One of the many areas of Overwatch 2 that has come under fire is the game’s seasonal events. Outside of a solid PvE mission with Wrath of the Bride and an interesting new mode called Battle for Olympus, the events have been built around recycled content. The earnable rewards have also been lacking, especially given how much work it takes to acquire them. However, the Season 3 trend of addressing community feedback has continued, as the latest event solves a number of problems fans have had.
While plenty of attention is being placed on the Overwatch 2 dating sim Loverwatch, the content accessible in-game is also deserving of some praise. The Ultimate Valentine event has brought a simple new game mode for players to enjoy, but more importantly than the brawl is the fact that Blizzard has addressed nearly ever major criticism with the sequel’s events. As a result, Ultimate Valentine is the most fun and fair event by far, and it serves as a good reason to be excited about the events that are coming in the future.
How Overwatch 2’s Valentine’s Day Event is an Improvement
For starters, the latest Overwatch 2 event showcases a clear improvement when it comes to the rewards themselves. Instead of players only being allowed to acquire one old skin from the original game, they can get two, one for Lucio and one for Zenyatta. In addition to an extra skin, players can acquire emotes through an event for the very first time, with a heart souvenir also available alongside a spray. Several romantic voice lines can be obtained as well, and there are enough to where players will sometimes get two items for completing a single challenge.
Not only are players getting more rewards in the latest Overwatch 2 event, but better ones like emotes as opposed to just titles, charms, and voice lines. If future events continue this trend, highlight intros and victory poses could also be mixed in as rewards, giving players some genuinely exciting items to work toward. What makes the event even better is that players do not need to play for an absurd amount of time to unlock the items.
Though it was fun to keep track of the Battle for Olympus leaderboard, the same could not be said for completing the challenges tied to the mode. Many completionists were bothered by how hard it was to unlock all the titles that were part of the event, as each came behind a 300-kill requirement for the associated hero. Considering that players would need to play Battle for Olympus for hours with the same character just for a single title, few can say they completed every challenge, especially without boosting. Fortunately, Ultimate Valentine’s challenges are not as problematic.
If Overwatch 2 fans put a few hours into the new batch of challenges, they should be able to complete them all, as the tasks are simple. Even better, players are not forced into a certain mode or play style for very long. Players only need one win in Love of Geometry, a Hanzo-focused game mode full of scatter arrows, which is a far cry from the 10 wins that were needed to complete a Battle for Olympus challenge. Since not everyone will enjoy playing as the bow-wielding Shimada brother, making sure that gamers can play whatever they want but still unlock the event items is a huge win.
Objective time, thanking a Support hero, and getting three Support wins can easily be done in quick play, competitive, or arcade, ensuring that everyone can get something out of the latest Overwatch 2 event regardless of how they prefer to play. With the event challenges able to be cleared in a single play session, players are not forced to sink dozens of hours in during the event’s runtime. The items tied to the event being noticeably better and the reward count being higher only sweetens the deal, with the result being a strong event format that should be the new norm going forward.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
