The recent hero releases for OW2 have been ultimately soulless.
This is gonna be a long tangent so if you tune out, it’s fine, I won’t blame you.
Yes, Ram is cool but it’s honestly more so because Ramon Tikaram is actually an extremely talented guy and Ram arguably has the most interesting ‘potential’ storylines they’ve ever made because his motives are clear and resonate. Because they’re understandable, people can connect better.
Why do I say soulless? Well in OW1, every hero release came with the introduction of that voice actor. A visible welcome to the family on all social medias, an overall announcement and celebration of a new roster member. This inclusive world-wide club in which regardless of how a hero performs, their character is what made heroes beloved.
I don’t even think it’s necessarily because heroes are tied to a battle pass that the heroes feel somewhat corporate, it’s more of the lack of development of who they are.
The most lore rich heroes are the most favourite, which ironically were all OW1 heroes. Yes, we’ve played with them longer but I don’t think that’s a testimony of how well they’re written or not.
One thing about the hero/battle pass issue I will say is that it’s going to be extremely difficult to introduce new heroes (this quickly) and give them as much time and attention needed to develop when there are still OW1 heroes we know next to nothing about.
I think they just managed to sell the idea that Sojourn was a core captain of the Overwatch gang all along. But what do future heroes bring to the world of OW outside of their abilities?
Does it matter though? Do heroes need to be fleshed out or is it more about how they play and the function they serve? I’d say that’s already been answered by heroes like Mercy, Winston and Genji. There’s an almost element of fantasy that people play with them that goes beyond their raw mechanics.
I guess how I’ll end this is by saying that I hope that the future of Overwatch heroes is not entirely bound to an endless codex of lore that no one will read, buried deep into the menus where no one will read it anyway. I miss the feeling of a new hero being a new member of the family and I can only hope that Blizzcon reignites this and they can introduce us to basically a years worth of heroes we’ve never met.
Something needs to justify that ticket price, HOLY.
Maybe this doesn’t matter to people but I do miss the excitement we used to feel at the announcement that a new hero is coming and some of that is lost when everything is linked to corporate calendars.
True… but since then they’ve sort of painted themselves into a corner. Any attempt to promote or celebrate content is met with more backlash than it is praise.
You know, the “this is nice blizzard, but what about issue x, or y, or z?!?!” It’s hard for them to push any sort of positive image because so much distrust has grown within the community.
I’m a simple man. I see tall buff Aussie lady, and I stand up and cheer.
I hope we get a period where pre-established characters from the comics/cinematics/etc like Maximilien, Iggy, & Mauga make their way to the playable game. That way we don’t have to rush through character introductions and where they fit into the overall world like Lifeweaver or Illari (the Inti Warriors still feel like a new faction dropped out of nowhere, at least we know Lifeweaver has ties to Vishkar). And during that period of time, they could write and establish more NPCs, who could then win over the hearts of players and be the next set of heroes.
Illari’s story video didn’t even come out until a day after S6 launch, right? Sure, a new hero is exciting, but it helps to know who the hell she is.
They almost always had a story teaser or two for new heroes at least a few weeks in advance. Lifeweaver and Illari were ones where I really felt the absence of these.
Got excited for Orisa! A robotic warhorse lady?! Bro that was creative. Then realozed her kit eas pretty garbo. Even then I mained her as a shield tank option.
Got pretty scared about Moira’s release but she was so interesting as a character. A corrupt scientist that was opposite to Mercy and fulfilled so many storylines among the roster! Good times.
Nowadays. The OW2 releases just feel tacted on. They almost don’t belong.
Like with Soljorn, we alrrady have a soldier character. Lifeweaver…is just weird. Junkerqueen was a long time coming and of course got the Doomfist treatment for hype. Kiriko is just a quetionable Shimada. Then Illari…idk I just was like “okay…its a builder support-WITH HITSCAN AND MOBILITY THAT CAN FLY?! EXCUSE ME?!”
I was not enthused by Illari’s release because I knew it was going to be more about being a busted hero then a unique one.
Personally I think gameplay is number 1. Idc about their backstory or that kind of stuff. And I think all the ow2 heroes so far are fun to play, other than lifeweaver, not a fan of him. But the other 5 have added new mechanics, have been good choices, and fun to play. Some needed nerfs or buffs to get to a good spot, and illari certainly will need some changes too.
There are a bunch of OG launch characters that are entirely unrelated to any of those plots, like Lucio, Sym, Zen, Mei, etc.
The problem here isnt ‘‘not related to the core OW plot(s)’’, its that she just released, her story is short and her interactions are really, really few.
She is basically in this limbo of potentially interesting character with zero story so far that Dva/Zen/Sym were in.
Doomfist wants to crush the world so that the strongest bits of humanity rise up and what is left in the rubble will be used to build a better world. No matter the method.
Ram…wants to dominate humanity so his people can live in peace.
Two very different goals but have similar methods.
Legit. She’s a bratty and utterly uncool cringe fest but that’s honestly hilarious and the most refreshing Support personality we’ve had since Moira.
Still, her lore with the Shimada bros is a poorly executed hot mess. Never going to understand why they felt the need to force her into being childhood friends with them when they already would’ve had all the other ties and easily could’ve had a compelling dynamic form with them big brothering/mentoring her in the now.
I said “yes we’ve played with them longer but I don’t think that’s a testimony to how good the writing is or not” AKA Just because we’ve played with a hero for 8 years, doesn’t mean that hero is fleshed out enough to where we actually know who they are. Same way that a brand new hero can have more depth than them. We know more about Sojourn than Zen right now.
I spoke the overall excitement building up to a release of a hero and in addition, OW actually welcomed voice actors to the community and highlighted their work in the game. Where as now, you don’t know who the voice actor is for Lifeweaver unless you search it up yourself.