It’s interesting that these silhouettes don’t resemble any characters who’ve been introduced in the game’s lore and appear to be brand new designs. There are still multiple individuals who have been seen in the various stories in the Overwatch world and have yet to become playable, such as Mauga, the Junker Queen, and the mysterious omnic at the end of this year’s Archives ev

This is a result of Blizzard gently touching on the queer nature of its characters before running away and never mentioning it again. Fans are forced to draw their own conclusions, and the post-launch announcement that some characters are gay simply feels like performative nonsense. Was this the plan from the start, or did it seem like an easy diversity win when writing the next co

Overwatch skins are nothing more than costumes to dress your favourite characters up in, so it seems silly for someone like me, who only plays rarely and not even as Soldier 76, to care about them so much. But it’s not really about whether the skins look good, whether I’d want them, and whether they’re better or worse than other sets. It’s that Blizzard had the opportunity to embrace the queer culture behind Soldier 76 and Tracer, a culture the company is happy to cater to in only the most minor of ways, and instead ducked it. A skin that was unabashedly queer was an opportunity to reinforce the diversity Blizzard often talks about, but Overwatch 2 beginner guide|https://overwatch2fans.com/ deliberately let the opportunity pass

Roadhog’s name implies he’s something of an expert driver, so he had to make the top three. His playstyle is far more close quarters than most Tanks though, which doesn’t seem too suited than tanks themselves. While sure, tanks can roll over and crush anything in their immediate vicinity, they’re used for attacks from a distance, so Roadhog’s name gets him a medal, but his combat preferences see him settle from bro

They wouldn’t even be the exception to the rule, either. Mercy’s skin is based on the history of healers, taking inspiration from Florence Nightingale, while Zenyatta’s is a deep sea diver because… well, I’m not sure. It looks cool, I gu

While Wrecking Ball was at one end of the list because of his reliance on a mech, that’s why D.Va finds herself at the top. Given that she’s the size of a regular human, she slips very easily into a tank and clearly has the expert driving and weaponry skills to drive one. She came here to chew bubblegum and drive tanks, and she’s all outta bubblegum. No wait, she has another pack right th

Another controversial one? I don’t really know enough about Kiriko yet, but I don’t get friendly vibes from her. She seems a little too contrived – I know all Overwatch characters are created by a team of designers and developers who go through reams of concept art and try to hit the right demographic markets, but with Kiriko that feels especially blatant. She doesn’t strike me as having much of a persona at all, so middle of the list she g

I am really struggling on where to put Zarya. She’s a Russian soldier with arms like Redwoods, so I think tanks would come fairly naturally to her. Then again, it has been heavily speculated that Zarya is gay, and we all know gays can’t drive. A pickle. Maybe she’d aim well but struggle with three-point turns. Let’s put her in fourth and stop worrying about

I’m sure Sigma could design a tank fairly well, and might even be able to get his hands dirty enough to maintain and fix one. But driving one? Nah. Sigma’s a nerd, and tanks aren’t for nerds. Plus, his gravity-based powers don’t seem like a good fit for a tank, even if they’re a good fit for a Tank. Also the tank too small for he gotdamn f

Despite my praise for the designs, Overwatch is not a game with in-depth characters – it’s all skin deep. Any attempt to flesh them out usually comes through fine print in the lore, promo reels, or external material like comic books. I understand why fans want these great designs to be built upon further, and I appreciate that a hero shooter all about utilising powers and fast PvP play is not the ideal genre for deep, interconnected stories. Overwatch has two queer characters, which is more than most triple-A games, but it’s hard to give it too much credit when their queerness has been so completely downplayed. It’s often lauded for its diversity – it even once had a GLAAD nomination – but that fact is its two queer characters are white, cis, and straight passing, while there are more playable animals and playable robots than there are playable Black women. That’s not too much of a stretch though, given that there are zero Black women in Overwatch’s heaving roster right now – Sojourn will join in Overwatch 2, but that feels too late for a game with playable 32 charact

Here we have the same problem as Winston – Orisa is too big and likely too strong to operate a tank correctly. However, given Orisa is a robot and can therefore be adjusted as needed, I think a solution is in sight, and I also think that solution probably plays out better than greasing a gorilla up with butter. Still, getting a regular human who can drive a tank seems a lot easier than rebuilding a ro