To celebrate the start of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Blizzard announced that some special gear is now being made available in Overwatch for a limited time, alongside a new mode featuring the game’s resident Brazilian, Lucio.
Featuring costumes, sprays, voice lines, highlight intros, emotes, and victory poses exclusive to this event, over 100 new items will be available for players to unlock during the promotion period. Running from August 2-22, that gives us three weeks to grind up those levels and stockpile our loot boxes so we can hope to nab some of this new stuff. Or… You could always buy boxes, which I’m guessing Blizzard and Activision are counting on.
Easing the grind slightly is Sportsball Lucioball, a new mode where two teams of three Lucio’s skate across a field in what’s essentially a game of soccer. Tweaking his abilities slightly to match the new game mode, his main attack has been replaced with his melee attack, his standard fire is now a secondary fire option that can only shoot once every few seconds, and his volume increase only has an effect on the user as opposed to those around him. Lucio’s Ultimate would also have no use since shields aren’t needed in a peaceful game, so activating it now pulls the ball towards him. Now, if only we could find a way to keep someone as a goalie instead of having the whole team rush the opponent’s net, only for the ball to casually roll into our undefended goal, that would be swell…
Special Summer Games loot boxes will guarantee at least one special item per box, but cannot be bought with coins. So if you’ve saved some up and were hoping to save yourself the trouble of relying on RNG, you’re out of luck. Unfortunately, duplicate Olympic items can still be obtained, which will be traded in for coins that can’t be used to buy them. All in all, I love the new stuff, but the way it’s being approached isn’t the best as far as I’m concerned. Considering how the promotion only running for three weeks, and how high level players can take a long time to level up, the most dedicated players won’t be able to obtain the items they want without either casting aside all responsibilities to play nonstop, or spend potentially hundreds of dollars, neither of which promises anything. I know they need to monetize the game somehow, but allowing normal items in the special drops, duplicates, AND not allowing us to use coins to buy them seems ridiculous.
Complaints aside, the new mode and loot have been a lot of fun to play with and collect so far. Let’s hope Blizzard will take these concerns into consideration going forward. What are your thoughts on the first Overwatch special event? Comment below and let us know!