For those that played the original Overwatch during the Halloween season, the Halloween Terror PvE mode Junkenstein’s Revenge likely comes to mind. One of the most popular brawls ever released for the game, Junkenstein’s Revenge saw players defending the Eichenwalde castle gate from hordes of zombified Omnics. With some entertaining narration, unique dialogue for the selectable heroes, and memorable bosses, the mode stood out and was something players looked forward to every year. However, not ever special brawl added to Overwatch 2 should be a sequel.
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Not Every Brawl Has The Depth of Junkenstein’s Revenge
Junkenstein’s Revenge is unique in the sense that the mode’s concept has enough depth to carry multiple iterations. A narrator can easily tell a new story about how four different warriors battled the Bride of Junkenstein, with players exploring the rest of the castle or even a completely fresh location in a future iteration of the mode. Any group of characters could be brought together to fight the Zomnics, a faction that could be fleshed out further through additional enemy types.
While Junkenstein’s Revenge has enough depth to be expanded upon through new PvE missions in Overwatch 2, the same cannot be said for other seasonal brawls. Yeti Hunter and Mei’s Snowball Offensive are both entertaining distractions during the holidays, but the very nature of those modes ensures that there is only so much that can be done with them. Similarly, rule changes and additional maps do not change the core gameplay of Lucio Ball. While these modes can and should return, they should not be the only limited time content added to the game, as another map for Mei’s Snowball Offensive is not nearly as appealing as a follow-up to Junkenstein’s Revenge.
Overwatch 2 Should Focus on Fresh Events and Brawls
Instead of Lucio Ball 2.0, Blizzard should focus on releasing brand-new limited time modes for Overwatch 2. Push has proven to be a big hit, showing the potential success of fresh gameplay types and giving the studio a reason to continue testing out original ideas. While Push being a proper competitive mode as opposed to an LTM does better justify its creation, it would be great to see Blizzard dedicate some more resources to developing entirely new seasonal brawls.
Some kind of Valentine’s Day brawl would be a welcome addition to the game, accompanying festive heart-covered cosmetics and giving players something to look forward to in February. Summer Games could be freshened up with a sport other than Lucio Ball, with gamers playing volleyball Pharah or racing across a track as Tracer. For the winter season, a new Brawl could play with the concept of freezing, with players possibly being forced to fight in a tight area due to an ice storm surrounding them and following as the match progresses. Lunar New Year could feature a brawl tied to the annual animal, some new one-off missions not tied to the PvE campaign could be featured for Archives, and so on.
Though Blizzard could play it safe and continue to expand on modes like Mei’s Snowball Offensive like it is doing with Junkenstein’s Revenge, it would be better to see something completely new instead. Though Junkenstein’s Revenge is a mode deserving of additional content, as it has the depth to justify further updates, other seasonal content should be built around never-before-seen ideas.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Switch, and Xbox Series X.
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