Near the end of last year during Blizzcon, Blizzard announced that Overwatch would be getting a sequel called Overwatch 2 in mid February that would introduce new characters, skins, game modes, maps and lore. This peaked interest among the gaming community.

The release was announced in a cinematic (an official lore based youtube video) called “Zero Hour” where the reunion of the Overwatch organization was made official. “Zero Hour” featured some of the original heroes, newer lore-based characters and characters that will be released with the new game, coming together in a heartfelt battle to face off Null Sectors, an omnic extremist group invading the city of Paris.

Despite these changes and high public approval and anticipation, some local players aren’t so optimistic.

“I’m a little bit skeptical about it,” Kraser said. “I’m not gonna be like one of those people waiting to buy it. I’m going to see how it is first, maybe decide [if I want the game] but if nothing has really changed and it’s still the same as the first game, then what’s the point of buying it?”

However, even more changes are on the way: changes that may convince players otherwise. Players will be able to level up with individual heroes allowing them to customize and upgrade them in the new game mode, “Hero Missions.” Jeff Kaplan, the director of Overwatch, called it highly replayable because of this feature. This change will reduce the possibility of boredom with the new game. Other features include PvP (Player versus Player) game modes and a new competitive mode called Tug-of-War Push.

“If I’m feeling like it and I have $60 or however much it’s going to cost then yeah, I’ll buy it and try it out,” retired junior player Kaleb Kruse said. “One thing that I thought was really interesting and a really good idea, in the story modes there’s a feature that you can do where you can increase the abilities of all of your characters.”

For a while, Overwatch had started to slowly lose their fanbase. Some of their most loyal fans have lost interest over the last couple years. Reason to leave came from the lack of interest and progressive boredom, fans not feeling listened to by the gaming company and relentless toxicity among the community itself. However, with the announcement of Overwatch 2, even some of their retired fans were intrigued by what the new game would bring to the table.