Blizzard has effectively canceled the Overwatch 2 campaign co-op PvE mode that was first shown at BlizzCon in 2019. When Overwatch 2 was first revealed to the masses, one of the main selling points of the game was its campaign co-op mode. Very little was shown of the game mode since its initial reveal, and then Overwatch 2 launched in early access with a strict focus on PvP, which understandably made fans very worried about the future of the campaign mode.
Overwatch 2's PvE campaign mode, aka Hero Mode, seemed incredibly ambitious with character-specific progression systems and story missions that would give the hero shooter some much-needed in-game lore and story developments. When it was announced that Overwatch 2 was going to be a free-to-play game, Blizzard indicated that the story mode content would be coming at a later date, but now it's been made clear that it's not coming at all.
Speaking to GameSpot, Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller confirmed that the PvE campaign co-op mode as it was shown at BlizzCon 2019 is no longer in development for the game. "So we are definitely not doing the Hero mode and the talents and the power progression system." That doesn't mean that PvE story missions aren't coming to Overwatch 2, but it's clear that they will be nowhere near the scope that was initially promised. "So the real focus is on the story missions and that experience as opposed to the more open-ended Hero Mode and that stuff."
This sad news was accompanied by the reveal of the new Overwatch 2 roadmap. The roadmap claims that Overwatch 2 story missions are coming as part of Season 6, with the accompanying image showing Lucio, Tracer, Reinhardt, Brigitte, and Mei. Season 6 will apparently also include the debut of a new Support hero, but further details on all this will have to wait until a later date.
In the more immediate future, Overwatch 2 is still in the midst of Season 4, while Season 5 will bring back the On Fire feature and introduce a new limited-time event called Questwatch. Overwatch 2 Season 5 will also see the return of the annual Summer Games event, but details on exactly what that will entail have yet to be announced. But while there definitely seems to be a lot coming to Overwatch 2 for fans to get excited about, there's no denying that many are going to be upset that the PvE campaign co-op mode shown at BlizzCon 2019 has been canned.
Overwatch 2 is out now in early access for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Source: GameSpot