Overwatch Is Getting Wackier, And That’s Great

Yesterday, Overwatch included a hamster. The hamster’s name is Hammond, or Hammy for short. In a video game about cyborg ninjas, strained mom-daughter interactions, and terrorist teams with edgy-ass names like Talon, here’s Hammy the Hamster. It is just a person more illustration of how Overwatch is embracing its wacky side.
I’m not absolutely sure if Overwatch at any time fell into a rut, but for a couple months there, it was dangling its toes dangerously over the brink of just one. New events, maps, and heroes offered momentary exhilaration, but failed to shake issues up in a long lasting way or dislodge a meta that was not shifting so substantially as it was including appendages and discovering new strategies to cling on.
In the past handful of weeks, on the other hand, which is commenced to adjust. Initially, Blizzard last but not least unveiled Symmetra’s 3rd overhaul, aka Portal 3. The Indian architect-turned-worldwide-superspy can now use her portals to established up positively bonkers performs that wreak havoc on classic notions of positioning. You might imagine you’re harmless from D.Va’s self-destructing mech, but all it will take is a person perfectly-positioned portal to disabuse you of that idea and also your lifetime. Sym can also toss out a defend that briefly spans whole amounts. It is—and I do not say this lightly—an absolute device.

This 7 days, Blizzard also introduced that tactical stealth espionage hero Sombra’s package is getting supercharged. Soon, her invisibility and translocator qualities will stay active indefinitely. In other words and phrases, you are going to be capable to continue to be unseen and blink back again to basic safety any time you remember to. That is a massive improve from the strict time restrictions she operates beneath now. She can truly sneak, enable her team with recon, and uncover devastating flanks—as opposed to acting as a hack-happy B-quality Tracer.
Hamster good.
Portals and invisibility are the context in which the hamster has been deployed. Some men and women could possibly convey to you that the hamster is terrible, but I offer you this strongly worded counter-argument: Hamster fantastic. Hammond, also, stands to render positioning as we currently know it out of date with a cable that enables him—inside his presently-legendary meching ball—to swing all about the dang location like the monkey numerous presumed him to be. He can go large or low although smashing enemies out of his way. Or he can do completely bonkers stuff like this:
Gif: Warumwolf
Or this:
Gif: JinkoNorray
He’s a giant ball of perpetually destructive glee. He can connect to everything from the payload to sharks. He’s a shrieking rodent in a shell that talks in a super deep and authoritative voice. He’s great.
In terms of both equally kit and tone, Hammond alerts that all bets are off. His capabilities fit the recent Overwatch trend of “fuck your positioning” although also remaining supremely more than-the-top rated. At the very same time, while, I do not at all assume Hammond is a hamster out of h2o. Overwatch is a match about a time-traveling lesbian whose greatest friend is a chatting outer area ape. He suits appropriate in, y’all. The authentic thought guiding Overwatch was for everybody to truly feel uniquely overpowered. The activity finally looks to be headed in that course for true, somewhat than participating in whack-a-mole with nerfs in pursuit of hyper-standardized “balance.”
Of system, there are even now causes for concern. Recently, some have decried Overwatch’s emphasis on qualities that threaten to knock considerably less cell heroes all over like unwilling pinballs, and Hammond just adds to that perceived imbalance. It can be tiresome to sense like you’re barely in regulate of the place your in-sport system finishes up in the thick of struggle.

There is also the question of who the Overwatch group is developing for at this position. Overwatch League is the elephant in the space below, and when it’s superior to see much more wacky heroes and capabilities rather than a slew of bland but very easily well balanced kits, Blizzard would seem to be creating very greatly with OWL and more frequently competitive gamers in head. Each Symmetra and, earlier, D.Va bought redesigns that took away some of their appeal to everyday gamers many thanks to additional challenging mechanics. Sure, Symmetra could possibly be wackier and a lot more functional now, but will she charm to several of the men and women who utilized to adore her? On the upside, Overwatch’s new on the lookout-for-team attribute appears to be to suggest that Blizzard is attempting to figure out how to form players of all sorts into teams and matches where by they experience comfortable, but it’s going for walks a very complicated line.
Last of all, there’s the concern of help heroes. Mercy—who also acquired an OWL-welcoming redesign—is continue to viable, but in contrast to offensively-geared people, she shed her showstopping flair for the spectacular. Blizzard just simply cannot seem to be to figure out how to make supports in good shape Overwatch’s fantasy. Even Brigitte, who is quite awesome and superior at thwacking, has a reasonably bland kit, with her help abilities backing up a sequence of flashier offensive moves. In the meantime, Symmetra had to be removed from the assist category totally prior to she could evolve from a Metapod into a Butterfree.
Overwatch’s choice to convert and deal with the unusual is generally a phase in a promising course, but it comes with negatives. At this issue, it’s challenging to say how all of this will settle when the dust clears, and the ensuing meta could be a aggravating nightmare for all we know. But for now, I’m content Papa Jeff and business are not enjoying it risk-free. The environment could always use additional modest and furry heroes.