Today, Blizzard announced they’ll run a special event in Overwatch 2, which will revert the gameplay back to that of the original vanilla overwatch.
Overwatch: Classic is an upcoming limited-time event that is set to run from November 12 to December 2. It will feature the previous 6v6 style of gameplay and will feature the original 21 heroes and four original classes: Offense, Defense, Tanks, and Supports.
The 12 original launch maps will return in Overwatch: Classic, appearing as they did across the four game modes: Assault, Escort, Hybrid, and Control. Anyone who wants to dive into the nostalgia won’t have to worry about installing a brand new game, as it will be added in via Quick Play in patch 1.0.
Skin-wise, players can only use the original default skins when playing this event. Alongside skins, lootboxes, competitive mode, and the old UI are also not going to be apart of Overwatch: Classic, as the developers wanted to focus on heroes, maps, and gameplay without muddying the balancing of Overwatch 2 in the process.
Overwatch 2 originally launched back in 2022, serving as the sequel and replacement to the highly success 2016 hero shooter Overwatch. Since its release, the game has received mixed reception, as it not only canceled the story-based co-op mode and became free-to-play, but also changed the gameplay format from 6v6 to 5v5.
Alongside completely changing the meta in this regard, the game now features 42 heroes, resulting in a lot of issues when it comes to team cohesion and satisfying team play.
Blizzard did state that this was not a way to test out bringing back 6v6 into the mix permanently. While it has been a topic of discussion in the past, it was stated that separate test modes are still being run to determine the future landscape of Overwatch 2’s playstyle.
For more information on Overwatch 2 and Overwatch: Classic, check out the official announcement here.
