It’s the most wonderful time of the year to be an Overwatch fan.
After the brilliant success of the Halloween event, which brought us an all new gaming mode, neat new skins and a variety of spooky goodies, Overwatch fans have been eagerly hoping for something similar for Christmas. They are looking for something to fill them with Christmas cheer, an excuse to bring out those gaudy and ugly Christmas sweaters and just camp out in front of their computer or console to enjoy some festive mayhem on Overwatch. The one question that remains though is what can we expect from this update in particular? Well, it is time to speculate what we don’t know, and take a deeper look at the very few hints we have received thus far.
Very little is actually confirmed for the Christmas Event, as the trailer that debuted on Twitter didn’t give a lot away. It showed a brief glimpse of the King’s Row map but with a very Dickens’ like feel with the snow sprinkled around and Christmas lights draped around the buildings. This points to King’s Row being the setting for potentially a new game mode (ala Junkenstein’s Revenge), or it could just be an aesthetic change for the map in general. It would be nice to see some other maps get a bit of festive cheer as well – imagine the Hollywood map just completely decked out with inflatable snowmen and prop reindeers loitering around in the prop rooms. Some maps would be a bit more difficult to make festive (we’re looking at you Route 66) but they could have fun with just tossing around some tinsel and sticking up the Christmas trees. Maybe even have posters up for some mock Christmas films to fit in with the in-game universe. Even small tweaks would still add a bit of welcomed holiday flavor.
The most anticipated part of any special event, of course, will be the Loot Boxes and the specialised goodies we can get. We’ve seen the Summer Games and Halloween events have their own exclusive content of course, and with Christmas confirmed it would only be fair to expect a beautifully wrapped Loot Box topped off with a dainty little bow. What could said box contain though?
The first expectation would be festive-themed skins. There are many different types of skins that befit the winter holiday, of course; we want to see someone dressed as Santa, some cheeky elves as helpers and maybe even a reindeer or two. What would be great, though, is if some characters got a bit more love during this festive time of year. Both Winston and Symmetra missed out on getting exclusive Legendary skins for any of the special events so it would be nice to see them have their time under the Christmas lights. Wouldn’t it be nice to see Winston as a big gorilla Santa, spreading the joy of science to all the boys and girls? After her update, Symmetra is certainly up there on the support side, so seeing her as an Elf with all manner of support toys at her disposal would be rather neat.
What about Sombra, the latest character to join the Overwatch crew? We are still pretty hyped about her and it would be amazing if she got to show off even more but in a different manner. She is a hacker after all, and obsessed with stealing information and hoarding it for herself. Hmm…a thief, wanting to take but not give, who does that remind you of? Yes, The Grinch. It’s a bit of a stretch to even consider that this could be a possible skin but it would be rather hilarious to see.
Of course, there are even more ridiculous skins that Overwatch could provide us with, since we got such a neat variety from the Halloween update. What about a reindeer-themed Tracer, zipping around the snowy maps with the sound of jingle bells around her? Perhaps we could see Soldier 76 and Reaper sporting the ugliest Christmas sweaters they could ever knit, just to show off the ‘dads’ of the game. While it would be sweet to give the Santa role to Winston, Reinhardt and Torbjorn would both make stupendous Santa figures. Torbjorn could dish out present-styled armor while wearing his festive skin while Reinhardt would need some fabulous new lines (maybe even referencing Krampus while he is at it).
Since Mei is the ‘cold’ themed character of the game, it would be a crime not to give her some holiday-themed makeover as well. Maybe give her a new snowy suit that looks like funky red and green wrapping paper, or even make her look like Mrs. Claus topped off with a cute little hat and a seasonal makeover to her weaponry. It would be possible to go on and on about the new skins our cast of heroes could receive, but it’s not just the skins that we get in our Loot Boxes. We also get new emotes, poses, sprays and icons for ourselves. No doubt we are going to be overwhelmed by the amount of tinsel, sparkle and snow being flung in our faces. The Halloween update also gave us adorable sprays of some of our favourite characters as kids Trick-or-Treating, so maybe having sprays of our heroes exchanging gifts with each other would add to that warm gooey feeling we get about giving presents.
The update is slated for release on December 13th so be aware that this will probably be the time when everyone is jumping online and clogging up the servers. You may need to wait for the update to happen since everyone will be eager to get their hands on some Christmas goodies. Hopefully the developers will make it possible to buy any Christmas-themed items we are unable to receive in our Loot Boxes since it would be a shame to lose out on getting them. Till next week, we can only ponder about what Santa Overwatch will leave in our stockings for us to enjoy.