Overwatch seasonal events

To correlate to the real-world Chinese New Year, the Overwatch event is held around the same time (typically from late January to early February), and named following the Chinese Zodiac; for example, the first such event occurring in 2017 was named the "Year of the Rooster". Cosmetics in these events have followed the themes from Chinese legends. The event introduced the first Capture the Flag mode for Overwatch called "Capture the Rooster"; Blizzard had looked at adding such a mode for a few years during Overwatch's development but had difficulty with the mechanics due to the vastly different set of abilities offered by the characters that could imbalance the mode towards fast-moving characters.[15] Played on the Lijiang Tower map, normally used for Control modes, each team has a flag near their base. To capture the other opponent's flag, a character must stay near the flag and not take damage for a few seconds. Once they have taken the flag, they then must return it to their team's base, scoring a point if they do so. If they die while bringing the flag back, either a teammate can try to capture it, or the opposing team must stay near the flag, avoiding taking damage for a few seconds, to return it to their base. Teams can score with the opposing team's flag even if their team's flag has been taken. The first team to three scores, or the team with the highest score after five minutes, wins the match.[16]

Following the event, Blizzard introduced a more general Capture the Flag mode, playable on any of the Control maps, into the Arcade modes as well as making it an option for custom games with several adjustable parameters.[17]

The Overwatch Archive events are typically held in April of the year, and feature story-driven cooperative player versus environment Archive modes that Blizzard has used to explore the history of the characters and narrative.[18] According to Kaplan, the Archive modes were something Blizzard felt had been asked for by players since they started offering the seasonal events. Players had requested non-holiday-themed events, as well as sought more details on the setting and history of the Overwatch world.[19] Also, these events add additional cosmetic items based on the uniforms and backstory of the original Overwatch forces.[20] A digital comics tied to the narrative of the mode have been released alongside the event.[19]

In the normal Archive events, players select from four pre-selected characters, and then fight as directed by in-game narration to attack or defend points from enemy forces. If a player was downed, any of the other still-surviving players could help them up by interacting with that character for a few moments. If all four players are downed, or the explosive is destroyed before reaching the sealed doors, the round ends as a loss.[20][21] A separate mode allowed players to complete the same mission without being limited in character selection, but without any of the character-specific dialogue; Blizzard added this based on feedback from Junkenstein's Revenge, to provide a less restrictive way to enjoy the game mode.[22] For the first three years of the Archives event, Blizzard added a new mission, while in the fourth year, they added special variants of these missions that altered the conditions of the match, such as where each heroes' health is halved but they deal twice as much damage.[23]

The Archive mode was considered a much-improved version of a player-versus-environment mode compared to Junkenstein's Revenge from the Halloween event. Cecilia D'Anastasio for Kotaku felt the mode was much more dynamic since it required players to move throughout the map rather than stay in one general location, and as the four default characters represent a balanced team, the mode calls for more careful teamwork and strategy. D'Anastasio also felt that with new voice lines to support this mode, it helped to establish the game's lore for players.[24] PC Gamer argued that the Uprising event demonstrated the potential for a strong team-based story-driven campaign developed within the Overwatch narrative.[25] Elements of these Archive missions were used as the basis to develop the cooperative side of the upcoming Overwatch 2.

Corresponding to the game's release in May of each year, the Anniversary event features several new cosmetics for many characters. It also makes all special cosmetics that are normally locked except during the special events available for purchase with in-game coins and possible to obtain through loot boxes.[26][27] Nearly all special game modes from all events are made playable as well. The Anniversary mode has been used to introduce major new features to the game following testing on the Public Test Region. The first Anniversary event added three new Arena maps used for the smaller-scale Elimination games, and which remained in rotation after the events' conclusion, as well as adding new Elimination game modes.[28] "The Workshop", a script-based system for users to create their own games, launched alongside the 3rd Anniversary event, with several of the more successful user game modes brought into the Arcade for all to play.[29]

