Winter Wonderland is an in-game event that comes to Overwatch every year. The first time around it introduced a single new game mode, but since then it has evolved to offer so much more to players, and 2019 is no exception. Let’s dive in and see just how much Christmas has been crammed into it.
New Modes
This year there are a couple of modes specific to Winter Wonderland. The first is Mei’s Snowball Offensive, which sees players battling out as two teams of Meis. The idea is to pick up snowballs and use them to kill enemy players, but you’ve only got one snowball at a time. This concept is brought over to another game mode for the event, Snowball Deathmatch, which is a free-for-all eight player match in which snowballs are the ultimate weapon. In this mode players get three shots of snowballs, so there’s a better chance at taking down enemies. The final new mode is Yeti Hunter, which is a 6 player brawl in which five Mei characters fight against one Yeti with Winston’s abilities. The idea is that the Yeti needs to kill all the Meis, and the Meis need to take down the Yeti.
New Challenges
There are always challenges in Overwatch, but Winter Wonderland brings some seasonal ones to the forefront, and offers a very specific reward for them. This year you can earn some seasonal skins like Ugly Sweater: 76, Holly Moira, and Snow Angel Mercy for completing objectives like winning three, six, or nine games. These are an easy way to earn some time-limited cosmetics, and we all know that they’re the best ones around. These challenges extend to all of the new items in Overwatch, with new skins for every character, new emotes, and even some new intros to collect. The Winter Wonderland loot boxes are very easy to waste your money on, so I suggest playing a lot of Overwatch and earning as much as you can.
In terms of actual Christmas content, this is probably one of the best examples. The entire event is Christmas themed, and offers loads of extra stuff to earn just for playing the game, as you would anyway. If you already own Overwatch, then you’ll be playing the event now. But if you don’t, this is a great excuse to download it again and get involved from now until the 2nd of January, when Winter Wonderland melts away for another year.
For Christmas we’re checking out all kinds of Christmas games, in-game events, and DLC. If you fancy something to make you feel a bit more festive at this time of year, why not read some of our other pieces about Feastivus, the Dying Light and Chivalry crossover event, Christmas pyjamas in Two Point Hospital, a game about being Jesus, some festive brushes in Concrete Genie, or some Christmas themed scorched in Fallout 76?