In summer 2023, Blizzard debuted Overwatch 2’s Flashpoint, a combination of Control and Assault where teams race to occupy a series of territory points. Flashpoint was the first new map type for the series since the unpopular Push launched alongside Overwatch 2, and kind of a big deal. It was also kind of a disaster.
Almost immediately upon launch, Reddit filled up with complaints about the mode’s map designs. Fast forward to Overwatch 2 season 17, which kicked off on Tuesday, with a set of redesigned Flashpoint maps and it’s a much different story. Blizzard’s more relaxed approach to letting people play Overwatch 2 the way they want has turned Flashpoint into a great time.
Two years ago, the Overwatch 2 design team said in a series of roundtable interviews ahead of the mode’s launch that they wanted line of sight to play a key role in Flashpoint. They hoped that players would create avenues of combat — street fights, basically — on the way to the objective. Well, it didn’t work out like that. Players got lost on the overly long routes to each flashpoint, matches were boring and predictable, and at the center of all the problems was a set of really long hallways.
The original Suravasa and New Junk City were rigidly designed so that you had to take one of several monotonous paths to the same location, and the appearance of choice was mostly an illusion. One option always ran near the opposing team’s spawn point, while another was usually more circuitous or could even lead you in the wrong direction.
Experienced players followed the optimal route every time, and any stragglers that went a different way were almost guaranteed to get obliterated or be of no help at all in the fight taking place what felt like miles away. Even when the action finally broke out on the flashpoint itself, it was predictable and little different from playing Control. The enemy team would always approach from the same direction for fear of time running out or getting bulldozed if they strayed too close to your spawn point. This was what Blizzard wanted, so this was how it had to be done.
That won’t be the case after the mid-season 17 update. Routes are shorter in Suravasa and New Junk City’s redesigns, for one thing, but they’re also peppered with different buildings to hide in and shortcuts to other areas that make those random street fights Blizzard originally envisioned much more likely to happen. It’s less like having a series of islands connected by long corridors and more like a giant polygon with a series of twisting, interconnected alleyways and split levels to play around in.
The redesigns allow for more creativity in how you use your hero’s specific abilities, too, and you can already see that in the new Aatlis map. Flying characters can avoid chokepoints entirely or keep unlucky opponents trapped in a building. Genjis and Widowmakers can plan assassinations by hiding in wait for the unwary, while flankers like Echo and Tracer have so many more options for taking enemies by surprise. Flashpoint went from being the weakest mode to the one that plays like a natural extension of the philosophy behind hero perks and Stadium mode. You can play it how you want with the hero you prefer and probably even come up with strategies the developers never intended.
It helps that Blizzard gave some of the actual Flashpoint locations a redesign as well, making them more visually distinct and just more fun to play. Suravasa’s temple, for example, previously had two main areas, with the central objective accessible via a long staircase that almost always led you into the line of fire of the entire enemy team. Now, it’s got a middle and a lower layer you can work around, and the staircase leads to a small platform where you can more effectively hold your ground. New Junk City’s Junkyard, the map’s most boring objective location, has more avenues leading to the flashpoint and fewer bottlenecks so battles never play out the same way twice.
These and dozens of other little improvements — new sight blockers, bigger entryways into a flashpoint, more areas to maneuver in once you’re on the point — make Flashpoint feel so much freer and more unpredictable. So spare a thought for Flashpoint if it shows up in the pre-round map voting roulette. It’s easily Overwatch 2’s best mode now.
