“Blizzard has not had a good year” would be an understatement to say the least. Games such as Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 have been greatly affected, with both games being indefinitely delayed. As the slow development for the Overwatch sequel continues, Blizzard has decided to release a sneak peek in the recently release Overwatch art book. However, the sneak peek is quite underwhelming.
The art book only consists of 2 pages’ worth of information about the upcoming sequel, with some of it already being publicly known. Courtesy of an Overwatch fan, u/ZenofyMedia has shared the last two pages of the art book.
The first page simply has a statement from the Overwatch team, titled “A Glimpse of Things to Come.” The article does have a few interesting notes.
“There’s a whole bunch of fans who don’t even play Overwatch. They might be apprehensive about a competitive game or a PVP experience,” said character art director Arnold Tsang. “With Overwatch 2, we have the opportunity to bring those people into the fold–people who might really like the art or the characters or watching the animated shorts or cosplay, but who never touched the game because they’re not into PVP shooters.”
The Art of Overwatch Vol. 2
With Overwatch 2 mainly focused on PVE campaign, it’s a lot more friendly to players than the competitive PVP game that is Overwatch.
Another interesting section of the article is how the Overwatch team initially didn’t want to redesign the characters for the sequel because they were attached to how they were represented. This, of course, changed as it became an opportunity to explore fresh looks for the character with more sophisticated designs, which was exciting for the team.
As for the game itself, the developers would “harness other new techniques and technologies to create maps that were even more dynamic than before.” An example of this is a Canadian map previously revealed that would have dynamic weather, which would affect how the players experience the map.
The second page of the sneak peek simply features artwork of the newly designed Tracer and Widowmaker, both of which were already revealed in the past.
Overwatch 2 currently has no release date nor an expected year of release. This is expected, considering Blizzard’s rocky year and Jeff Kaplan, director of Overwatch, leaving the company.
