Overwatch Getting Team Deathmatch and Free-For-All Modes, Mercy Has a Crazy OP Ability

At one point, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan stated that the game would never have deathmatch. Overwatch was to be an objective game through and through. Well surprise! Deathmatch is indeed coming to Overwatch, and it's coming very soon. We don't have an official launch date yet, but Kaplan himself did say "very soon," and I think we can take his word for that. If you want to learn all about the new modes and maps coming, you can check out the developer update video above. Otherwise, I'll try to sum things up neatly for you right here.

So we're actually getting to new modes. There will be a Team Deathmatch mode, and a free-for-all elimination mode. In free-for-all, the first person to reach the 20-kill limit will win. In Team Deathmatch, the team that reaches 30 kills first will win. In a pretty dramatic twist, it was revealed that Mercy revives will actually take kills away from the opposing team. Needless to say, there are going to be some huge, game-changing moments for Mercy players.

So what about maps? Most of these maps are designed from the ground up for these objective game types, right? Well the team at Blizzard has tweaked a handful of these maps to be more TDM and FFA friendly. In fact, Blizzard is creating one brand new map built exclusively for free-for-all. That map is based off of the family estate of Widowmaker, and will have many hints and secrets about her past for players to discover. We can't wait to see that map.

There are other little loose ends that they attempt to tie up in the video update as well. If you finish within the top-scoring half in a deathmatch, you'll get points toward your arcade loot crate. Custom games will also be supported, and Kaplan encouraged groups to get together and try out crazy setups, like "all Hanzo" or "all McCree" games.

We'll have more on Overwatch deathmatch really soon, so stay tuned!