Highlights
- The Invasion update for Overwatch 2 includes co-operative PvE missions where heroes fight off Omnic forces, giving certain heroes a chance to shine in their place of origin.
- The Gothenburg mission in Overwatch 2's Invasion update focuses on Torbjorn and showcases his abilities and lore, potentially increasing his popularity among players.
- The cinematic cutscenes in the Gothenburg mission contextualize Torbjorn's relationships with his daughter Brigitte, Reinhardt, and Bastion, adding depth to his character and story.
Overwatch 2 recently heralded the release of its sixth in-game season, otherwise known as Invasion. This update is arguably the most anticipated and easily the most expansive that the release has experienced since launching last year, finally delivering on some long-demanded features for the title.
The Invasion update for Overwatch 2 gets its namesake from an invasion of Omnic forces across Earth, namely the sinister group Null Sector. Invasion portrays this via intimate co-operative PvE missions, in which a select roster of Overwatch 2's heroes work together to fend off hordes of robotic armies. These newly introduced missions take place in major cities across the globe, giving certain heroes time to shine within their place of origin. This is particularly evident in Invasion's Gothenburg mission, which sees the damage hero Torbjorn get his own dedicated time in the franchise's narrative spotlight.
Overwatch 2 Invasion: The Gothenburg Mission
One of Invasion's newly introduced missions takes a quartet of pre-selected heroes to the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. Players have to tackle this mission as Reinhardt, Bastion, Torbjorn, and Brigitte, with the mission focusing primarily on Torbjorn's ties and presence within his home city.
The mission itself plays fantastically into Torbjorn's skill-sets, with a large focus being placed on his turrets which have been adapted for defense-focused PvE gameplay. As a master engineer, Torbjorn is responsible for a lot of the defenses placed around Gothenburg, with players eventually taking refuge within his expansive workshop. With steep drops into pits of lava, Torbjorn's workshop is a perfect reflection of the hero's bold nature, and players can use freeze and knockback turrets to repel Null Sector forces.
Gothenburg is a great early indicator of how Overwatch 2's PvE missions can offer great variety from the normal gameplay formula while linking this to character development and lore expansion. The mission does extremely well at finally giving Torbjorn some solid in-game lore that was otherwise relegated to comics, and could bring about a real spike in popularity for the Swedish engineer.
How Overwatch 2's Gothenburg Could Increase Torbjorn's Popularity
From a lore and development perspective, it would not be surprising to see more discourse surrounding Torbjorn following the Gothenburg Invasion level. Like all current Invasion levels, Gothenburg possesses an intro and outro cinematic, with the cinematics of any Overwatch hero doing wonders for the popularity and relevance of any featured characters.
These cinematics contextualize the relationship between Torbjorn and his daughter, the support hero Brigitte. The cutscenes also outline the bond between Torbjorn and Reinhardt, with Reinhardt acting as a kind of mentor for Brigitte in the fight against the Omnic threat. The peculiar relationship between Bastion and Torbjorn is also portrayed, with Torbjorn overcoming his prejudice against the once-hostile robot to develop a friendship with the damage hero. The mission also does a great job of showing Torb as a family man, something that could make him relatable for any parents who enjoy the hero shooter.
The Gothenburg mission also does well to show Torbjorn's in-game kit at its best, with his turret placement ability being a key benefit for any team hoping to survive against Null Sector's waves of adversaries. The unique freeze and knockback turrets show how Invasion can be used to tweak the traditional gameplay formula of Overwatch 2, while promoting the use of specific characters at the same time.
Torbjorn possesses some of the deepest and most important lore in terms of the Omnic war, with his direct links to so many other heroes being immortalized with his own Invasion mission. With this opening up a wide audience to his background and in-game abilities, Invasion could easily result in a huge popularity spike for the longstanding Damage hero.
Overwatch 2 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
