Overwatch 2's PvE mode may be dead, but I'll play the hell out of these story missions

There looks to be a lot more to Overwatch 2's co-op PvE missions than I would've thought after Blizzard said it had severely reduced its story mode ambitions last month.

At today's Xbox Games Showcase, Blizzard dropped a montage of Overwatch 2 footage with snippets from the upcoming PvE story missions, called Overwatch 2: Invasion, coming on August 10.

Some of the clips we've seen before, but there were teases for cutscenes featuring Sojourn and Cassidy as well as a few peeks at how these unique missions will work. The PvE missions still seem to take place on reworked versions of the game's existing PvP maps and will see you and a small team of heroes defend locations from invading robots. For a mode that was seemingly gutted, it looks surprisingly substantial.

An extra co-op mission will take place on King's Row where you'll "explore the King’s Row map, including all new areas not seen in PVP modes, as you guide the TS-1 push bot on a mission to save Tracer’s friend and the Omnic Underworld from Null Sector forces," according to Xbox Wire.

The trailer also showed shots of the new multi-capture point (think Call of Duty's Headquarters) game mode Flashpoint coming in season 6, too. There will be two maps and the mode will be a permanent part of Overwatch 2's PvP. 

Season 6 will also introduce a Hero Mastery mode, training missions for individual heroes to compete against other players with a similar level of expertise. If this doesn't also let me let everyone know I'm an Ana main through some cosmetic reward, I'll be upset.

There was one tiny peek at the new support hero, too. They look like they can fly. Mercy players might have some competition soon.

Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will now get access to all six of Overwatch 2's new heroes as well as some amount of legendary skins and cosmetics.

All of this won't be out until August, but Overwatch 2 is about to launch its fifth season next week, which will include a customizable Tracer mythic skin.

Tyler has covered videogames and PC hardware for 15 years. He regularly spends time playing and reporting on games like Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Overwatch 2, and Final Fantasy 14. While his specialty is in action RPGs and MMOs, he's driven to cover all sorts of games whether they're broken, beautiful, or bizarre.

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