It's been a while since I've seen the “Overwatch” community as enthusiastic about a new hero as Juno. Her trailer has over 2 million views on YouTube, which is more than the launch trailer for Overwatch 2. My X feed is filled with posts from accounts counting down the days until her appearance. And next week, on August 20, season 12 begins.

The title of the season is “New Frontier,” but it's not actually about space or Juno's home planet of Mars. Most of the new skins and cosmetics are themed around ancient Egyptian gods. Reaper has a new mythological skin based on Anubis, the god of death.

But the real reason to log in is Juno, a support hero who brings a bit of Overwatch 1 back to Overwatch 2. She's like the team's puppet, gliding above and pulling the team in different directions with speed boosts and healing. Her Mediblaster can't even make headshots, so she can focus primarily on leading her team through the match. Since Overwatch 2's release, no hero has relied more on strategy than Juno, and it will be interesting to see what clever team synergies players come up with.

Season 12 will also feature Crash, a fairly simple game mode in which both teams try to take out a series of targets that move to the other side of the map. I played a few rounds in the Season 10 playtest and it felt like a mix of King of the Hill and Overwatch 1's Assault (2CP) mode. Team fights happen quickly and become progressively more difficult for the winning side as they move closer and further away from the enemy spawn. Unlike the other modes, the clashes seemed to go straight at each other, at least on the Hanaoka map that was available during the preview. A second map based on the Egyptian-set “Temple of Anubis” map from “Overwatch 1” will be available next week.

Other notable updates coming in Season 12 include:

Overwatch 2 has not been able to make a good case for why it is a sequel over the past few years. Especially now that it's about to go right back to 6v6 with some experimental modes, but still one of the best hero shooters out there. Juno's addition suggests that Blizzard is willing to take a few steps back and rethink what “Overwatch” can be now that it no longer needs to support a large esports league, and while Blizzard would never say it, Season 12 will be the most competitive players, but rather the beginning of a shift toward updates focused on making the game more fun for everyone.