Month: November 2019

Blizzard’s announcement of Diablo 4 during the opening ceremony of Blizzcon 2019 described an installment of the action-RPG series that sounds very different from its 2012 predecessor. Diablo 4 returns the franchise to its darker roots. While Diablo helped inspire the slate of loot-chasing games that have recently arisen, it looks like Blizzard is borrowing some ideas from those games to make Diablo 4 something more of a shared-world experience.

After the announcement, Blizzard made a short demo available on the show floor, where we played about 10 minutes of Diablo 4. The most striking element is the game’s use of ideas similar to what’s seen in games such as Destiny 2 or Dark Souls. You’re a warrior fighting off hordes of evil creatures throughout the world of Sanctuary, but you’re not alone. Not only do you have your cooperative teammates, but in the demo we saw, the world was also alive with other players fighting just as hard to dispel undead fiends and demonic creatures.

The demo included three different character classes: the Barbarian, the Sorceress, and the Druid. Taking on the role of the shape-shifting druid, we quickly delved into the horrific world of Sanctuary, dropping into the middle of a quest that sent us exploring a crypt in search of a particular lantern. The formula was immediately familiar–Diablo 4’s combat takes on a fast pace, while offering you a number of abilities to bring to bear against your enemies–but Blizzard’s darker approach to the game came through just as quickly, punctuated by a short cinematic in which your character climbs through a pit of bodies, up out of a subterranean cave, and through the dirt of a literal graveyard.

Once out in the world, Diablo 4 presented what felt like a more awful, desperate Sanctuary, but one that was also more alive. Wandering toward the village of Corbach, I started running into other players as they thrashed through monsters and interacted with distraught and forlorn villagers. In a practical way, those extra bodies in the world help create a lot of, well, extra bodies. You’re seemingly as likely to wander across live enemies in the world as dead ones that someone else has already eliminated, which provides a distinct feeling that while the humans of Sanctuary are on the brink of destruction, there are still plenty of warriors around fighting back.

You’re seemingly as likely to wander across live enemies in the world as dead ones that someone else has already eliminated

Those extra players mean there’s opportunity to make Diablo 4 feel more dangerous, as well. Though you might cross a field behind someone else who has mopped up all the mobs just before your arrival, you can also stumble across some hulking creature that you simply couldn’t handle on your own. These encounters take on the feeling of public events in shared-world games, where multiple players band together spontaneously to destroy something that would be otherwise beyond their powers on their own. Stumbling across one of these massive demons in Diablo 4 can be frightening, but with other players around, they also engender a sense of shared purpose.

As the Druid, your abilities mostly concern transforming into powerful creatures to deal massive damage, and knocking enemies around to stun them and control the battlefield. Your basic attack turns you into a werewolf to swipe away with your claws, and the rest of your moves tend to dish out big blasts of damage across certain areas. One lets you transform into a bear and charge through multiple enemies while repositioning yourself; another tosses a pair of boulders at enemies that leaves them stunned; yet another sends a pair of wolves after one enemy while you deal with another. Where the Barbarian is all about big damage and the Sorceress focuses on area-of-effect and stuns, the Druid seems to be a balance of the two.

During the opening ceremony, Blizzard described its intention to lean into the horror of the Diablo franchise, and even in our short demo, there was evidence that this is the case. The cinematic trailer is certainly full of disturbing sights, and the cutscene of your escape from the cave helps telegraph Diablo 4’s underlying dread very early. A mission I took on for the local village leader had a significant horror bent as well. It centered on the woman’s son, a fitful youth who’s been having prophetic visions of a lantern and insists he needs to find and retrieve it. The venture through the early cave culminates in discovering the lantern, but returning it didn’t make the son better, but worse–now he wanted to take it and wander into a cave.

When I went to the cave in his stead, I discovered why he was drawn there: the previous elder had been using the lantern and its dark magic power to sacrifice young people to a witch, ensuring the village’s prosperity. But even destroying the witch wasn’t enough to save the boy. Back at the village, I arrived just in time to watch him choke on blood while his mother watched in horror.

It was a tragic and horrific moment, and it seems that’s exactly what Blizzard intends in Diablo 4’s aesthetic and thematic focus. Paired with its shared-world approach, it seems we can expect Diablo 4 to offer a pretty different take on the franchise from its predecessor.

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Overwatch 2 was announced during BlizzCon 2019’s opening ceremony. It’s a sequel to Blizzard’s popular team-based first-person hero shooter from 2016, but as evidenced by its announcement cinematic and gameplay reveal trailer, the upcoming Overwatch 2 will have fresh things to offer players old and new.

After its official reveal and presentation, game director Jeff Kaplan and assistant game director Aaron Keller took the Mythic Stage at BlizzCon 2019 during the future of Overwatch panel to talk Overwatch 2 game modes, maps, and heroes.

