The Overwatch Anniversary Event is now live, celebrating the game’s second birthday.
To help celebrate the game’s entrance into the terrible twos, Blizzard has released a bunch of new skins. Along with five epic skins, the game has eight new legendary skins. For the purposes of this post, we’ll just be looking at the latter.
These are, for the most part, all really great skins. It’s hard to rank them, quite honestly, because I like different things about each one. I’ve wavered a lot, and I’m sure once I post this I’ll doubt my choices. I guess that’s a pretty good problem to have, all told.
But I’m going to try and give my reasoning for each pick. Let’s get started.
#1 Symmetra
I like the new Symmetra skin because she looks like she’s come right off the stage of one of those old burlesque dancing shows. It’s just a very attractive skin, what can I say? It’s also very classy. There’s no exact theme to these skins, but Symmetra and Doomfist both have this classy, dressed up look that’s really cool. Other skins have more of a woodland elf theme.
#2 Junkrat
Junkrat looks like a cross between Jack Sparrow and Gary Oldman’s character from True Romance. Because of this, he gets the number two spot, because Gary Oldman in True Romance is a national treasure (even if Oldman is from the UK, Drexl is not.) The piratical/Rastafarian look for Junkrat looks really good regardless.
#3 Brigitte
Honestly, this skin isn’t all that different from Brigitte’s default skin, but here’s the thing: This is the skin that Brigitte should have had to begin with. This looks more like her character than the default. This fulfills her aesthetic in just the right way. While many seasonal skins are just kind of goofy costumes, this feels like what Brigitte would actually wear. I dig it a lot.
#4 Orisa
Orisa looks like she’d be the creature Brigitte rides around on in whatever magical fairy world they come from. Rather than the robotic Orisa we know and love, this one looks more like a mythical beast, or perhaps a new playable race in World of Warcraft.
#5 Doomfist
Doomfist is looking sharp here. While the Overwatch villain is often in more of a tribal getup, in this skin he looks like a baddie straight out of James Bond. Perhaps Symmetra is the femme fatale in this equation, while Doomfist is the evil mastermind. And if that’s the case then this next skin is the hero.
#6 McCree
A James Bond McCree would probably fit this whole motif better, but as a big Sherlock Holmes fan I do approve of this skin. It’s not particularly subtle, but it works. I feel like Soldier 76 might have made a better Holmes, but maybe that’s because I always think of Holmes as being somewhat older (despite the best efforts of Benedict Cumberbatch.)
#7 Bastion
This is a pretty cool dark take on Bastion. Evil robot Bastion, if you will. Not bad, not as interesting as many of the others, however.
#8 Torbjorn
Like Bastion, Torbjorn’s new legendary skin is fine. It’s just nothing to write home about. I guess he’s some sort of blue paladin? I’m not really sure. It’s okay, I guess.
That’s all folks.
You can read all about the Overwatch Anniversary Event and the new Legendary Edition of the game here.
For my part, while I enjoy looking at these skins I have no desire to spend any more money on Overwatch loot boxes and I doubt I’ll play it enough to unlock many of these skins (if any.) I sort of wish Overwatch had a Battle Pass system like Fortnite where you could earn some skins through play and purchase the ones you wanted with real money. Loot boxes just feel so 2017.
What’s your favorite new skin? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.
