by theygamesA fun fact about me is that, once upon a time, I was very, very good at Overwatch. Starting out as a support main on Moira (so basically a damage dealer), I swapped across to DPS and quickly cemented myself as a Master-tier player. But that was many, many moons ago. As a withering [redacted] year old games writer who can’t quite compete with the zoomers anymore, I often find myself reminiscing about the good ol’ days of the original Overwatch, and now it’s coming back to life in the form of Overwatch Classic, a new, limited-time mode for OW2.
Taking us right back to patch 1.0, Overwatch Classic is exactly that: the original version of Blizzard’s iconic FPS game, with all of the same bells, whistles, and Hanzo Scatter Arrows. The four original classes are back (offense, defense, tank, and support), as well as the 12 original maps (no Paris here), assault mode, and, of course, the original hero abilities. It’s only the OG 21 characters on offer without their fancy skins, and there are no limits on how many of the same hero are in a party, with no set role division. As I write this, I’m giggling manically.
“We’re approaching Overwatch Classic as a snapshot of what the game was,” Overwatch 2‘s lead gameplay designer Alec Dawson tells me in an exclusive roundtable interview. “We’re not necessarily balancing it for the modern day because I think that’s part of the draw. There’s a little zaniness, it can be a little chaotic, but that’s what makes it really special.”
Game director Aaron Keller echoes this, noting “When we look at Overwatch Classic, it’s about us just looking at a snapshot of what this game was like before the development team spent the next eight years evolving the game into what we think is the best version of Overwatch.”
I ask how the team keeps Overwatch Classic feeling familiar, while simultaneously modernizing it. “The most important thing is getting the heroes to feel as close as they can to how they did when we first launched the game, that was goal number one,” Dawson tells me.
This is something Keller also thinks. “Overwatch at its heart is a game about its heroes. When people think about Overwatch, they think about it in terms of the hero they play or the ones that really resonate with them. The goal for Overwatch Classic was to bring those heroes back to their original state and let the game be played like that.”
Overwatch Classic will debut as a limited-time mode, but the team states in its official launch blog that it is “not planning for this to be a single event.” I ask Dawson and Keller what future iterations of Overwatch Classic will look like, and whether or not we’ll see the return of controversial maps like Horizon Lunar Colony and Paris.
“It really depends on how players latch onto Classic and what they want to see out of it. What snapshots are they fond of? What times in Overwatch’s history do they want to relive? We have a few [eras] in mind that might be very exciting – or even terrifying – for players to go back to.”
Keller notes that Overwatch Classic won’t follow a patch-by-patch approach akin to sister title World of Warcraft Classic, noting that the team “wants to make fairly large jumps in time to have a really significant difference [between Overwatch Classic runs]. I don’t think we’d want to move forward three or four months and just add one hero at a time; we’d want to take some leaps and really look at some of those moments that players talk about.
“If we were to do another one after this, maybe we’d be looking at a meta where Mercy was really dominant that happened roughly a year after launch. I don’t think we’re quite ready to talk about exactly what that looks like, even though that was a pretty big clue!”
It’s worth noting that Overwatch Classic is different from the Overwatch 2 6v6 tests mentioned in the Thursday October 24 Director’s Take. Both are independent of one another, but Keller does note that Classic is a “great stress test for our engine.”
Blizzard has confirmed that the Overwatch Classic launch date is set for Tuesday November 12, with the mode available until Monday, December 2. It’s housed within Overwatch 2’s Events Hub, so unlike WoW Classic you won’t need to download a whole new game.
In the meantime, however, check out our Overwatch 2 tier list to get back into the swing of things, but note that a few of our favorites will be absent from Overwatch Classic. Alternatively, if you’re looking for something new to play with friends, here’s our guide to all the best multiplayer games.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.