Overwatch 2 Player Progression Gets Praise From Gamers — But Not Hero Mastery
Overwatch 2: Invasion is getting close and developers have shared a lot of insight in a recent livestream for the upcoming season. One of the most exciting updates is a new hero progression system that gamers couldn’t help but commend.
During the Invasion livestream, developers went over a lot of new information about mastering heroes and showing off your skills with said hero. But not all of it was popular with players.
Overwatch 2 Players Hate Hero Mastery
Overwatch 2: Invasion is getting something called Hero Mastery. This new game mode is solo content that’s meant to allow gamers to improve with certain heroes or try out new ones.
“You can learn a different playstyle and maybe find out if you actually like healing people,” joked Senior Game Producer Kim Horn.
According to Art Director Dion Rogers, the Hero Mastery mode is a holographic simulation room created by Winston. Each hero gets their own unique simulation with challenges based around their abilities and playstyle.
In the livestream, Overwatch 2 players watched a Mercy main practicing her Guardian Angel ability and mobility and a Winston player learning exactly how to time and aim his Jump Pack.
Developers said that there will be five heroes with challenges in Hero Mastery when Invasion launches on August 10, 2023. New heroes will be getting simulations over time.
“It started with a few of us on the team saying that our kids are starting to want to play Overwatch and we wanted a safe space for them to learn how to play that isn’t in the live game,” Horn said of how the mode came to be.
The Overwatch 2 community reacted with outrage to say the least. All of the comments were negative as the stream continued, with players joking that they wanted a “refund” despite the game being free. Others said it was time to uninstall the game.
Overwatch 2 Players Love Player Progression
When the livestream switched to something called player progression, gamers wrote: “Wait, this actually looks cool.”
A lot of the hate simmered down as Aaron Keller discussed the new player progression system coming to Overwatch 2 this summer. Unlike the original Overwatch, this system would recognize the way people play the game with each individual hero.
No matter which game mode you play, your playstyle will be tracked in a lot of different categories, including damage done and healing done. Each category will be leveled up based on your in-game performance. As you go up in levels, you’ll earn badges for your heroes.
“There’s no cap on the levels,” Keller said. “We don’t want to incentivize you to play the game in a particular way to fill it all out. It’s about your own playstyle and we want everybody’s own player progression board to be a unique reflection of how they play that hero.”
As you progress through the different categories, you’ll unlock name cards that will be customized based on how you play and progress.
