Blizzard’s top-secret project has been revealed, and it’s called Overwatch Rush. I answer all the important questions about gameplay and release.
I feel like a secret agent. In the middle of Irvine, California, at Blizzard headquarters, I am secretly taken aside. I’m actually part of a larger press group that has been looking at Blizzard’s most important new projects for days: the warlock in Diablo, a new set in Hearthstone, and so on. It’s 12 noon on a Friday, the California January sun is beating down on my neck at a wintry 28 degrees Celsius, and we’re officially done with the program—but that doesn’t apply to me.
A Blizzard employee leads me away from the group, and I’m not allowed to explain the reason to anyone. We head back to the main building, through a maze of corridors, and away from my escort, I don’t see a soul anywhere. The only thing missing is a blindfold, but then I wouldn’t be able to gawk at all the cool Warcraft and Diablo busts.
The odyssey ends abruptly when a double door opens and I am greeted by a meeting room crammed with Blizzard bosses, project leads, and developers. Three other members of the press are sitting there with me: Game Informer and Gamespot are covering the US, another journalist is covering Japan, and I am here representing the whole of Europe. Well, if only my social studies teacher could see this.
John Salera shakes my hand, a veteran of the industry who has already worked on Battlefield 3, Mass Effect, Madden, and, for the past few years, several Blizzard products. Salera has the charismatic smile of a football coach – from the Patriots, not the Jets – and he needs it, because he’s pitching us the first completely new Overwatch project since… ever: Overwatch Rush.
What is Overwatch Rush?
Overwatch Rush could actually just be called Overwatch Mobile, but there’s probably a conscious decision behind the name: Overwatch Rush is clearly not positioning itself as a “small” version of the big Overwatch, like Call of Duty Mobile is to the big CoD. You’re not getting a first-person shooter with stripped-down graphics, but a completely new experience, albeit in the Overwatch universe.
Rush is most reminiscent of Pokémon Unite or Dragon Ball Gekishin Squadra, i.e., mobile MOBAs, but without all the level-up fuss. Overwatch Rush is more straightforward: you choose an Overwatch hero, such as Soldier 76, and jump into battle from a bird’s-eye view. As a rule, it’s four against four. Blizzard has confirmed the following modes so far:
- In Control, you capture control points and hold them. It’s a classic mode that you’ll be familiar with from all kinds of other multiplayer games.
- In Nano Grab, you collect tokens on the map and cash them in at specific locations.
- In Free for All, only four people run across the map and shoot each other in the head.
- Planned for the future are Team Deathmatch and Elimination, but I haven’t been able to try them out yet.
Which heroes are confirmed so far?
In keeping with the mobile format, matches are designed to be fast-paced, lasting around three minutes. The current build features eight Overwatch heroes, most of whom are veteran OG characters:
- Reinhardt (Tank)
- Soldier 76 (Damage)
- Pharah (Damage)
- Reaper (Damage)
- Tracer (Damage)
- Lucio (Support)
- Mercy (Support)
- Kiriko (Support)
So much for the briefing. John Salera finishes his PowerPoint presentation, and one of his colleagues hands out iPhones so we can play. The devs in the room join in to fill up the lobby. One developer gives me a verbal pat on the back: “You can do this, Dimitry!” Apparently, I’m radiating the fact that my hand-eye coordination on my phone doesn’t extend beyond two WhatsApp messages without typos.
How does Overwatch Rush play?
It’s all the more surprising how quickly I find my way around Overwatch Rush. The game prides itself on its “accessibility” – and indeed, it takes me less than five minutes to get fully involved in the skirmish. I control my character with my left thumb – from a top-down view, as I said – and fire off all kinds of special attacks with my right thumb.
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Those familiar with Overwatch will encounter few surprises here: Soldier 76 fires his assault rifle, shoots grenades, places healing orbs, and is the only character who can sprint. His ultimate ability automatically targets all enemies in the vicinity. It’s just everything from a top-down perspective.
All of this is incredibly entertaining. I’m not a big mobile gamer, but the rounds are incredibly easy to play.
I even make it onto the MVP podium twice after a fierce duel with Game Informer as Reaper. What I like: Even from a top-down perspective, it’s all about skill and the right team synergies. I have to aim precisely with my right thumb and also lead the shot so that the enemies run into my bullets. If I team up with supports and tanks, I stay alive much longer. Rush relies on the same dynamics as its big brother, but is more compact, faster, and more entertaining.
Is Overwatch Rush free?
Overwatch Rush will be Free2Play with all the footnotes you know from the mobile market: Cosmetic items and loot boxes can be purchased optionally for real money, and there are also modifiers and perks for your heroes that provide certain stat boosts. These stat boosts are, of course, potential Pay2Win dynamite. If I buy tangible advantages with my credit card, then the balance is broken, especially in a team shooter.
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Blizzard says: That’s not the case, you can compensate for these modifiers with your gaming skills; they only function as sidegrades (i.e., upgrades with advantages and disadvantages) to customize the heroes’ abilities more individually. To prove this, four journalists with fully boosted characters take on experienced developers fighting with “naked” vanilla characters.
I have to give Blizzard credit for letting themselves be drawn into such a litmus test, because in fact… we journalists win with our boosted characters. But only just. I wouldn’t get too excited just yet, though, because all of this could still change before the release. We’re looking at an early prototype here, and maybe there won’t be any stat boosts available for real money in the finished game. Speaking of “release.”
Release date: When will Overwatch Rush be released?
I have to give Blizzard credit for this: the fact that they simply handed us such an early prototype in a plain back room without any fuss is a really nice contrast to the otherwise rather polished preview demos that triple-A events often bring with them.
In general, Rush is being announced almost under the table. But hey, if any publisher has ever burned its fingers in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in the wrong setting for a mobile announcement, it’s Blizzard. Don’t you guys have phones?
Overwatch Rush is supposed to be finished “sometime” in a small circle. Together with the community, in small playtests, on a shared Discord server. The big Overwatch remains untouched and is currently celebrating its big revival anyway, while Rush is being developed by a completely separate team, mostly in Barcelona. It’s still too early for a specific release date. My speculation: expect it at the end of 2026 at the earliest.
How deep the whole thing will go, whether Rush will ultimately offer the same complex team synergies as the regular Overwatch, whether it will strike a chord with its target audience and prevail with fair monetization – I can’t judge any of that yet. But at least I’m having a lot of fun playing it, even as someone who doesn’t usually get into mobile games. And that’s a good first sign, at least.
