This week I want to talk about something that I've been thinking about on and off for a long time. As much as I enjoy Hearthstone for it's ladder experience, I have the most fun when a new adventure is released. League of Explorers continued a trend of interesting twists on WoW boss fights with a fun narrative and just enough of a challenge if you go for Heroic mode. This got me wondering if there is an opportunity for a similar mode in some of Blizzard's other games. World of Warcraft has always been primarily a PvE game. Starcraft has a strong campaign (despite what you may think of how Legacy of the Void ended), and the Allied Commanders mode has added an awesome co-op mode as well. Diablo 3 only ever teased a PvP component that never saw the light of day. That leaves Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch as the only games without any sort of PvE content and that has got me thinking.
Overwatch has barely scratched the surface of the world they are creating, so it's more difficult to speculate on a PvE mode. However, we do have continued references to the Doomfist character. Starting in the opening cinematic where Widowmaker and Reaper are looking to steal Doomfist's gauntlet from the museum, and continuing on the Numbani map where you are escorting the same gauntlet for an exhibit on the mysterious character.
These posters are found on the Numbani map and point to an interesting progression of the character. In an interview with PC Gamer, Chris Metzen talked about how Doomfist could be a title and role passed down from generation to generation as needed. The first Doomfist was the savior aiding in the Omnic crisis. The second maybe had something to do with Talon or maybe the downfall of Overwatch. And with the silhouette of the successor blacked out perhaps we are still waiting for the next Doomfist to emerge and Widowmaker is after the gauntlet to ensure that Talon controls who he or she might be. This could be where our PvE game mode comes in. Doomfist becomes the big bad of the Overwatch universe and the character is too strong to be a playable character. Instead we get a mode where a team of 6 players goes up against an AI or 5 players go up against a 6th player controlling Doomfist. This could work similar to how Evolve plays, but we could forego the need to lock people into specific roles. Give Doomfist a crazy high health pool and a few really strong abilities and we could end up with a really cool game mode with a pretty good replay value. I know it's not a necessarily a PvE only mode but the possibility is there.
Heroes of the Storm has the possibility for something similar. When I log in to heroes I generally have to decide if I am in the mood for Hero League. Sometimes I just don't want to go try hard. After that I look to see who is online on my friends list for quick match games, and if that's not an option I will jump into AI games to get quests done in stress free mode and to mess around with heroes I don't usually play. I would love a mode like what I proposed for Overwatch. A team of 5 players travels to Auir in an attempt to destroy the Overmind. A new map unique to the mode where the enemy creeps and towers are progressively stronger Zerg units and structures. Timed assaults put your structures in danger causing your team to have to pull back to defend. The Overmind can periodically infest mercenary camps and bosses. Tie it into a Starcraft themed event with a new competitive map and a few new Starcraft heroes and I think you've got something that would be very well received. As long as the AI is tuned appropriately it would serve as a fun change of pace. And because Heroes takes from all the Blizzard universes there are dozens of possibilities to revise the mode. If Blizzard decides against adding Deathwing as a playable hero they could instead add a Blackrock Mountain map where waves of fire shut down different lanes periodically. I think there are plenty of possibilities that could present a nice change of pace and explore some unique map mechanics without forcing them into a competitive scenario.
I'm sure there are plenty of possibilities for some really cool PvE content for both of these games. I honestly don't think we will see it in Overwatch, but Heroes of the Storm is built in the Starcraft 2 engine and lends itself well to that sort of thing. I'm curious what the community thinks of the idea. Let me know!
Thanks as always for reading and sorry for the delay in content. Until next time,
Chris
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