Although battling over pristine and beautiful locations is fun in Overwatch, getting down into the dirt and the nitty-gritty of urbanized, scrapyard combat is a whole different experience. That’s what Blizzard is shooting for with its new Junkertown map, which offers a scrappy, dustbowl environment through which players must escort a bomb-packed trailer of cash to the heart of the “Queen’s” throne room.
Originally shown off at this year’s Gamescom, Junkertown adds a whole new chapter to the lore of Overwatch, with a background comic and an animated short film adding to the mythos. It’s the frontier settlement in the Australian outback that Junkrat and Roadhog hail from. They aren’t the most popular of characters there, though, and are keen to make their return a spectacular one.
The map itself is one the Overwatch developers seem particularly enamored with. It’s built to look and sound different than the more well-maintained parts of Overwatch’s world. It’s grimy and grungy and that makes it a great place to fight over.
Within the escort map, you’ll be escorting Junkrat and Roadhog’s collection of stolen booty — with a little explosive surprise — right to the heart of the Queen’s territory. You’ll make your way through Roadhog’s farm, Junkertown proper, and ultimately the Scrapyard itself, where champion brawlers have seized fame and glory in the arena.
To make sure that the level isn’t too linear, the developers inserted several shortcuts and sneaky routes between key areas and chokepoints, making it possible for some behind-the-lines attacks from both sides of the escort mission.
Although PC Test Realm players have been brawling all over Junkertown since the end of August, the rest of Overwatch’s expansive player base can now take a stab at defending and attacking the desert fortress town themselves.
Released alongside that update are a few tweaks to the rest of the game, including an update to Mercy’s ultimate, which replaces it with a new power called Valkyrie, giving her unlimited flight and ammo (thanks Engadget). D.Va’s Defense Matrix has also been overhauled, now draining twice as fast. To counter that though, she’s also been given a new skill called Micro Missiles, which does some area-of-effect damage.
Finding Overwatch a little intimidating or hard to get into? Our beginner’s guide will help you get started.
