One of Overwatch‘s most requested modes is finally making its way into the game. Blizzard have announced that Deathmatch modes are on the way to the wildy popular team shooter, starting today.
Those who have access to the Public Test Region in the PC version of the game can try out the Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch right now. Both modes are designed for kills-centric objectives. Regular Deathmatch is restricted to eight players only, while Team Deathmatch supports the standard 6v6 make up.
Jeff Kaplan, Overwatch‘s game director and most recognisable face, posted a Developer Update video about the new modes this morning. In the video (which you can check out above), Kaplan explains that he “didn’t think (deathmatch) was right for the game” originally due to the team’s focus on objective-based play but that the Arcade came along and changed all that. “(The Arcade) has opened up our ability as developers to introduce game modes to you guys that we wouldn’t normally feel comfortable putting in the Quick Play or Competitive rotation,” said Kaplan in the update.
Deathmatch is a free-for-all in which players must, in the grand tradition of the mode, murder each other over and over until a specific kill target is reached. The first player to hit 20 points is declared the winner with a point awarded for the final blow in any elimination and a point subtracted for any death from environmental or self-damage.
Team Deathmatch runs the same rules with one change: if a player dies and they are resurrected, the point awarded for their kill is immediately revoked.
Further, standard Deathmatch will get its own specific map called Château Guillard, an estate in the south of France and Widowmaker’s family home. While we don’t get a look at the new map in the Developer Update video, there’s a little peek of it in the supplied screenshot.
Don’t worry, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch won’t be restricted to just one map, they’ll be available to play on a number of existing maps, and custom games will allow you to tweak this even further. For now, and as always, both modes remain in testing on the PTR and will be pushed to the live servers via an update whenever Blizzard is good and ready.
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