Overwatch 2 Players Unsure About New Player Progression System

Overwatch 2’s sixth season, Invasion, looks to be the biggest yet, with the inclusion of new modes and features that will offer more content for players. One particular inclusion has gotten fans’ attention and become quite the talking point in the community since its announcement.

Overwatch 2 will be getting a brand new hero progression system aimed at tracking your progress with different heroes and how you play them, and fans have some thoughts on the inclusion of this “new” progression system.

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Each Hero Will Have Their Own Progression and Rewards

Revealed during the Overwatch 2: Invasion live stream, game director Aaron Keller detailed what players can expect from the new player progression system, and how it is different from what we saw in the previous title.

For starters, each hero will have their levels that will increase as players earn exp from playing the game, and will be added together to represent your total player level. Additionally, each hero will have their own stats that you can level up as you play a hero more. This looks to include time played, matches won, and specifics for each character, such as players hacked by Sombra or damage mitigated by Reinhardt.

By leveling up these stats and playing a certain hero, you’ll unlock special emblems, badges, and name cards and be able to “kind of get a story for the way that your particular hero plays the game.” He also confirmed that these stats and levels will have no level or experience caps as they don’t want to “incentivize you to play in any particular way in order to fill out your player progression system.”

Following the announcement, player reception has been mixed. For some, the biggest frustration is that this new progression system will not be backdated, meaning all previous progress made in Overwatch 1 will not carry over to Overwatch 2. Others have taken issue with the fact that this was not in the game at launch, given that Overwatch 1 had similar features already, or expressed how this has done little to get them interested in returning to the game. Of course, some are praising this new system and showing their support for the developers, but this has still proven to be a touchy subject with the player base.

This new system is just one of the many other additions coming in Overwatch 2 for season six: Invasion. Alongside this progression, a new Hero Mastery mode and practice range will be included that help layers hone their skills, as well as a new game mode and the paid story missions, which have been another point of controversy in the community.

We’ll have to wait and see how this new system works and plays out, but given the community’s current feelings toward the game, having some more content and things to work toward might be just what this game needs and couldn’t come soon enough.