Overwatch 2: Invasion will kick off season 6 of the Blizzard game and with it finally deliver story missions into the hands of Overwatch players. Longtime players of Overwatch have had years of “Archive” missions previously with the game, shorter narrative-based events that were all set during the past of Overwatch’s larger storyline. With Overwatch 2: Invasion’s story missions, the actual story will move forward for the first time, progressing past the Winston’s recall short that greeted players when they booted up the original Overwatch. But how different are these modes really? Luckily for Overwatch 2 players, the story missions will be much bigger and different from Archives.
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Overwatch 2’s story missions has completely rebuilt its PvE AI
Speaking with ComicBook.com in a roundtable interview, developers from the Overwatch 2 team opened up about what actually separates story missions from the previous archives missions. In the past, players could easily master the Overwatch Archives missions after just a handful of play throughs, knowing the exact moments that enemies would appear and that simply firing in their direction would be enough. Overwatch 2‘s story missions have completely altered their AI, not only in terms of how they operate across difficulties but in how they attack.
Senior Game Designer Dylan Snyder revealed that the Archives missions (first released in 2017, 2018, and 2019) revealed a lot to the team about how players would interact with the AI in the PVE modes. As a result, the AI was “rebuilt from the ground up.” By doing this, the Overwatch 2 PVE AI will now be less preditcable for players and even more aggressive.
“Additionally we have the the destructible limb system,” Snyder revealed. “For Null Sector in particular that makes kind of engaging with the ecology and these enemies really fun and enjoyable. We developed an ecology, we kind of have an experience statement that is what do we want players to feel when they are dealing with this ecology and for no sector that is kind of just this endless tide of, of unfeeling and remorseful machines pushing in on you from from all sides. And I think we’ve really nailed that feel in tandem with the destructible limbs. You could take a head off, an arm, legs, whatever, and they’ll keep coming. So you really need to double or triple tap to make sure that you finish off the encounter. And I think that already adds a whole bunch of layers to our combat and our encounters that weren’t present necessarily in Archives.”
He adds, “These are the best encounters and the best missions we’ve ever made. And we’re just constantly learning from that. So I think I think people will be surprised at how impressive the AI is in a lot of place.”
Overwatch 2 story missions have totally changed how difficulties work
Another key difference in Overwatch‘s classic Archives missions and Overwatch 2‘s Story Missions is in the difficulties. Easy, Normal, Expert, and Legendary in the classic missions was in how much damage the AI did and how much health they were given. Dylan Snyder also confirmed that the up in difficulty isn’t just these values being given a boost, noting that each difficulty has been crafted so that it feels “fresh, relevant and appropriate for that difficulty.” Snyder teased that Overwatch 2 Story Missions on Legendary is going to be tough for some, and that it won’t be a walk in the park.
“I think there were maybe some aspects about Archives where you can plop on the payload and just shoot from there and call it a day,” Game Producer Monika Lee added. “With the different units… You have to be clever about the different areas around the map and especially your communication with other players and your teammates…Once you get to legendary you really have to be clever about where you’re at certain moments and positioning and it makes for some very sweaty moments for sure.”
Overwatch 2 Story Missions will be way longer than Archives missions
The Overwatch Archives missions were previously just built on top of the PVP maps from the regular game, with very little change except for shading and maybe a couple of extra barriers. With Overwatch 2‘s Story Missions however, the maps have been rebuilt for the purposes of being part of this experience. Players will of course recognize Paraíso and New Queen Street in the Rio de Janeiro and Toronto story missions, but what they take part in will be way bigger than what players are used to from PVP.
“We make custom maps for every single one of the (story) missions. So that’s that’s a substantial difference,” Scott Lawlor the Director of Audio and Technical Narrative Design said when comparing it to Archives. “The missions are quite a bit longer, I’d say at least, a third or a half as long and the storytelling is much more paced and designed with the maps recreated alongside the storytelling. So the areas are built for this encounter, and this moment to happen to move to the next thing and and to do that in like a synchronized multiplayer game is a challenge…Each mission could be, if you take the gameplay and the cinematics and all that into account, you’re spending a good half hour, forty minutes on each one of these, which is pretty substantial.”
Overwatch 2: Invasion launches today, August 10th, featuring not only the new game mode Flashpoint but also the new hero Illari, Overwatch 2 story missions, Hero Mastery, and more..
