It’s no secret that the new Uprising event is one of the most exciting and new events Overwatch has had yet. With 10 new iconic skins, 3 highlight intros and emotes, and dozens of other additional unlocks for every hero, each one a welcome and much-appreciated addition, there’s just so much to enjoy here. And that’s not even including the new event, in which players are tasked with defending King’s Row from a major attack by the Omnics, in the first plot-related event Blizzard has released for Overwatch.
This also marks the second time they’ve dabbled in a PvE mode, with the first being the “Junkenstein’s Revenge” event during Halloween last year, though the Uprising event’s mode proves to be much more difficult and varied, allowing you to choose from 4 pre-selected heroes or from the entire roster, which is a step up from Halloween’s event. And as for the difficulty, it can get pretty brutal: I still haven’t been able to clear the mode on hard difficulty.
Not to mention, this is the first major event that isn’t tied in with some other real life event, as every other so far has lined up with either a holiday, or in the case of the Summer Games, the Olympics. But as the limited-time event draws to a close, it begs a bigger question: What’s next for Overwatch?
It’s no big secret that a lot of people enjoy PvE modes, where a team of players works together against a team of computer-controlled enemies, usually defending areas from or defeating waves of underpowered enemies that find strength only in their overwhelming numbers. Overwatch has lacked the option for this type of play since its launch, except for two brief windows during this event and the Halloween one. Blizzard has been asked before if they’d ever add PvE modes to Overwatch, and they haven’t denied the possibility of such a thing becoming a permanent option, even outside special events.
Many had speculated previously that the Halloween event was them “testing the waters” to see how something like that might fit into Overwatch, and with the new Uprising event taking that idea and expanding on it much further, adding point capturing and payload escorting to the mix, it’s very much a possibility that this was one last test for a more permanent way to mow down robotic enemies. But of course, there is another good possibility for what this event means that takes things in a different direction.
As I said earlier, this is the first event that isn’t related to something taking place in the real world, rather it’s a story-based flashback to the character Tracer’s very first mission, in which she works with Reinhardt, Mercy, and Torbjorn to defend King’s Row from a massive Omnic attack, along with guest appearances from Solider: 76, Reaper, and Ana before they all went into hiding. We’ve always seen little windows into Overwatch’s story through the comics or animated shorts, but there’s practically been nothing related to the plot in the game itself until now.
Since it’s clear to everyone that Blizzard is now very open to the idea of having plot events played out through game events, it’s a very likely possibility that the future will see us playing through some other very important lore events. For example, what if an event allowed us to play through Widowmaker, Reaper, and Sombra’s attack on Volskaya Industries? Or an event involving the mysterious Blackwatch undergoing one of their missions? With how surprisingly rich in lore Overwatch is, its lack of a proper story mode could be a blessing in disguise, and leaves open endless possibilities for future events.
