot of fun for me.
Overwatch 2 has now also launched on Steam – and promptly became one of the worst games of all time.