On May 24, 2016, Blizzard finally released their team-based competitive shooter Overwatch that captivated audiences. A diverse cast of characters that all brought their own unique skills and abilities along with fantastically arcing storylines that continued to resonate across animated Overwatch shorts and graphic novels that fans consumed faster than Blizzard could hope to produce.
Yet there were growing pains, and fans have been desperately awaiting Overwatch 2 that has been seemingly on the cusp of release for the past two years, although there has been little mentioned from official channels. Today, on the first day of Blizzcon, Blizzard finally offered a bit of news for Overwatch 2.
Assault maps, better known by players as 2CP maps, are not going to be in competitive play for Overwatch 2. Blizzard has attempted to make Assault maps work as it originally imagined within Overwatch, multiple times. In mid-2019, Blizzard nerfed the additional time teams get when successfully capturing a point in Assault. On July 30, Blizzard pushed forward an experimental card that it noted as 'failed' that would have teams alternate between attacking the first point, then the second point.
Still, matches would snowball quickly, resulting in attacking teams grabbing both points in quick succession before a competent defense could be mounted. Other times they would simply refuse to end, as both teams would successively mount agile offenses that would take advantage of the snowball opportunity, resulting in matches that could reach over 35 minutes of gameplay. There was a happy medium that Blizzard clearly envisioned, but it's safe to say that it couldn't find said medium in the past five years.
Game director Jeff Kaplan further clarified the statement of Blizzard's intent within the Overwatch Creator Discord channel: 2CP will still be available somewhere in Overwatch 2, likely still to be found in both arcade and custom games. Overwatch 2 will not add any further 2CP maps into Overwatch 2, but the new title will still hold the original Overwatch Assault maps.
This could also incite new problems within Overwatch 2, however. 2CP was originally added with the intent of shaking up the standard pacing of play, offering additional avenues for players to experiment with team compositions and heroes. Some heroes, such as Bastion and Symmetra, can struggle to find proper purchase outside of an Assault map. This could also hinder the overall time that players are willing to spend grinding competitive Overwatch 2 matches for days on end if the maps can't offer enough variance to ensure that players don't feel as they're repeating the same task in a different environment.
Regardless of how this may all eventually shake out for the arriving Overwatch 2, it's admittedly difficult to downplay the sheer excitement coming from fans of the team and ability-based shooter. With new Overwatch heroes on the horizon to join into the fray, fans of Overwatch have a lot to look forward to.
Overwatch 2 is currently still under development by Blizzard.
MORE:Â Don't Expect Overwatch 2 To Release Anytime Soon
Source: Rod Breslau/Twitter