dunno about other heroes, but Venture and Juno design comes from Titan. So they’re original heroes. Maybe it’s just the lore that isn’t as polished as og Overwatch heroes.
No, it’s definitely not just you — especially the last three heroes, Venture, Juno, and Hazard, feel particularly awful!
They all just have way too much crammed into their kits, and strangely enough, Blizzard seems especially proud of them. I’m mostly talking from a gameplay perspective, but honestly, I haven’t really been interested in any hero since OW2 launched!
You can also see it in the reworks. Pharah got more mobility but lost her ability to fly constantly. Hog is tankier than ever and still has his stun one-shot hook. And Sombra… well, she’s somehow the only one who got completely butchered through her reworks and no longer resembles what she was supposed to be.
It feels like anything that made a hero unique just isn’t wanted anymore. Like there’s this constant effort to bloat every kit with unnecessary power. Heroes should be good at one or two things — not mobile, high-damage, and tanky all at once, while passively dealing 80% of your health just by holding block!
Freya was recruited to Overwatch’s Search and Rescue team. She worked alongside Emre, an Overwatch OG from Ana’s origin story. She basically went the path of Soldier: 76 after Overwatch got shutdown, but instead of being a vigilante, she became a bounty hunter.
I do and I don’t agree with you, OP. On the one hand we’ve had new characters that are from factions represented in-game, such as Sojourn for Overwatch, Mauga for Talon, and Ram for Null Sector. But at the same time I get what you mean. For example, I don’t really see the need for Hazard to belong to some new faction when he could just as easily have been written to be a member of Talon.
I don’t think any amount of writing would counter the fact that Juno looks like a Jet Set Radio reject, though. Ugh. Fun kit, naff design.
Hmm no wonder why she seems cool, ive always loved that game and the character GUM. The skateboard helmet an space helmet is the big similarity, also how juno skates
Still i hardly play her at all. I rather dominate as moira. I only pick other supports if someone beats me to moira
Venture and Hazard are INCREDIBLE “Overwatch” designs. I can understand personally not liking them, but they fit into the games aesthetic incredibly well.
Hazard? A character that’s highly augmented with technology that’s essentially magic is very on brand with Overwatch’s aesthetic.
Freya on the other hand looks like a Fortnite skin.
DVA - Random girl defending her home, no ties to existing roster for awhile.
JQ - Just rules some place in the middle of nowhere basically.
Orisa - Robot built to defend if DF came back.
Ram - Leader of some evil group that got built up to the PvE being scrapped. Kind of makes him a pointless addition, could of just had him die at the end of whatever the PVE we got was and call it a day. Crisis adverted.
Road & Junk - Only really tied to each other, no relevant plot.
Ashe - Holds onto the lore by Cass’s relevance, nothing else makes her relevant.
Bastion - It was just wandering around for most of the lore, then Torb picked it up as the child he always wanted.
Hanzo - Holds onto Genji to be relevant
Mei - She was wandering around the frozen landscape till OW2?
Pharah - If Anubis was made more relevant back in the day, she’d have a bit more relevance for most of her existence. Without Ana, she’d be even more out there.
Symm - Besides Sanjay being Talon, Vishkar wasn’t pushed as much as it could be.
Baptiste - Ex-Talon like Freja was Ex-OW turning the other way.
Brig - Was just Rein’s lackey.
Illari - Out of nowhere, no connections.
Kiriko - Forced into having connections and destroying sense of time and lore with her existence cause she was shoe horned into the lore almost like a self insert character.
Lucio - Only tie in lore was Vishkar stole tech? But Vishkar was under used this whole time anyway?
Zen - Taught Genji to be a better person? So holds onto the lore like Ashe to Cass, Brig to Rein, or Hanzo to Genji.
Obviously I like many of these heroes and don’t mind their creation or addition. But… I have to point out how weak this holds up to even OG heroes. The new ones aren’t worse, the bias with nostalgia just blinds people.
Tbf, they could do a better Job of portraying the Heroes and how they fit into the universe. I was confused when i watched hazards trailer for example, then i watched other people react and i was not the only one.
The new designs look fine aesthetically, but they’re just kinda generic? To explain why, I’d need to make a chart to explain what “stylized look” means, and “Overwatch stylized look” means, and I just don’t feel like that.
Hazard and the new check look perfectly fine as heroes, but they look like something out of a mobile game or something, like this cancelled game that i like aesthetically:
ht tps://www.artstation.com/artwork/lD3br5
ht tps://www.artstation.com/artwork/KeNdzG
I’d use Venture, Hazard and even Kiriko as dedicated side characters. I’d never use them in a grand, big story, but you would be able to play them to see how relatively average or people unrelated to the Overwatch/Talon stuff have been effected by it or get along.
It’d actually be funny seeing Hazard hate to work with Overwatch, but hate the idea of Talon winning, so he goes along complaining in the Overwatch ships and briefings and stuff.
There is some randomness sure but the “new” theme of the arching OW2 lore is random heroes joining the cast. Freja’s returning more to the original storyline.
I think so too , kiriko too is just japanese-loving dev self-insert mary sue , hazard looks to clean to be a rebel cus u know rebels has no money , venture looks like dps doom analog for people that have no arms
Blizz is just out of ideas. And some heroes clearly were released for marketing or revenue goals.
Freya is a mashup of 5 different heroes.
Hazard is like JQ’s little brother.
Juno looks like leftover Kiriko and D.Va designs, but she’s gonna sell lots of skins.
Venture was created when it was very fashionable to do so.
Mauga arrived so tank players wouldn’t die in 3 seconds.