Overwatch Halloween Event; New Heroes, Maps Incoming
By Jasmine Henry 12 October 2016
Details about the Overwatch Halloween Terror event leaks, while game director Jeff Kaplan teases the addition of two new playable characters and six new maps.
As an online multiplayer game, various tweaks and changes are made to Overwatch all the time. For example, a huge redesign for support hero Symmetra is being planned and developer Blizzard recently introduced a fix for a thumbstick acceleration issue. Soon, though, the usual balance changes and bug fixes aren’t the only things set to be added to the game, as Blizzard is also planning to introduce lots of new content too.
In the immediate future, players should expect Overwatch to host a special, Halloween themed event. According to a prematurely posted Xbox Store listing, the game will celebrate the spookiest time of the year with something called “Halloween Terror.” If the information is correct, Halloween loot boxes will be made available until November 1 (4PM, PT), offering players “more than 100 Halloween items” including skins, sprays, highlight intros, victory poses, player icons, voice lines and, of course, credits.
Unfortunately, unlike the Overwatch summer games event that coincided with the Rio 2016 Olympics, it doesn’t appear that the event will feature a limited game mode. However, that may be because Blizzard has its work cut out creating two new Overwatch heroes, along with six new maps.
The confirmation of even more gameplay content comes from the latest Overwatch Developer Update. In the video embedded above, game director Jeff Kaplan confirms that the team is “actively working on more heroes now.” One of these characters is “very far along” and Kaplan reveals that “we’re play-testing it internally across the whole company.”
“We believe this hero will see the light of day sooner rather than later,” says the game director. This lead many fans to speculate that he’s referring to rumored hero Sombra, a character that has been teased for quite some time.
Another new character is in the prototype stages, explains Kaplan, who says that “we’re using placeholder models and effects and animations just to prove-out that the hero is fun.” The character is “really great,” he adds, but they probably won’t see the light of day until sometime next year.
On maps, Kaplan says that “we work on a couple of different kinds of maps.” Two of those in development are for existing Overwatch game modes (one is a prototype, the other is “very far along” and is having art added to it now), while four of those are “prototype developer-only stages of new game modes that we’re experimenting with.” Those looking for a follow up for the recently released map Eichenwalde will be disappointed to hear Kaplan say that “I don’t think all of them will become actual maps that will end up launching,” but the promise of new content in general is exciting.
Overwatch is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: Reddit
