Image via Blizzard Entertainment<\/figcaption><\/figure> <\/div>
This version of Antarctica seeks to expand on that lore and answer some questions about the experiment. Fans often ask why no one came to rescue Mei and her coworkers, Jurgens-Fyhrie explained. \u201cThe answer is that Overwatch<\/em> tried,\u201d he said, referencing the Icebreaker sublevel. \u201cYou get to see a huge part of the story we\u2019ve never talked about before and you can play across that area.\u201d<\/p>
Jurgens-Fyhrie was also not subtle about the number of answers\u2013and maybe more questions\u2013that can be found on various levels of the map. \u201cYou can see some hints about what Mei and her team were trying to find [in Antarctica].\u201d<\/p>
With its dreary yet awe-inspiring ice fields and aurora australis\u2013or Southern Lights\u2013Antarctica looks nothing like the rest of Overwatch 2\u2019s maps, which was intentional by the design team. The challenge was in making it interesting while also reflecting its natural setting.<\/p>
\u201cAll of a sudden we say we\u2019re going to [make] Antarctica and you Google Antarctica and you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, that\u2019s a problem,\u201d Spisak said with a laugh.<\/p>
Rogers admits the team has previously stuck to \u201cmodular\u201d maps, but wanted to reach new heights with this natural setting. \u201cThis took some graphical challenges that we\u2019ve never faced before because Overwatch<\/em> is normally a city-based game,\u201d he said. \u201cAntarctica is a very organic map for us; it\u2019s uneven in its shapes, its curvatures, its caves, and the ice.\u201d<\/p>
In a strange way, Antarctica seems like the most \u201cOverwatch<\/em>-y\u201d map the team has created for the sequel. It\u2019s built around the lore of a character and also brings back some of the fun and audacity of the base game\u2019s iconic locales. Not only are there penguins, but there\u2019s a fishing hole and multiple ways to interact with the organic environment. There\u2019s a sense of levity involved that, in our opinion, some of the newer additions have lacked. <\/p>
Antarctica launches with the third season of Overwatch 2<\/em> on Feb. 7. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yes, there are penguins, and we are all thankful. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1722,"featured_media":789284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gamurs_wordpress_blocks_hide_tags":true,"_is_affiliated":false,"dotesports_deal_href":"","dotesports_featured_video":"","_notify_users":2,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2023-02-02T19:05:17Z","apple_news_api_id":"1fbafb81-4a26-4849-8450-a32d0203b4e6","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2023-02-02T19:05:17Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AH7r7gUomSEmEUKMtAgO05g","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44120],"invoiceable_action":[],"internal-label":[46551],"article_type":[44125],"coauthors":[{"id":1722,"display_name":"Liz 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Her favorite thing is the Overwatch League; her second favorite thing is pretending iced coffee is a meal. She specializes in educational content, patch notes that (actually) make sense, and aggressively supporting Tier 2 Overwatch. When she's not writing, Liz is expressing hot takes on Twitter and making bad life choices at Target.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/mizlizrichardson\/","https:\/\/x.com\/mizliz_"],"url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/author\/lizrichardson1"}]}},"raw_content":"Even in its earliest days, Overwatch\u2019s maps took players on a world tour, encouraging exploration through the futuristic-yet-familiar universe. In the sequel, designers have already taken us to several European locales, the Shambali Monastery, and the warm beaches of Rio de Janeiro. And when season three begins on Feb. 7, players will face a frigid new adventure. Welcome to Overwatch 2\u2019s newest Control map, the Antarctic Peninsula. With sub-maps that take players between vastly different areas, like a massive wrecked ship and an underground maze of caves, Antarctica is designed to heat up a fan-favorite map type. According to developers, the map is also full of lore tidbits that solidify it as part of Overwatch\u2019s past, present, and future. Let\u2019s start with the most important news: yes, Antarctica includes penguins.\u00a0 \u201cIt was vital to the team\u2019s happiness that penguins be included,\u201d lead narrative designer Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie said in a press interview about the new map. According to art director Dion Rogers, players can shoot at the penguins but can\u2019t kill them or hurt them in any way. \u201cIt\u2019s playfully done in the game when you see it,\u201d he said. \u00a0 Once players are done staring at penguins, they can get to exploring Antarctica\u2019s picturesque and mildly terrifying environment. As a Control map, Antarctica includes three sublevels that will cycle randomly as the match progresses through three rounds. These sublevels include massive underground ice caves, which level designer Trey Spisak described as having a \u201clot of verticality\u201d and multiple flank routes. Another level is more of a \u201cstraightforward control point,\u201d according to designers, and features the extensive laboratories Mei and her coworkers used for their research.\u00a0 The most striking of the sublevels is called Icebreaker, which includes the remnants of a massive Overwatch ship that attempted to rescue Mei and her research associates. On the way, it ended up mangled in the ice and the mission was abandoned. Players get to meander through the ship and play through engine rooms, a captain\u2019s quarters, and more.\u00a0 With Antarctica, the team is diving back into maps that are steeped in character lore. Players got a taste of this lore with Ecopoint: Antarctica, a deathmatch map that was featured in base Overwatch. Everything about the frigid region is related to Mei and her ill-fated research crew.\u00a0 As seen in the cinematic \u201cRise and Shine,\u201d Mei spent ten years frozen in one of Overwatch\u2019s research centers in Antarctica. What was intended to be a short experiment in cryogenic technology ended in tragedy; various issues wound up killing all of Mei\u2019s associates as time clicked by and Overwatch disbanded. This version of Antarctica seeks to expand on that lore and answer some questions about the experiment. Fans often ask why no one came to rescue Mei and her coworkers, Jurgens-Fyhrie explained. \u201cThe answer is that Overwatch tried,\u201d he said, referencing the Icebreaker sublevel. \u201cYou get to see a huge part of the story we\u2019ve never talked about before and you can play across that area.\u201d Jurgens-Fyhrie was also not subtle about the number of answers\u2013and maybe more questions\u2013that can be found on various levels of the map. \u201cYou can see some hints about what Mei and her team were trying to find [in Antarctica].\u201d With its dreary yet awe-inspiring ice fields and aurora australis\u2013or Southern Lights\u2013Antarctica looks nothing like the rest of Overwatch 2\u2019s maps, which was intentional by the design team. The challenge was in making it interesting while also reflecting its natural setting. \u201cAll of a sudden we say we\u2019re going to [make] Antarctica and you Google Antarctica and you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, that\u2019s a problem,\u201d Spisak said with a laugh. Rogers admits the team has previously stuck to \u201cmodular\u201d maps, but wanted to reach new heights with this natural setting. \u201cThis took some graphical challenges that we\u2019ve never faced before because Overwatch is normally a city-based game,\u201d he said. \u201cAntarctica is a very organic map for us; it\u2019s uneven in its shapes, its curvatures, its caves, and the ice.\u201d In a strange way, Antarctica seems like the most \u201cOverwatch-y\u201d map the team has created for the sequel. It\u2019s built around the lore of a character and also brings back some of the fun and audacity of the base game\u2019s iconic locales. Not only are there penguins, but there\u2019s a fishing hole and multiple ways to interact with the organic environment. There\u2019s a sense of levity involved that, in our opinion, some of the newer additions have lacked.\u00a0\u00a0 Antarctica launches with the third season of Overwatch 2 on Feb. 7.\u00a0","apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Antarctic-Peninsula_1-e1684346702333.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1722"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789282"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":789943,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789282\/revisions\/789943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789282"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=789282"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=789282"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=789282"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=789282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
