As the Christmas season draws near,Overwatch 2looks to continue theOverwatch 1trend of celebrating special holidays with themed events. The sequel started by bringing back its Halloween Terror event last October, and now it welcomes the Yuletide season withits annual Winter Wonderland event. The event includes special game modes, map changes, and skins all themed around the year-end holidays.
While the idea of bringing back a classic Christmas event may be welcome to some players, the available content in this year’s Winter Wonderland feels sorely lacking. Reused game modes, overpriced skins, and very few free rewards aren’t enough to get players interested in whatOverwatch 2has in store this holiday season. And seeing as the Winter Wonderland event is meant to last almost an entire month, this is very worrying.
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An Uneventful Event
The biggest draws ofOverwatch 2’s themed eventsare without a doubt the unique game modes and available skins. The 2022 Winter Wonderland event has 4 events available: Freezethaw Elimination, Mei’s Snowball Offensive, Snowball Deathmatch, and Yeti Hunter. Though these game modes are a nice change of pace toOverwatch 2’s gameplay, all of them were previously introduced inOverwatch 1.
While new players will find joy in discovering these game modes, the fact that none of the modes were reworked forOverwatch 2makes them tedious and even boring to play for veteran players. Seasoned players will most likely play the Winter Wonderland game modes just to complete the event challenges and obtain their free rewards, of which there are very few. Currently, the only cosmetics players can get by completing challenges areBrigitte’s epic “Ice Queen” skin, a Snowman Head weapon charm, and 4 Christmas ornament sprays for Sojourn, Junker Queen, Kiriko, and Ramattra. There are 2 planned Christmas-themed D.Va Twitch drops that are set to be available from December 25 to January 4, but both of them are old cosmetics that made their debut back inOverwatch 1.
The Good Skins Are Tucked Behind a Paywall
ContinuingOverwatch 2’s problems with paid cosmetics, the majority of the game’s themed skins can only be purchased through the in-game store. There are new skins based on the new season’s Greek mythology theme and old Christmas-themed skins that were introduced back in the first game.What’s frustrating about the Christmas skinsin particular is that all of them used to be obtainable for free. Players who didn’t have enough time to playOverwatch 1could buy loot boxes and take their chances, but those who played the game regularly could grind levels for a chance at better cosmetics via the game’s loot box system. Should players find themselves without the cosmetics that they wanted, they could use Credits, a freeOverwatch 1currency, to purchase them instead.
The wayOverwatch 2bundles old cosmetics and sells them at exorbitant prices feels very predatory toward those who weren’t able to get the skins for free back inOverwatch 1. There is no workaround for it, either. Even if players manage to hold on to their Credits from the first game and have them converted toOverwatch 2’s Legacy Credits,event-themed skins can only be purchased with Overwatch Coins- a premium currency made specifically for the sequel.
2022’s Winter Wonderland currently feels like a big letdown. Based on an event overview released by Activision Blizzard, this is all players are getting until the new year. Though the returning game modes can be fun, there is very little in the way of new content and good free rewards. The reskinned maps are nothing much to talk about either, as none of the newOverwatch 2maps were reskinned to take advantage of the holiday season.Overwatch 2events are supposed to entice players to log inand play during a specific time of the year, but considering how paltry and reused content is, Activision Blizzard has missed the ball with this Christmas event.
Overwatch 2is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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