Activision Blizzard's hero shooter Overwatch has been around for about six years now, and it's used that time to make its mark on the gaming industry. Its characters have become iconic and its approach to the team-based FPS has proven to be hugely popular. Now, it appears that Overwatch could be planning to add more night maps to the game's existing map catalog in the future.
Overwatch's many maps have earned a lot of community feedback over the years, both positive and negative. This could give Overwatch 2 quite the head start on building maps its fans will love. With Overwatch 2 now entering its closed beta, rumors and leaks are flying everywhere, leaving the exact nature of what fans can expect from its maps still unclear.
Redditor PlumSloosh recently shared a post about where Overwatch might go with its maps in the future--and a screenshot to back it up. In the screenshot, the game's new menu screen shows Zenyatta seated against a background taken from what seems to be the Gibralter map. However, the playable version of the map takes place during the day, while the version shown in this menu displays it at night. PlumSloosh and other fans suspect that this could lead to more night maps in the game's future.
According to some fans, Overwatch 2 is already planning to implement remixed versions of existing maps that take place at night or day. At present, most of Overwatch's map catalog takes place during either day or night. The time of day a given map is set changes the map's lighting, which can have a significant impact on player strategies. Reportedly, the game will also be adding dynamic day/night and weather effects to the PvE maps, which could open the door for PvP maps getting multiple time periods. Marketing materials have already shown off what seems to be Havana at night and Dorado during the day.
As of writing, there are 30 maps found in Overwatch, only four of which take place during the night. The existing night maps are Necropolis, Lijiang Tower, King's Row, and Dorado, each of which takes advantage of its dim lighting and dense architecture. The result is a completely different experience from daytime maps. Also worth noting is the Horizon Lunar Colony assault map, which features unusual lighting and darkened environments. However, Horizon Lunar Colony's nature as an extraterrestrial outpost means that it isn't exactly a standard night map.
Overwatch is available for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
