Blizzard's hero-shooter, Overwatch 2, has been facing a lot of criticism ever since it was announced that the PvE mode and its talent trees were canceled. Future seasons will likely be closely watched by its community, though several features being added to the game have some fans optimistic. With the return of the Overwatch World Cup bringing the community together alongside a jam-packed sixth season on the horizon, the hero shooter appears to be on the right track.
Season 6 was described by Blizzard as being the "most exciting season yet" as the company will be introducing Invasion Story Missions, a new Support hero, the Flashpoint game mode, and more. In the meantime, while players wait, the game is implementing a fresh arcade game mode during Season 5. This information comes from the Overwatch 2 Roadmap from May that confirmed a new Mischief and Magic mode set for July 25, following the return of the fan-favorite Lucioball on July 11.
Mischief and Magic Has Immense Potential
The Mischief and Magic game mode appears to be perfectly in line with the Mythic Adventure theme of the latest season. The use of the word "magic" in the title is doing well to continue the trend of fantastical elements within Overwatch 2 Season 5. However, not much is known about the game mode as Blizzard has remained tight-lipped.
From what little has been revealed about Mischief and Magic, the event appears to be Overwatch 2's take on Prop Hunt, which initially originated from Counter Strike: Source in 2012 before it was ported to Garry's Mod. There are plenty of games that let people play as furniture or other objects that have each seen their own successes. As such, it's no surprise that Blizzard will be adding a similar game mode.
Mischief and Magic is likely to be featured in the Arcade, similar to past events such as Starwatch: Galactic Rescue and Defeat the Demon Lord. From the brief glimpse in the Season 5 Trailer, fans saw Kiriko running around the first part of Blizzard World to hide from Genji. In a matter of seconds, she transforms herself into a seemingly innocuous barrel. The goal of the game is likely to hide in different spots as best as one can. The winning team in these types of games is usually the one that finds all the fake props or the players that hide well enough not to be caught.
This prop hunt mode is expected to be popular among the Overwatch 2 community, especially since it will probably have more replayability than past game modes. Past Overwatch 2 events have been accused of being repetitive, which means people may not play the mode more than once or twice. Prop hunt, however, is similar to hide-and-seek, which leaves everything up to its players, rather than a storyline.
Fortnite is another free-to-play shooter that has fairly recently added custom prop hunt game modes, though these are entirely player created. Prop Hunt maps in Fortnite being so personalized to the player's interests means that the games have a unique touch, and Overwatch 2 could borrow this concept and add the Mischief and Magic tools to the Workshop for similar fun. Fans of the game have already proven themselves to be incredibly creative when making custom lobbies, and it's likely that they would enjoy making new props and adding Mischief and Magic to more maps.
Since Mischief and Magic is a limited-time game mode, this would be an exciting way to let fans continue playing it. Whether Blizzard will consider this as an option remains to be seen. It isn't impossible, especially since Overwatch 2 is constantly reworking itself to make players' experiences that much better.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
