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Overwatch’s Orisa nearly got an ability that let her teleport across the map"I was sort of imaging a character more like Dutch from Predator"
“I was sort of imaging a character more like Dutch from Predator”
Imagine you’re having a scuffle in Blizzard’s funky little FPS,Overwatch. Most of the enemy team is here, except one of their tanks is definitely missing. That’s when you see it - a drop pod hurtling down from the sky. It crushes your teammates upon landing, before the gentle giant mech Orisa emerges from it. According to theOverwatchdevs in a recent Q&A, this is what Orisa’s ultimate could’ve looked like in early development.
“Orisa’s first ult was an idea where she could ‘teleport’ away (we’d probably kit this differently though), and then ‘drop’ anywhere else on the map via drop pod or something similar,“wrote lead hero designer, Geoff Goodman. “This was back when she was extremely early and we didn’t have a character yet, so I was sort of imaging a character more like Dutch from Predator (hence the mini-gun).”
This is one of the many cool little development stories some of the Overwatch devs told in last night’sReddit Q&A. It’s fun to hear about what could’ve been, or even what could still be, what withOverwatch 2giving them a chance to rework stuff and try out new things.
Watch on YouTube
Watch on YouTube
A fun one they mentioned they’d like to take a look at isgiving Mei the ability to slide on the iceshe can spray on the ground. A terrifying thought really, giving such a potentially powerful movement ability to a hero that’s already horrible to fight against. In that same comment, Goodman talks about how Symmetra could’ve had turrets that heal teammates. Turns out Overwatch is just a bit too fast-paced for something like that.
A slightly more realistic change that the devs have been experimenting with, though, ismaking the tanks more aggressive. Tank is the least played role in the game, and right now they’re split between more offensive heroes (like Roadhog and his big hook) and more defensive ones (like Reinhardt and his big shield). The hope with this would be that, if they made tanks like Rein deal more damage, more players would be inclined to pick them.
All this talk of “experimental” stuff has me hoping that maybe we’ll see some of these changes onthe experimental cardsome day. Speaking of which, the current experimental mode on offer is actually a reworked Assault mode. It’s something the Overwatch team have been trying to rework for a while to address “snowballing” - when a team wins the first capture point so quickly and aggressively that it’s easy for them to roll straight through to the second point.
While Blizzard have said this experimental mode won’t come to the live game, it’s one they wanted to let players try out anyway. So then,here are the changes to Assaultyou’ll find on the experimental card:
The Assemble and Setup times have all been dramatically shortened for rounds 3 and above.
But what about you, reader? Have you had a go of this new mode? I’d agree with the above, it felt a bit all-over-the-place changing sides so often. Still, it’s nice they let us try out these random changes -even if they are a bit rubbish.
