Why wasn’t a story mode ever added prior to Overwatch 2 starting development? Is that game mode something that the community doesn’t care about? I’ve had this game for a while and played it on and off. The graphics are sweet, the gameplay is engaging and fun, but there seems to be a lot of lore I’m missing in regards to the characters and all that. I mean, even mortal combat got a story mode after a while. So what happened to having a backstory and all of that with this title?
It should’ve had a story mode at release. That was something that kept me from buying the game day 1, personally. I didn’t feel like the amount of content was worth $60.
As to why it was never added, they’d said that it would be like making a whole new game (hence the sequel now). Obviously it’s not, but I’m assuming they meant in a meaningful way and not just a generic Call of Duty campaign that you play once and never again.
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basically yeah. they made a competitive game first and foremost. a story mode appeals to a different audience, and that audience is not what the game was aimed at.
I dont really understand why they decided to flesh out lore in comics and stuff though, it seems like they changed their mind on the audience they want but didn’t fully commit to it.
also, you cant just make a story mode. the story mode would be so much of the development that the multiplayer (the core game in this case) would suffer as a result. not many comp games have story modes and the ones that do are massively subpar.
Jeff was often asked about a story mode/permanent PvE, to which he would always answer, “that sort of thing would require a whole new game to be made”.
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Because it’s stupidly expensive to do a proper story mode on any appreciable scale fitting for the quality of overwatch (think 50-100+ million dollars)
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People are still waiting for story in World of Warcraft too. kappa
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Um I dont know where you bought it but the base OW was 40 dollars and it was only 60 if you bought the deluxe edition for extra skins. Was that some sort of console pricing I did not know about?
Yeah consoles only had access to the origins edition iirc. But still, base Overwatch was $40 
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Overwatch’s engine is very limited in this regard. You can already see it in Junkenstein and the others. It’s limited exclusively to very dumb AI enemies spawning at predetermined points and at predetermined times. OW2’s PvE will be a lot more dynamic and replayable since it’s a major focus now.
The original OW’s development was a borderline asset flip to try to get something of value out of Blizzard’s cancelled game, Titan. It launched pretty bare bones as is (20 heroes, 4 game modes, 12 maps, no custom games). If they had to make a full campaign, which means huge maps (which means level design, art, QA, etc), writing, recording hundreds of lines of dialogue, designing-modelling-animating-programming many more enemies, and more. Game probably wouldn’t have released until like 2018. Even then it’d probably suck for the reasons I listed earlier.
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The idea was to release story through different platforms (Twitter, ARGs, YouTube, upon other methods including in game events such as Archives.) but this has flopped hard as there are many plotholes, hap hazard changes to a heroes previous lore. Things like interactions and previous lore being labeled as canon and non canon. Over all, the game has suffered poor writing throughout the years. Hopefully OW2 will add more concrete and mainstreamed lore and story so that story nuts like me get what we wanted from day one.
Wasn’t this somewhat the reason Titan failed? Because they said it was like making two games at once which created pipeline problems or something like that (can’t remember the quote).
40 base is pretty standard pricing for MP only games. It is only the weird ones (hi Evolve) that try to charge full price for a MP only game.
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Should’ve specified consoles.
If it was, then that would explain why they were so hesitant. As I understand it, Destiny has managed to do both, but maybe the gameplay is less complex.
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Overwatch has a story beyond “get owned by pro smurfs every time you play”?
They developed the game to be a MOBA FPS for competitive gaming, and I think that’s been the motivation for how the game has been ever since it came out.
The story doesn’t add to that, just these little Hero trailers and comics to get people invested in the hero’s. I still don’t even know if there’s an actual story behind Overwatch, but then again I’m not super into the “lore” of the game and don’t read the comics or anything else.
So you’re not particularly qualified to talk about the extent that the narrative side adds to the experience, then.
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Back in 2016, yes
I play the game, I know what’s in the game, along with the trailers. I’m not going to go to some website to read their little comics and find out who’s gay next, I don’t really care. Overwatch lore has never been interesting enough to actually have a full-fleshed out story.
Just like with Destiny, if the lore isn’t actually IN the game that you play, and you have to go to some website to see all the little comics and dialogue and notes the writers add after, it’s not something I think a lot of people really care about.
Right, so as someone who has never really engaged with the lore, you’re not particularly qualified to discuss how important it is to Overwatch as a whole. That’s what I said.
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The average person who plays Overwatch is not going to be engaging with the lore by your definition, so why would Activision-Blizzard devote resources to that? The story is not important to the game and if it was, it would be IN the game. You don’t need to read Halo books to understand the story, they just add to it. OW pretty much has no story if you play the game. Most people want to engage the story by playing it, not reading the little nerdy comics they pump out.