Overwatch's "Summer Games" event was first run concurrent to the 2016 Summer Olympics and since ran annually.[7] The events are generally themed around summer sports and activities. During this event, a special game mode called Lúcioball is available. Lúcioball was designed as a futuristic soccer game in which two teams of three Lúcio characters attempt to push a ball into their opponents' goal. Played in four-minute matches on the special stadium map, Estádio das Rãs, players use two kinds of attacks to control the ball's movements: primarily, a melee attack and a secondary, powerful sonic boom that could knock back opponents as well (frequently called "booping" by players). Players can also use the level's environmental perks (e.g., jump pads and speed-boosting walls) to secure a strategic advantage on the field.[7] PC Gamer felt that the mode felt closer to a "multiplayer carnival game than a fleshed-out, standalone mode".[30]

The Halloween Terror events fall around the end of October to celebrate Halloween. Most new cosmetics added are based on classic monster and horror tropes. During Halloween Terror, the "Junkenstein's Revenge" cooperative game mode against computer players is available. In Junkenstein's Revenge, four players cooperatively guard a castle door against oncoming waves of enemies and bosses. Set in a themed section of the game's Eichenwalde map, players select a difficulty level and choose between the characters Ana, Hanzo, McCree, and Soldier: 76, before fighting off approaching mindless "zomnic" drones, long-range "zombardiers," exploding tires, and costumed versions of the characters Reaper, Roadhog, Symmetra, Mercy, and Junkrat (as the titular Dr. Junkenstein).[30] The game mode includes new voice work and is based on a companion comic book released concurrently.[30] Later iterations have added other heroes that can be selected, as well as a secondary mode where any hero can be selected.

The new mode was generally praised by commentators. PC Gamer wrote that the event resembled a similar event run on the team shooter Team Fortress 2 since 2012. Though the reviewer found the Junkenstein mode pleasant, he wrote that in comparison to Team Fortress 2's Mann vs. Machine mode, Junkenstein felt "shallow" and similar to Lúcioball in its simplistic map flow, giving little room for player movement. He also wondered why the mode was limited to four specific characters.[30] Eurogamer's Robert Purchase found the event fun and considered it a good distraction from Overwatch's main modes, but also recognized that if it was kept on after the Halloween Terror event, it would become a stale game mode.[31] Heather Alexandra for Kotaku felt that the mode demonstrated that a co-operative player-versus-environment mode would fit well as a permanent feature within Overwatch as it required good team coordination to complete more challenging matches.[32]

The Winter Wonderland events typically run late in the calendar year into the new year timed with winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Its cosmetics tend to feature both winter-themed cosmetics as well as those related to Christmas and other similar holiday events.

Two event modes have been added during Winter Wonderland. The first is a deathmatch mode called "Mei's Snowball Offensive". The mode takes place on the smaller Ecopoint: Antarctica map, introduced in the previous months for standard deathmatch play. Six players each play Mei, but where her Endothermic Blaster, which normally fires a stream of damaging cold, can only fire a single snowball. Players must find a snowball pile scattered around the map to reload the weapon. Further, her Ultimate ability allows her to fire a machine-gun-like string of snowballs for a brief period. Otherwise, Mei's other abilities (Ice Wall and Cyro-Freeze) remain the same. A single snowball hit kills the struck until the round is complete.[33] Kotaku claims this mode was generally not well received by players as the act of having to reload the Blaster made one too vulnerable, and with the permadeath mechanic in play, the mode was not fun nor captured the spirit of a snowball fight.[34]

The second new mode is "Yeti Hunter", an asymmetric mode where five players, each playing as Mei, attempt to defeat one player controlling Winston (acting as the Yeti) in a boss battle on Nepal's Village stage. Yeti Hunt is the first Overwatch mode to use role selection; players can indicate their preference to play as a Mei or as the Yeti. The Winston player must elude the Mei team, which can freeze him, use ice walls to impede his movement, or catch him in a snare trap (which replaces Mei's usual Ultimate). After collecting four pieces of meat, which spawn randomly in predetermined locations around the map, Winston unleashes his Ultimate ability for a short period which temporarily boosts his health, reduces his jump cooldown, and gives him powerful melee attacks. When a Mei player dies, they will respawn after a short delay and cost their team a life. The match is over once the Mei team either defeats Winston or loses all five of their lives.[35] Kaplan described the Yeti Hunt as a light-hearted mode to be played for a few matches rather than hundreds of hours.[14]

Character-specific challenges are not run on a regular schedule but generally are released alongside new narrative pieces of lore for that character. They feature new cosmetic items that a player can earn either through playing and winning matches in-game and/or through watching Overwatch players on streaming media during the set period.[36]