Developer Update | Horizon

Welcome to another Developer Update. I'm Jeff, from the Overwatch Team.
We've taken you to a lot of places in Overwatch.
We've taken you to King's Row and Ilios and Hollywood.
But today we're taking you someplace very exciting.
To the moon.
So, we've heard a lot of requests for more maps and more story
and we're very excited to bring you the Horizon Lunar Colony
because we feel like we're delivering on two promises there.
1. It's another great Assault map.
And we really felt like the game needed another Assault map.
We're playing around with some really fun elements in this Assault map.
For example, both the attackers and defenders, on the first point that you're
trying to capture, will have some interesting high ground options.
Now it's not the world's best high ground for the attackers.
But there are some good situations that we think heroes, like Widowmaker,
will have some some definite good opportunities with the
high ground there.
We also are trying some different things on the latter point
of the map as well.
There's a really neat high ground approach and defender high ground
scenario that you can set up, on that Point B.
So, we're really looking forward to seeing how teams approach.
The Second point, the second capture point, also has a number of low ground
options and flanking options.
So, we know that sometimes in a map like Hanamura it can feel
very restricted, where a team approaches that final point.
And we're hoping that this map that takes place on the moon
will give you some more options approaching that second point.
2. Now the other thing that I know everybody is excited about...
When you talk about the moon you have to instantly talk about gravity.
Because we know that there's lower gravity on the moon
and we start to think about "How might that play in Overwatch?"
Well, we explored a lot of different options for the moon map.
At first, we had low gravity on the whole map
and we felt like it sort of turn the game a little bit into a gimmick
and while it was fun for a little bit, it broke the game in some ways.
While fun, that took away from the competitive nature of Overwatch.
And, sort of, the solid feel of the game.
But we didn't want to get rid of that altogether.
So, as you're approaching Point A on this lunar map
you'll notice that there are some airlock doors off to your right,
if you're an attacker.
Now if you go out those airlock doors, don't worry.
For whatever magical reason, you can still breathe out there
and you won't instantly implode.
We've enabled the low gravity on that section and we think we've
struck a really good middle ground here,
where it's a rare, kind of, out of the way flanking route.
But it will allow for some of those cool players-story moments where
the low gravity is enabled and you're out there on the surface of the Moon.
So, you'll have a lot of fun playing around with that.
Now I know that there's some of you who are thinking
"But Jeff, you just said you played around with low gravity...
on the whole map and it was fun for a while but felt like a gimmick...
you know, let us try it!"
Well of course we're going to let you try it.
So, when we add the map, the new map we're also going to be
adding an Arcade card for you, for at least a week.
We might keep it around longer than that.
It will enable low gravity not only on the Horizon Lunar Colony map
but on all of our maps.
So, you can play on low-gravity all over the game and sort
of experience that and, you know, form your own thoughts
on what you think is awesome and maybe what you think
is kind of ridiculously broken, yet fun at the same time.
We will also be adding gravity options to the Custom Game system as well.
So, you can use the Custom Game browser to find new and fun uses of
altered gravity too.
So, hopefully all this will be a lot of fun for you.
Now I said there were kind of two elements to the
Horizon Lunar Colony map that were interesting to us.
One was, obviously, all the gameplay that I've been talking about
but the others are the story ramifications.
So, as some of you know, Winston grew up on the moon
and Winston got his name from a famous scientist named Dr. Harold Winston.
We hope to tell more of this backstory through the contextual storytelling
of the map—the things that you run into, the areas that you'll explore.
If you're the type who's paying attention to detail and you watched the
animated short that we called "Recall," you'll even be able to find Winston's
room in this map—when he was a little baby scientist, growing up.
You'll be able to find his space. You can read the computer screens
to learn more about some of the other scientists.
and some of the other spawn rooms you'll see the spacesuits
of the scientists and you'll pick up on some of their names
and you'll either even pick up on some names and some potential mysteries
of some of Winston's peers, some of the other gorillas
that were also part of the Horizon experiment.
We hope to show all of this.
The attackers' spawn room takes place in the exact spot with the
giant telescope and the huge bay doors that open up and show planet Earth
that you might have remembered from the animated short "Recall."
So, we really tried to capture a lot of these moments and
show more of the Overwatch universe, which obviously didn't just take place
on Earth, but took place on the moon as well.
So, we think it's going to be a fun map for many many different reasons.
We hope you have a blast trying it out.
If there are gameplay issues and it's not working correctly,
I hope we proved with Eichenwalde that we will go back.
We will adjust the map as needed.
Obviously, when you, as a tremendous player base, get your hands on this map
you're going to show us things that we never were able to discover on our own.
So, we're anxiously awaiting, not only watching what you guys do with the map,
but playing the map along with you.
And lastly, in closing.
Remember that in space everyone can hear Torbjörn scream.

Developer Update | Horizon | Overwatch

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