The Star Wars-inspired event in Overwatch 2 seems to be distracting

Overwatch 2recent event stargazingmight as well be licensed star Wars tribute. Although it could be wrong May 4, the new PvP(vE) event is full of legally distinct tributes to the series, from a tribute to the iconic text indexing in the companion comic to characters like Baptiste donning a bounty hunter skin similar to the Mandalorian outfit. After playing a few rounds in the new mode, I thought it was okay. I appreciate that the Blizzard team probably had a lot of fun remixing their characters, world, and Horizon Lunar Colony map as a tribute to Lucasfilm’s money-making machine. But honestly? I feel empty because these little distractions just aren’t what I signed up for Overwatch 2 was announced. I’m not interested in these spin-offs anymore. i want an Overwatch plot.

stargazingwith events such as Zlomenstein’s Revenge AND Yeti hunterit’s more of a weapon Overwatch 2systems for a bit of non-canon lightness. This time it’s A star Wars homage while previous events included the Halloween horde mode where Reinhardt tells everything like a spooky ghost story for off-duty agents. It’s all really cute, and if we hadn’t gone seven years without significant story development in the game, it would have been some really fun detours on the way to Overwatch and Talon’s brawl. But after all this time? It just doesn’t get to me. i want to get excited Overwatch 2events, but even though the sequel essentially works as a relaunch, it still feels like we’re in the same content drought that the original game was before it went free and slapped 2 name.

I would feel better about the state of things stargazing it didn’t feel like such a modest remix of established mechanics and systems. The event has only one mode, which brings back the long-dormant Horizon Lunar Colony map Overwatch 2 Removed Rush maps from Quickplay and Competitive Rotation. Two teams (one of which requires an AI-controlled Doomfist that loves to charge behind enemy lines and power up its final charge) fight and score four points on the map, all under the guise of engaging in a new storyline Blizzard has written for the mode . Doomfist leads a group of rebels infiltrating Emperor Sigma’s base to rescue his friend and mech 3CH-0 (that’s Echo. Got it?) from his clutches and survive to fight for galactic freedom another day.

It is quite light in terms of knowledge and even Blizzard comic released with the mode contributes little, but star Wars the similarities are quite obvious. The Doomfist group is a bunch of feisty bullies who believe in fighting for the greater good, while the Sigma group is cold and willing to do anything to maintain their dominion over the galaxy. It’s interesting how it remixes a few of these characters, allowing each character to basically cosplay in a role they wouldn’t necessarily fit into a real one Overwatch world. Bridgetone of the nicest members of the cast, is cast as Emperor Sigma’s loyal right-hand man, where Doomfist, the main villain in Overwatch knowledge leads rebellion stargazing. It allows the voice actors to flex a bit and is interesting to watch as a thought experiment.

In addition, stargazing that’s a lot of what we’ve been doing for thousands of hours before. It changes the points the team must capture from the original map and has turrets placed around the field that act as Torbjörn’s turret, targeting opposing players passing by. There are also gravity wells that, when destroyed, trigger the Graviton Surge effect that groups players together, like Zarya’s Ultimate. But really, the things they create stargazing the things we already had are special Overwatch earlier, which is why it doesn’t feel like a big jump in seasonal content Overwatch 2 requirements.

In fairness to all involved, Overwatch 2PvE story missions are coming, albeit Blizzard it was claustrophobic on how it will integrate story into the game’s seasonal model. But given Overwatcha hard shift to periodic deployments in the style of a service game, I expect it to be rolled out in parts rather than as a single campaign. It makes sense. Service games live or die depending on whether or not they give people a reason to log on from time to time, and running a campaign of eight to twelve hours at a time is no way to extend the shelf life of a game. But when Overwatch 2 launched, it was supposed to be a shot in the shoulder for the game. Instead, events like make it seem like you’re just treading water.

Hopefully whenever Blizzard starts releasing story content like events stargazing they can feel what the development team is probably feeling: fun remixes of old ideas that pay homage to the things they like. But right now, I’m watching these altered modes come out every season, positioned as new ways to understand the characters and the world Overwatchand I realize I still don’t know them very well. I have an idea of ​​what Soldier: 76 is when I play him, and I dream of what Sombra might find for herself by searching Talon’s database. Hell, I could write you a whole novel about how I feel about dating Lifeweaver and Baptiste discuss this in pre-match dialogue entered. But a lot of it is just things I imagined between the lines of dialogue characters they say before they start pushing their loads. It’s been almost 10 years since Blizzard first unveiled Overwatch at Blizzcon 2014and I’m bored of the feeling that these characters are just toys that I play against myself with different costumes and non-canon stories.