For a specific topic, use the table of contents above, otherwise just scroll through for all the info, rumors, and other details we know about Overwatch 2 so far.

Overwatch 2 Specs

Overwatch 2 is still actively in development, so the team doesn’t have a release date or even release window in mind, but it was confirmed at BlizzCon 2019 that it will come to all platforms that currently support the first Overwatch, including the Nintendo Switch.

• Release date: N/A
• Platforms: PC (Battle.net), Switch, PS4, Xbox One
• Genre: First-person shooter

Game Modes

At BlizzCon 2019, Kaplan showed off a brand-new game mode called Push, described as a “core game mode” playable in both quick and competitive play, and which will also be featured in the Overwatch League. Early gameplay footage of Push mode on the new Toronto, Canada map showed two teams fighting to escort a robot into enemy territory. The team that pushes the robot furthest into the other team’s territory before time is up will win the match. As the robot moves down the linear path towards enemy lines, it’ll occasionally come up against barriers that must be pushed to unlock checkpoints. This momentarily slows the robot down, but the checkpoints they unlock also unlock new spawn points.

Currently confirmed game modes new to Overwatch 2 include:

New Maps

Overwatch 2 will have all-new PvP maps for Push mode, but also for every current “core” game mode. The team wants to ensure players have a “totally new experience” thanks to the new maps, which are also coming to the original Overwatch as well.

Currently confirmed maps new to Overwatch 2 include:

• Gothenburg
• Toronto
• Monte Carlo
• Rio de Janeiro

Story Missions

Story Missions are a new feature in Overwatch 2. They will be heavily curated PvE missions where players will only be able to select from a limited, contextually-relevant roster of characters. Every single story mission will have its own cinematic intro and outro video.

Hero Missions

Hero Missions are another new PvE feature, designed to be “deeply replayable” thanks to three factors outlined by Overwatch 2’s directors: varied locations, which will take players across new maps and old; constantly changing objectives, which will keep the gameplay fresh and varied; and different enemy groups, such as Null Sector, Talon, and “other threats.” Certain objectives or enemy types may demand certain types of heroes to counter, allowing more hands-on time for players stuck playing their main in PVP, Kaplan explained at BlizzCon 2019.

Item System

The newly-introduced item system is exclusive to Story Missions. Rather than a loot system like Diablo, Overwatch 2’s item system will supposedly work in much the same way items do in games like Apex Legends and PUBG, according to Kaplan: temporary item pickups that you can use for the duration of the mission. These include things like a corrosive grenade, a healing station, or a barrier fence. Items also come in tiers, like Legendary.

Talent System

Overwatch 2 will introduce a new progression system designed exclusively for Hero Missions. It will allow heroes to level up and unlock Talents that give them additional perks in combat and is meant as a strictly PvE, non-competitive mode feature. A series of Talents for Tracer were shown off at BlizzCon 2019, but Kaplan warned that the progression system is still very early in development and could change a lot.

Unlockable Talents for Tracer, part of Overwatch 2’s new PvE-exclusive progression system.

The example abilities shown off for Tracer include:

• Level 1:

• Level 10

• Level 20

New Heroes

Sojourn, Overwatch’s first Canadian hero.

Overwatch 2 will introduce new playable heroes, including both characters that are brand new and “characters you’ve been waiting for.” It will also carry over every hero from the first Overwatch.

Currently confirmed heroes new to Overwatch 2 include:

So far, Sojourn is the only new character announced for Overwatch 2. She is the first Canadian hero and has a role “right at the center of the story of Overwatch 2,” according to Kaplan. According to the BlizzCon 2019 panel, some heroes will even be introduced all at once, similar to how Mei, D.Va, and Genji all rolled out at the same time during the Overwatch beta.

Echo was also shown in the Overwatch 2 cinematic and gameplay trailers, but Kaplan did not confirm if she would be playable.

Skins And Progress

Kaplan confirmed that all progress and cosmetics earned in the first Overwatch will carry over to Overwatch 2. According to Kaplan, “We want to make sure that all Overwatch cosmetics come forward with you into Overwatch 2. So all of your progress matters. Nothing is getting left behind, no one is getting left behind.”

What Overwatch 2 Means For Current Players

In an effort to keep the Overwatch community united, Overwatch and Overwatch 2 players will be able to play the traditional PvP mode together. The original Overwatch will also receive new maps, new heroes, and the new competitive mode, Push.

Hero Visuals

Overwatch 2 is not being designed in a new engine, but it is a “greatly updated” version of the Overwatch engine. Overwatch 2 will have new HUDs for all heroes, and perhaps most importantly, brand-new looks for all existing heroes. The team wants Overwatch 2 to “have a new look and feel fresh and awesome,” according to its BlizzCon 2019 panel.