Push maps are Overwatch's training grounds

Much like the control maps that have an Athena ship at each end of the map (except Oasis and Busan) push seems to be the second mode that likely seems to be an overwatch training ground or simulation.

Some capture the flag maps show what it would really be like to visit some of the control maps without the ships being there and feel more finished by extension. While escort, hybrid, and the old assault mode seamlessly fit into the world as locations with missions that have a clear logical task outside of just ‘winning’ the round and don’t seem centered on Overwatch being the driving reason for the location or activity.

Makes me hope we can get a new push map based on a part of horizon lunar colony with the center or shortcut paths returning the low gravity environment to the core game as it also seems the most befitting place to safely have a wargames style arena that the push maps are.

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Don’t try to put the maps or modes or even the game itself into a lore context. The problem is that this makes the game ridiculous and unbelievable.
Example Eichenwald, if you know how the map is structured, Honor and Glory makes little to no sense.
Also, the maps often cannot fulfill their apparent task, e.g. as residential buildings, hotels, castles or research and military facilities where people and omnics could live and work.

The maps are just a scenery for the game and are only based on locations from the lore, but nothing more.

Can you imagine living in Château Guillard as it exists in the game? Imagine it in winter or during a storm with all the open spaces. you don’t want to live there.

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I know I type quite a lot and this topic probably isn’t that important to you but I do appreciate having the conflicting opinion as it gives me a nice way to extend my thoughts even if I’m just typing into the void.

It really isn’t that ridiculous or much of a stretch to imagine it as a miniaturized version of the world it is meant to represent. If it were a few times larger it’d be unable to be a current generation game due to the limitations of the computers it’s meant to run on, however it would give the space needed to add the extra walls and rooms that’d make the world what it would need to be if it were real. Let alone the world outside the boundaries of the maps, it cant be explored or reached due to the penrose stairs (impossible staircase) -esque design used to give the world its limits

Honor and Glory can very easily be seen as Reinhardt telling the story to Brigitte on their walk from the bar to the castle as one of his grandiose tales he is known for telling, something that is mentioned by in game voice lines (would also explain his crushing through dozens of lined up E54 units like they’re stunned and on 1hp). Much like in 300 where the truth was twisted and warped to make it more intense and extreme as it’s a tale of war being told that is meant to be inspirational not necessarily a perfect representation.

Château Guillard honestly just needs some doors in the archways and windows and it would have a massive impact to livability. The downside is it would not be as befitting for deathmatch map, however great for a story mode and an easy change without affecting most features or increasing its size. Consider the recent halloween PvE mode where Eichenwald had all the additional divisions throughout the map that made it feel like a much grander and more expansive castle and that wasn’t even increasing the map size.

I do see that the world is made more befitting for a game and by no means think they all perfectly represent the lore but to consider them just scenery feels incorrect, the lore is meant to be woven into the world we immerse ourselves in while playing. That’s what makes the developers into worldbuilders and storytellers not just architects of fantasy cities.

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I think the first old control maps missed a great narrative opportunity to settle for the simple “landscape to represent”. it’s a vision that is absolutely relevant to the first intentions of the developers in 2016 to make OW a simple container of heroes that were added over time rather than a PVE development as demonstrated in the validity of the archives. Shambali shows exactly this difference, articulating a linear PVE scenario much better.

Ilios with the next olympus event seems to me an experiment to exploit these maps as an alternative to PVE, just like Junkenstein does to justify a return to Eichenwalde (ops, “adlersbrunn”). If this themed experiment succeeds somewhat I’d be sorry for an interesting opportunity to introduce a cyberpunk spin-off to a metropolis like Lijiang Tower.

But here I am speculating / raving. let’s think about the topic question:

Do push maps need to have logic in the lore?

I would say… yes and no.
In OW there have always been maps that are absolutely not relevant to the lore. Or rather, not entirely logical to exist in the plot so far. for example Blizzard World: it’s simply the colored background that will not involve the arrival of a new hero (or more likely, a crossover commercial with heroes of the storm when it was born). Or Ayutthaya, a 100% Asian exotic place that doesn’t give a precise lore except to immerse us in a different culture from the old battlefields like Eichenwalde or a short film like Alive on King’s Row. We even have maps that act as “containers” for a specific lore, such as Necropolis for Ana or Castillo for Sombra.

Push maps in my opinion have a very good principle to imagine them as a payload transporter in the PVE, instead of robots. But canonizing robots that move a wall is wrong. We need to look at them in the same way we see the need to bring King Leoric’s crown to Blizzard World: in the Overwatch narrative they don’t matter at all, but for the map they do.

I think the best way to enhance push maps is to give a specific identity to the robots related to the map, just like payloads:

  • Toronto: I honestly couldn’t make a logical connection between a hockey stadium and a Metro. Anyone have ideas?
  • Rome: it would be really acceptable to have a mechanical gladiator carrying a banner of the two champions mentioned in the map, Zephyrus and Maximus. a “fanbase fight” in Rome: the one who triumphantly carries the image of his idol in the square wins.
  • Esperanca: maybe something related to the technologies they are developing in the background of the city. We know that Esperance hides a lore for a next hero.

I don’t think it’s necessary to find a logic of lore, but at least an aesthetic theme in the map yes.

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