Overwatch’s new brawl, Yeti Hunt, is like hide-and-seek.
Winston, dressed in his Winter Wonderland seasonal skin, skulks around the map in search of steaks strewn about. He’s got to avoid the yeti hunters (the team of five Mei players) to collect as many of possible. If he grabs enough meat, he’s unlock his Primal Rage ultimate—and that’s when the Mei players become the hunted.
The Mei players then must run and hide or face the wrath of the yeti, at least until the Primal Rage runs out.
Related: All of Overwatch’s new Winter Wonderland skins
When it does, the Meis take over as the hunters once again, using Mei’s Endothermic Blaster to slow and freeze the yeti. She can also blast icicles, just as part of her regular kit, and construct ice walls. Instead of Blizzard, however, Mei drops extra-large Junkrat traps to stop the yeti in his tracks.
Yeti Hunt is a really fun brawl set on Overwatch’s Nepal map, but it likely won’t have much of a shelf life. This is something Blizzard’s acknowledged, however—We’re not going to see pro matches of Yeti Hunt. Once the Mei players understand the patterns of the yeti player and where they’re likely to go to find meat, it’s pretty easy to track down the yeti. Regardless of that, the game can be chaotic—and that makes it really fun.
Adding more maps would make the Arcade mode a lot more interesting. Yeti Hunt needs a little more variation in its environments so that players come into the maps with less of a plan. The more chaotic the modes, the better.
An interesting little feature that Yeti Hunt does bring into the Arcade is the role queue. For Yeti Hunter, players can choose to queue with a preference for Mei or a preference for the yeti. It’s a feature players have been begging for with regard to Competitive Play, and now we now the technology is there.
Yeti Hunt will be available for the remainder of Overwatch’s Winter Wonderland event, which will end Jan. 1. With the new mode, last year’s Mei’s Snowball Fight returned, too. Likewise, a whole swath of new skins are here to celebrate the holiday season.
