It is no secret that Blizzard struggled to search out an id for Overwatch 2. When the hero shooter sequel launched in 2022, it did so with the expectation that it might, finally, include an expansive PvE mode that included adjustments to hero kits and new methods to play. However that mode was scrapped. The swap from 6v6 matches to 5v5 introduced with it pervasive stability points that skewed towards making each function a harm function and required a number of seasons’ value of changes to repair.
After three years of false begins, Blizzard lastly has a brand new imaginative and prescient for Overwatch 2 — and it really works, to date. It is constructed on a extra hands-off method that prioritizes participant selection and digging deeper into what affiliate director Alec Dawson described as the sport’s “hero fantasy” in a current media roundtable. Season 19’s flagship occasion, Haunted Masquerade, is the end result of all of the adjustments Blizzard has made up so far and a signifier of issues to return.
Haunted Masquerade sees gamers don a masks representing one other hero, which grants them passive buffs and different perks. Sure combos activate particular powers, like Brigitte and Reinhardt teaming as much as deploy a mighty defend or Winston getting Tracer’s recall capability, which creates new alternatives for find out how to use his bubble defend extra successfully.
“There is a actually massive incentive to experiment and truly strive new skills and check out completely different heroes, possibly [more] than you usually would in your regular play,” Dawson says.
It is the form of occasion you in all probability would not have seen prior to now. In earlier years, Blizzard added restricted modes that modified how heroes performed, however at all times in a managed method. Junkenstein’s Lab, one in every of Overwatch 2′s staple Halloween occasions, consists of “mutations” that alter hero expertise just like perks, however every hero solely has a small choice to select from. In distinction, each playable character in Haunted Masquerade has a masks, which suggests there’s 22 combos and doubtless dozens of the way for gamers to make use of passive results that Blizzard by no means even meant.
You may assume 22 is not all that a lot (you would be mistaken; lead designer Kirill Perekrest says it took weeks of testing to make sure all the pieces labored correctly), however giving gamers that a lot flexibility and selection over how a match unfolds is a marked distinction to how Blizzard dealt with Overwatch 2 previous to 2025. That distinction is solely by design.
“There was a giant push this yr for participant selection, [and] a whole lot of the issues we have been constructing are very a lot about your hero and your selections,” Dawson says. “We had been actually on the lookout for techniques that might sit on prime of Overwatch that weren’t too heavy and allowed you to have some variability from recreation to recreation, however allow you to keep versatile together with your hero.”
It began with the addition of perks, which allow you to change features of a hero’s package when you attain sure milestones throughout a match. Then Blizzard launched Stadium mode, with dozens of powers that alter how character expertise work. There are much more permutations relying on which modifiers you decide, a few of that are solely out there for those who carry out effectively throughout a spherical. The staff additionally modified Flashpoint maps, so gamers might select their routes of assault and factors of engagement extra freely.
This hands-off method that prioritizes participant selection has gone over effectively, a lot in order that Dawson says the staff is beginning to take a look at methods to hold the design philosophy into the long run. He says Overwatch 2‘s designers are serious about methods to “evolve heroes additional” with play kinds that “could also be much more of a flip than what you are getting proper now with perks.”
“There’s a whole lot of hero fantasy that we need to discover inside even every hero’s package, and we’re not achieved but,” Dawson says.
Overwatch 2 will nonetheless be recognizably Overwatch 2, although. Dawson tells us that no matter how the sport adjustments over time, “coming collectively as a staff” will stay its id. A few of the potential future plans underneath dialogue embody instructing gamers find out how to get essentially the most out of a hero’s current kits and find out how to play collectively extra successfully (regardless of eradicating teachable moments from hero development not too long ago).
Occasions like Haunted Masquerade — and the participant suggestions that follows them — assist the design staff determine what sort of adjustments must turn out to be everlasting. Workforce selection is the main focus in Haunted Masquerade, for instance, and it follows inner discussions about methods to encourage extra experimentation amongst gamers. Blizzard desires to softly prod them into choosing characters that swimsuit their staff composition, not simply the one they assume appears cool. If, as an illustration, the remainder of a staff is gearing up for a dive composition (groups that rush in, sow chaos, and escape rapidly), Dawson says they need gamers to acknowledge that they should decide somebody whose package helps that playstyle.
This new push began with a small change, displaying gamers who their teammates’ prime three heroes are. However Blizzard is on the lookout for methods to make the recommendations extra direct going ahead. This yr’s Halloween occasion consists of unmissable parts within the choice menu that virtually scream “you may get one thing good for those who pair us collectively,” although Blizzard is contemplating barely much less intrusive choices for the long term, together with a attainable “beneficial heroes” choice.
Haunted Masquerade runs in the course of the first half of Overwatch 2 season 19, which is reside now on console and PC.
