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Games

'Overwatch' PvE Rules, So Why Won't Blizzard Let Us Keep It?

Dear Blizzard, please don't take our robots away!

If I learned three things from "Junkenstein's Revenge," the Overwatch Halloween event, it's that I love a fun story, that I love teaming up to kill hordes of robots and evil heroes, and that it'd be even more fun if I had a full map to cover. The newest Overwatch PvE event, "Uprising," gave us that map. Where "Junkenstein's Revenge" started to feel repetitive, "Uprising" challenges us to stay on our toes and really utilize the full potential of our team. But it's also going away on May 1.

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"Uprising" feels like a condensed, tightly packaged version of Overwatch: You and your team set out in King's Row to hack three control points, defend and escort a payload, and fight your way through a group of OR-15 robots. Each section of "Uprising" brings new enemies and new ways your team needs to work together to fend them off, all while Ana and Reaper narrate your journey with tips, tricks, and fun banter. While you have the freedom to choose any four heroes, in my experience it was the most fun sticking with the default group; Torbjörn, Reinhardt, Mercy and Tracer.

"Uprising" is a ton of fun. PvE is a ton of fun. I don't know many people who have a favorite mode in Team Fortress 2 that isn't "Mann vs. Machine." I love Overwatch, and these events get me really excited to pick up my controller and go the fuck in. In a 2016 Game Informer interview, Overwatch designer Jeff Kaplan explained that the team is eager to explore PvE, but "not for this game." "I think we're all dying to explore PvE at some point, but not for this game. Not for the initial offering of Overwatch, which is really focused on the team-based hero-action combat. So it's something we'd like to get to someday in a different game."

In Monday's developer update video, Jeff credits the response to "Junkenstein's Revenge" as one of the things that drove the team to create "Uprising." After two of these events, is it safe to assume Blizzard's thoughts on bringing PvE to Overwatch as a permanent game mode have changed? I sure hope so. In the meantime, you can play "Uprising" now through 5/1. Good luck!