It’s the classic that everyone sure does love. Overwatch 2 reinvigorates players and enthusiasts with the Overwatch Classic Mode. This will be a limited-time event that brings nostalgia to players with its features from the game’s golden era. Definitely, it’s a fine day to celebrate as the event runs from November 12 until December 2, 2024. With that, here are the heroes and maps coming back in the game.
Original Heroes and Classic Abilities Return
Ready for hero feasts, as this event features all 21 of them for players to have fun and enjoy. They are divided into their original four classes, which are Offends, Defense, Tank, and Support. With its return, players can use the forgotten abilities such as Mercy’s Resurrect Ultimate, Symmetra’s teleporter, and Hanzo’s Scatter Arrow. These all definitely serve as reminders of the Golden era of Overwatch that most have grown to see.
Besides the nostalgic abilities, the gameplay in this mode mirrors the faster-paced style in the original Overwatch release. It will also lower Ultimate Charge costs and give players the ability to salvage partial Ultimate Charge after interruption. These are certainly some of the original game features that many have been missing.
The first few days of the event will let players embrace the chaos of No Hero Limits. Through this, the teams are allowed to field multiple copies of the same hero. This is another distinctive feature of the early version of Overwatch. After the initial period, it’ll transition back to single hero limits for the rest of the event. Other than this, Blizzard also reverted the health pools. damage outputs and projectile sizes to pre-season 9 state.
Classic Maps and Game Modes
It’s overloaded and overly crazy in Overwatch 2. Blizzard keeps the surprises coming as they offer the return of the twelve original launch maps. Now, players can battle across these maps, spanning four distinct game modes. This surely brings delight to veteran players and newcomers in the game for a special experience.
Here are all the original maps that are back and the game modes:
- Assault: Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries, and Hanamura
- Control: Ilios, Nepal, and Lijiang Tower
- Escort: Route 66, Dorado, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar
- Hybrid: Numbani, Hollywood, and King’s Row
With its map selection reflecting the original release, players can ease their breath as they maintain Overwatch 2’s updated graphics and reworks. Meaning to say, players get to play the original map without compromising the visual presentation quality. Other game details, such as match timing and elevator platform mechanics, will also retain the Overwatch 2 standards.
More Than Just Nostalgia
This Overwatch: Classic is just the beginning of what they have planned in the throwback events series. In the future iterations, players can expect for it to showcase memorable periods that marked the history of Overwatch. This includes the fast-paced 2017 Moth Meta and the strategic triple-tank as well as triple-support “GOATS” composition era. Definitely, it’ll be exciting for everyone who came to experience and have not experienced the mechanics in some era.
For full blast nostalgia, players are only allowed to use the original Overwatch default skins on the event. This will temporarily set aside all of the Overwatch 2 cosmetics released in the following years. Besides, Blizzard will test the waters in this event with the return of 6v6 gameplay. Rumors go around that there’s a potential for 6v6 modes to come back in future seasons of Overwatch 2.
How to Access and What to Expect
Fortunately, players can access Overwatch: Classic directly through the Events Gub and Arcane section in Main Menu of Overwatch 2. This limited-time mode will offer casual play to players with their Quick Play rules. With this, they can rediscover the gameplay mechanics that took Overwatch on top of other games.
However, the event will not bring back every feature from the early days of Overwatch. These include the Loot boxes, the original UI, and competitive mode that is well-known to players. Blizzard claimed to focus on maintaining balance between the modern quality-of-life improvements and nostalgia of gameplay elements.
Conclusion
Excitement runs high as Overwatch comes strongly in their new update. Overwatch: Classic Mode brings back most of the beloved features from the original release of the title. With this, players earn access to the original 21 heroes, 12 maps, 4 game modes, and 6v6 gameplay. Definitely, everyone is winning by having to experience the golden Overwatch period that will run until December 2, 2024
