Everything we know about new Overwatch 2 map Antarctic Peninsula

After an abundance of new city-based maps dropped in Overwatch 2, developers are looking to take the action to the Antarctic Peninsula in the map coming in Season 3. The map is an extension of the small Ecopoint: Antarctica arena map and has a lot of interesting new elements and lore for fans.

The new map is for Control mode. It's actually the first new Control map added to Overwatch 2. Control is a game mode that has two teams of five fighting to defend a point and the first team to two captured points wins.

Like other Control maps, there are three main points to keep in mind in Antarctic Peninsula. There's Mei's lab, an icebreaker ship, and an underground tunnel system.

As you may have guessed, the Antarctic Peninsula map is an ode to Mei's tragic backstory. Before joining Overwatch, Mei was a climatologist stationed in Ecopoint: Antarctica. Unfortunately, a violent storm forced Mei and her team into cryostasis. But this lasted for much longer than originally planned, leaving Me as the only survivor nine years later.

In the new Antarctic Peninsula map, the lab is a closer look at where Mei and her colleagues worked. The icebreaker ship is what was sent by the original Overwatch team to rescue Mei.

Antarctic Peninsula will answer one of the most popular questions about Mei's story: Why didn't anyone rescue her for nearly a decade? According to lead narrative designer Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, Overwatch tried many times — but failed. The ship in the map is the icebreaker that attempted to rescue Mei but didn't make it.

There are other pieces of lore hidden throughout the frozen map as well, but developers didn't give the details away just yet. Jurgens-Fyhrie did say, however, that some of the details hint at "the story to come."

This interesting map features a lot of tunnels and tight indoor areas, especially thanks to the ship that acts as one of the control points.

"It’s just super rad to fight inside an abandoned ship as large as an icebreaker,” Overwatch art director Dion Rogers told journalists. “We’ve got cool tunnels and the engine room — you can get a lot of direction from it, because you can see the bow of the ship and you can see where the captain’s chamber is. If you’re working together, you can call out a lot of very key areas where people are. It’s very clear to understand where that might be, especially if you understand the language of boats. We studied icebreakers pretty well to try to integrate this into the level.”

For this reason, there's a lot of protection from aerial enemies like Pharah in this area. But there's also a lot of potential for high ground fighting thanks to a "narrow roof" above the ship. This has added an entirely new dynamic to fighting on the control point.

Another interesting component of the icy Antarctic Peninsula map are the penguins. There will be penguins all over the map and they are interactive. This means that cold-hearted players can shoot them. Luckily they cannot be killed, however. Developers also added that the penguins will often dodge incoming bullets.

This new Control map is part of Season 3, which is dropping February 7, 2023. Here is everything you need to know about Season 3.