The World of Warcraft took up a huge part of my life in my earlier years, and my wife and I would regularly enjoy playing side by side as we fought for The Alliance. Though kids and time may have stopped us from playing World of Warcraft frequently, every year or so, we would jump in for a month and chat with old friends, reminisce a bit, and see what’s now on offer. There’s something magical about the world that Blizzard has lovingly created, and while we may not visit often, Azeroth always seems to feel like home. So as you can imagine, I was very excited when Blizzard not only announced the Warcraft X Overwatch 2 pack but also sent me a code to check it all out. What’s it Like? We need a tank in looking for group, place an auction house bid on the Sword of 1000 Truths, and we don’t need to stay in the forest killing boars as we take a look at the 25th Anniversary of World of Warcraft as it collides with Overwatch 2.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the skins and character highlight intros:
Reinhardt as The Lich King. This skin set would have to be my favorite of the lot. From the glowing blue eyes, chainmail, and skulls and fur, Reinhardt looks incredible as the Lich King. It’s also amazing to see his hammer replaced by Frostmourne, complete with its own modern Reinhardt fixtures such as flame jets out the side. While Reinhardt skins usually always understand the assignment, the Lich King in my opinion is easily the best. His Highlight intro mimics the opening cinematic to Wrath of the Lich King which is my favorite World of Warcraft Expansion.
Widowmaker as Sylvanis is also a top-tier skin, fully transforming Widowmaker into the former leader of the undead. There’s a lot of detail on her outfit including the feathers on her pauldron, and her rifle is modeled to look like her bow is folded. Her character highlights intro sees her leap into the air and take aim, and it’s a superbly animated homage to her fighting the alliance in the intro for Battle of Azeroth.
Zenyatta as the former horde leader Thrall is also a well-done skin. I ended up spending most of my time this weekend playing as Zenyatta as I usually main as Mercy and it seems to queue you for support a lot. Zenyatta looks really cool with Doomhammer strapped to his back, horde red orbs, Thrall’s unique blue eyes, and his shaman hair. His highlight intro is lightning striking Doomhammer which looks great and was really exciting to see when I got my first ever play of the game.
Finally, there’s Torbjorn as Diamond Magni which I didn’t really like as it is simply reskin of the much better-looking normal Magni skin. There are also no highlight intros for Torbjorn and I feel like this was a missed opportunity to see someone like Mercy as Jaina Proudmoore (which in typing this, would have been perfect) or Brigitte as a Stormwind Guard.
The Challenges this time around are focussed on queuing and playing as certain classes, and therefore, easier to obtain that really boils down to playing X amount of matches which I actually preferred. Wins count as double ticks towards these milestones but as I’m not the best player, wins were few and far between, sorry teammates! The rewards that all players can obtain are a question mark “Quest” weapon charm & souvenir, and a couple of banners and sprays. Aside from that, there’s not a lot of Warcraft going on in events or levels, there is however, a lot of events happening in September unrelated to Warcraft, such as the return of Beast Hunt, then the following week will see April Fools and Cosmic Crisis, and finally Mirrorwatch and Prop Hunt. The closest Warcraft level I saw was Blizzardworld which was already in the game. I would have loved to see some new Warcraft-themed maps or event arcade events, hopefully, there’s more to experience next year!
While this pack is great and lets fans celebrate 2 fantastic Blizzard Franchises, the price will lock many fans from joining in the Warcraft-themed fun, as the Warcraft pack is $75 AUD for all 4 skins, some voice lines, and some other assorted emotes and icons. To put that pricing in perspective, that’s an actual copy of the Latest World of Warcraft: The War Within, or 4 months’ worth of Warcraft game time. $75 for 4 skins is a big ask, especially in a cost-of-living crisis. Now, I understand there’s the option not to buy it, and that’s ok, but this pack is meant to be a celebration of Blizzard’s largest franchise, and putting it out of reach by gating it at the price of a brand new video game just doesn’t make a lot of sense. If it had a battle pass or progression levels to sweeten the deal, it would be an easier sell, or even priced down around the $30-40 price point could have been much more enticing.
This is a shame because the Warcraft Skins look incredible and I honestly had such a blast smashing through challenges this weekend for the purpose of this video. The challenges were a bit more basic than previous events, but much more attainable and gave me a better sense of progression, and, undoubtedly, I’ll keep Overwatch installed now to dive into some casual unranked matches for a cheeky match or two in between reviews.
Overwatch 2 keeps improving despite its rocky launch, and there’s been a constant stream of new content, characters, and balancing (Except D.Va who is still ridiculous) that makes Overwatch 2 a fun game to revisit every now and then. I’m no business expert, but I do feel that while Battlepass pricing and progression are great, Blizzard might get more players to invest both time and money if wonderful collaborations like Warcraft X Overwatch 2 were a bit more financially viable. Until then, there’s still a lot of great content in Overwatch 2 for players looking for something a bit different to try out, but if you want to indulge in seeing your favorite franchises, well… that will cost you.
