Overwatch 2’s Battle For Olympus event is a step in the right direction

Overwatch 2’s seemingly regular release of new limited-time events is poised to give the game staying power Overwatch 1 lacked.

When Blizzard teased the arrival of Overwatch 2’s Battle For Olympus event, I had hopes I would have another game mode like Junkenstein’s Revenge to sink my teeth into. The limited-time event / game mode is now live, and while it’s not quite what I was hoping for, I’m still encouraged that Overwatch 2 is finally on the right track with its content releases.

Basically, Battle For Olympus is simply Overwatch 2’s Deathmatch mode with a very pretty coat of Olympian paint. Once again, the Overwatch 2 art team has killed it with these skin designs. Medusa Widowmaker is *chef’s kiss*. Players can choose from a handful of heroes, each with their own Olympian god theme, and battle it out with some major tweaks to heroes’ abilities.

All the heroes you can choose — Widowmaker, Ramattra, Lució, Reinhardt, Junker Queen, Pharah, and Roadhog — have a “Divine” ultimate that lasts far longer than normal and modifications to their regular abilities. When playing Lució as Hermes, his Sound Barrier ultimate lasts for 20 seconds instead of the typical handful, and if you “boop” an enemy (i.e., use Lució’s alt fire knock back attack), it will knock them into walls for extra damage and a stun.

Playing these characters with — if you’ll excuse the pun — God Mode enabled made for an interesting experience, and it got me to step outside my support-only comfort zone. I really enjoyed how Widowmaker’s divine ultimate turned people to stone if they looked at me while also showing me everyone’s location. Instead of trying to snipe people — which I am atrocious at — I would just run toward the nearest enemy in hopes of locking eyes with them. But despite my glee at stunning people by booping them into walls, Battle For Olympus is still, at its core, a Deathmatch game, and whew... I do not like Deathmatch.

Overwatch is one of the rare team games that I play. As such, I am no good when it’s time to abandon all that team-based muscle memory for an all-out free-for-all. Battle For Olympus simply ain’t for me. But I’m strangely encouraged by the game mode not only for the skins but also for the promising trend of Overwatch introducing fresh events each battle pass to mix up the grind of the ladder climb / quickplay.