Blizzard has released the Winter Wonderland update for Overwatch, bringing the holiday spirit into the massively popular multiplayer shooter with the new seasonal event.
An invitation was sent out last week by Blizzard to all Overwatch gamers in the form of a GIF featuring a snow-capped version of the King's Row map, a few weeks after discovered sound files in the game hinted that a holiday event could be coming. The Winter Wonderland update has now arrived, bringing with it holiday loot boxes, a new event-specific brawl, and much more.
Here is what gamers can expect from Overwatch's Winter Wonderland.
Winter Wonderland Loot Boxes
As with previous Overwatch events, the Winter Wonderland update brings with it Loot Boxes that contain event-specific items, including profile icons, victory poses, sprays, emotes, highlight intros, and of course, character skins.
There are a whopping 12 skins that are included in the Winter Wonderland update, namely for Zarya, Pharah, Torbjörn, Reaper, Winston, Roadhog, Lucio, Mei, Tracer, Zenyatta, McCree, and even the latest hero to be added to the game, Sombra. As for the skins that stand out, Torbjörn and Mei look cute as Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, Roadhog is not the kind of reindeer that you'd like to pull your sleigh, Pharah looks cool with her ice armor, and Winston is adorable as a yeti.
Winter Loot Boxes can be earned or purchased, with each one containing at least one item from the Winter Wonderland collection. Once an item is unlocked, players will have access to it even after the holiday event ends.
Mei's Snowball Offensive
The event-specific brawl for the Winter Wonderland update is Mei's Snowball Offensive, which is a six-on-six single-elimination match featuring everybody's favorite climatologist on Ecopoint Antarctica. The goal is to wipe out the enemy team three times.
All gamers play as Mei in the mode, with her weapon changed from a frost-shooting gun to a snowball launcher. It only takes one hit to take down an enemy, but after firing a shot, players need to search for a snow pile to reload the gun. For the mode, Mei's ultimate is also changed into a skill that transforms her weapon into a semi-automatic one, allowing her to shoot snowballs continuously without needing to reload.
Other Winter Wonderland Goodies
Winter Wonderland also brings with it a Winter Mystery brawl where the character being used by players is chosen randomly each time that they respawn. Also featured in the update are holiday-themed Hanamura and King's Row, which was seen in Blizzard's invitation for the event.
The Winter Wonderland event of Overwatch will only run until Jan. 2, so players who are looking to acquire all the items offered by the update and enjoy Mei's Snowball Offensive have about three weeks to do so.
