As Overwatch 2 continues to evolve–even dropping the “2” entirely and just going as “Overwatch” from here on out–there’s the question of what happens to its characters. Going forward, Overwatch plans on putting story first and foremost, and a big part of heroic fantasy is the conflicts between good and evil and how those conflicts lead to losses or setbacks on both sides. And while storylines like that may be in Overwatch’s future, these developments won’t ever reflect in the playable roster.
“There [are] no plans to remove any characters from the roster depending on what may happen to them,” associate game director Alec Dawson told GameSpot. “But, I think, one thing that’s really important to us is to be in lockstep with what’s going on with the story throughout the year, whether it be our maps, whether it be events going on, whether it be our heroes, to make sure that they are reflected in what’s happening there too.”
This sounds in line with what we’ve seen in other hero shooters that have stories going on in the background of the matches–Rainbow Six Siege has gone through several large shifts, for example, moving away from its counter-terrorism narrative in February 2019 to tell a military simulation sport fantasy, and then returning to the original counter-terrorism throughline several years later. The playable roster of the tactical shooter only grew during those developments, but the framing of matches and the types of new Operators, maps, and skins added in each season dramatically transformed to reflect a new narrative direction.
“The world state is changing alongside some of the other media that you’re going to be seeing throughout the year,” Dawson said. “So that’s really important to us, and there’s probably some opportunities for us to pursue down those paths as well.”
It will be interesting to see just how well this all plays out. Back in 2022, we pointed out that Apex Legends’ story being about its heroes was a mistake. While the narrative elements originally pulled players in with its sci-fi drama, fanfare for Apex Legends’ story fizzled out hard post-Season 13–largely for the lack of lasting stakes. None of the playable characters could die, be forbidden from competing in the Apex Games, or achieve their goals and leave with their happy ending because any sort of major complication or fulfilling catharsis would lead to them needing to leave the battle royale. It makes sense, of course. You shouldn’t just cut characters that fans have poured time and cosmetics into, no matter how good it would be for the story, but the result was a story-driven hero shooter that grew increasingly frustrating to pay attention to with every season.
Blizzard seems to be avoiding this same predicament with Overwatch by having a willingness to kill off its characters, starting with Doomfist (poor guy), but keeping everyone in the playable roster. Time will tell if that’s truly the case, of course. The team killed Doomfist in the most “he could come back” way I’ve ever seen. If Blizzard wants to tell a suitably dramatic story with its heroes, then actions need to have permanent consequences. If the team says that Doomfist is dead, he’d better stay dead. Anything else will only cheapen the death and reinforce that these characters are essentially immortal and likely incapable of dramatic change.
