The latest update for Blizzard's highly popular team-based multiplayer shooter, "Overwatch," has continually been teased for the past couple of weeks. Now, the team has revealed some additional teasers that have somewhat become a full blown announcement for the update's upcoming new map called the Horizon Lunar Colony.
A unique new arena
In a newly published Developer Update video, Jeff Kaplan outlined the extensive work that was done on the new lunar map. While a lot of map's unique features had been revealed in the arena's debut trailer, Kaplan revealed some additional details regarding the map's hidden story, gameplay opportunities, and its revised gravity feature.
Those who have seen the "Overwatch" animated short film "Recall," will be somewhat familiar with the new map as it takes much of its inspiration from the areas showcased in the short. The short, which gave fans a glimpse into Winston's past, focused on the Horizon Lunar Colony. The base was where Winston had grown up as a young scientist together with Dr. Harold Winston, the man who raised him.
Hidden story
According to Kaplan, the map has been sprinkled with a number of contextual elements that players will need to uncover for themselves. As an example, players should be able to identify Winston's room from the map itself. Computer screens scattered around the map also reveals some additional details about the scientists that used to live there.
There is also apparently a big mystery that players will need to uncover, which will revolve around Winston's peers and of what had actually happened in the lunar colony.
Playing around with gravity
The "Overwatch" team initially played around with the idea of implementing a lowered gravity on the entire map, but they eventually went against it to retain the game's competitive nature.
Kaplan explained that having low gravity on the entire map was a bit too "gimmicky." However, the team still implemented it on certain parts of the map so that players can try out the feature for themselves. Additionally, the upcoming update will add a new Arcade tile that will allow players to adjust the gravity of the other maps already in the game.
The feature will reportedly be enabled for just a week as a trial period to see how the community responds to it.
The "Overwatch" patch 1.12, which includes the Horizon Lunar Colony map, new options, hero buffs, and other enhancements, is current live on the game's public test region (PTR).
