Overwatch 2 Drops the Number — But Adds Story, a Cat with a Jetpack, a New Mistress...
Blizzard held Overwatch Spotlight — a stream dedicated to the next year of updates for Overwatch. Remember the "2" in the name? Forget it: the game is being revamped so drastically that the developers decided to remove the number from the title.
Story and Year Structure
Blizzard remembered that it once planned to fill the Overwatch world with story content and presented a whole bundle of narrative events.
- According to a fresh animated short, the new heroine Vendetta overthrows Doomfist from the position of leader of the "Talon" organization and thereby becomes the game's main villain.
- The entire upcoming year of updates is named after this plot twist — Reign of Talon.
- Season numbering is being reset: the next one won't be season 21, but a season with the cumbersome name "Reign of Talon. Season 1: Conquest" (S1: Conquest).
- Blizzard promises that the entire "Reign" year will be a complete story — with a beginning, middle, and end. The year is divided into six seasons, and each season the story should move forward — through in-game events, trailers, stories, and comics. All of them will be available in a special story section inside Overwatch.
- Current story events will be emphasized through changes on maps and new voice lines. Additionally, special events will take place: for example, in the first season there will be a competition between supporters of "Overwatch" and "Talon" with unique rewards for each side (sides can be changed).
- In 2027, the next story chapter will begin — again from the first season.
New Characters
Throughout the year, Overwatch will add not three characters as before, but ten at once. Moreover, five of them will be released on February 10 — in the upcoming first season.
Below is information about the five new heroes.
Domina
A member of "Talon" and vice president of "Vishkar Industries" — the corporation where Symmetra works.
- Role — tank, similar in gameplay goals to Sigma.
- Main weapon — "Photon Magnum." It fires charging beams.
- Abilities — a semicircular barrier where enemies can break through individual sections; a charge that deals area damage and restores Domina's shield health; a push that stuns opponents if they hit a wall.
- Ultimate ability — "Panopticon." It traps enemies in a special barrier that disables their damage and healing, and after some time explodes.
Emre
A former "Overwatch" agent who devotedly followed the organization's ideals but changed significantly after its disbandment and joined Vendetta.
- Role — assault, similar to a classic soldier but with enhanced mobility.
- Main weapon — rifle firing bursts of three bullets. Aiming can be enabled, which reduces spread but doesn't reduce mobility.
- Abilities — grenades and a secondary weapon in the form of a pistol with explosive projectiles. When using it, Emre gains life steal and increased movement speed and jump height.
- Ultimate ability — "Protocol Override." Emre soars into the air and gets a third weapon — a grenade launcher.
Mizuki
A member of the Hashimoto clan, a Japanese ally of "Talon."
- Role — medic with an emphasis on aggressive gameplay.
- Main feature — a healing aura similar to Lucio. However, Mizuki's aura strengthens when the hero heals allies with other abilities or deals damage.
- Weapon — "Spirit Glaive" projectile that bounces off walls.
- Abilities — "Kasa Healing" which heals a chain of three allies; "Katasiro Return" which increases speed and allows teleportation to the point where the hero started using "Katasiro"; a chain that slows fast enemies and grounds flying ones.
- Ultimate ability — "Kekkai Sanctuary," which creates a protective zone. It absorbs enemy projectiles from outside and heals allies inside.
Anran
Wu Yan's older sister who joined "Overwatch" hoping to change the world for the better.
- Role — assault who relies on mobility and flanking.
- Main weapon — fan that sets opponents on fire. If an enemy catches fire, the alternative attack fans the flames — it starts dealing twice as much damage.
- Abilities — a fiery dash that pushes enemies back and damages them; "Dancing Flame," allowing teleportation between nearby enemies and damaging them again (with each "Flame" strike extending the invulnerability window).
- Ultimate abilities (yes, Anran has two) — if the heroine is alive, she soars into the air and delivers a fire strike to an area; if the heroine is dead, she can explode and resurrect immediately in battle.
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Anran can be tested in a few hours — a character test drive will run from February 5-10 (until the end of the season).
Cat with Jetpack
Little is known about her story — at some point a stray cat simply appeared at the "Overwatch" base in Gibraltar.
- Role — medic who always flies in the air.
- Key ability — "Lifeline," which allows allies to attach to the cat and fly with her.
- Weapon — medium-range projectiles that heal allies and damage opponents.
- Ultimate ability — like "Lifeline," but for enemies: the cat can steal an opponent and, for example, throw them into an abyss.
Gameplay and Interface Change
Roles in the game will be overhauled: each of the three roles will have sub-roles with their own passive abilities.
- Assault will be divided into scouts (see low-health enemies through walls if they've damaged them), flankers (health packs restore more health), specialists (kills temporarily increase reload speed), and snipers (critical damage reduces movement ability cooldown).
- Tanks will be divided into stalwarts (reduced effect from enemy knockback and slows), brawlers (reduced critical damage received and speed boost at low health), and initiators (while the hero is airborne, they slowly restore health).
- Support will be divided into survivors (movement abilities activate passive health regeneration), healers (healing allies through primary weapon also restores your health), and tacticians (can accumulate excess ultimate charge that persists after using ultimate ability).
Due to updated roles, some perks will also change.
Throughout the year, some classic characters will receive "reworks" — details will be shared closer to the third season.
The interface will radically change: according to developers, it's a "complete transformation." After it, menus should become more understandable and faster, flaws of the old interface that players complained about will disappear, and a notification section will appear.
- Special mention of the "Coliseum" interface. In this mode they'll create a simplified progression screen specifically for newcomers — so they won't be scared by the many icons in the ability shop.
In one of the upcoming seasons, they'll remake the match result cards from the first part: players will be able to see achievements of the most outstanding battle participants and vote for favorites.
A "Praise" button will appear in the communication wheel — a special phrase from your character.
Throughout the year, they'll also make changes to map voting, hero bans, and cooldowns.
The Overwatch engine will be gradually updated — including the lighting system, as well as cloth and hair physics.
Cosmetics
- The battle pass theme for the new first season will be the "Overwatch" vs "Talon" confrontation. Additionally, other themed skins will be introduced — for example, for Valentine's Day.
- Loot box contents will be updated: you'll be able to get all standard skins from the shop from the previous six seasons (including, for example, "Doughwatch," but not "mythics" and collaboration skins).
- A new type of loot boxes will appear — esports boxes. Apparently with items that were previously sold in a separate esports tab in the shop.
- Each season of 2026 will add two mythic skins. In the first season, Mercy and Mei will receive such skins, and Juno will get a mythic weapon. In subsequent seasons, "mythics" will appear for Soldier-76, Illari, and Mauga, and mythic weapons for Genji, Hanzo, and Sojourn.
- New collaborations will appear. The nearest one is with "Hello Kitty."
- A new coloring — "Blood Wolf" — will be given for competitive points. If you reach "Diamond" rank, you'll receive a unique skin for Doomfist. In "Coliseum" you can get the "Gladiator" color scheme.
Finally, in the second season a native Overwatch version for Switch 2 will appear, and throughout the year they'll hold esports tournaments again, including a world championship at BlizzCon. This year Overwatch celebrates ten years — as Blizzard hopes, the game will live at least as long again.
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