Here we go once more. Blizzard are teasing us with the tiniest items of Overwatch lore and I can’t get sufficient of it. Yesterday, the Overwatch Twitter account tweeted out a private log from a Dr. Mina Liao, who’s been constructing an Omnic codenamed “the Athena prototype”. Now, I don’t find out about you, however this all appears like we’re about to get our first correct have a look at Echo, the Omnic hero Blizzard have been teasing for over a 12 months.
“The Athena prototype has been deemed a success,” the tweet reads.
If you’re not within the know, Athena is the title of the AI you’ll be able to hear within the dropship once you’re enjoying Overwatch, and she or he’s popped up in a few animated shorts as properly. Fans have speculated for some time that Echo is actually Athena in a robotic physique (form of like how the Normandy’s AI, EDI, will get a smoking sizzling physique in Mass Effect 3, however much less creepy). While Liao doesn’t point out Echo explicitly, it’s been identified for some time that Echo was going to be making her method to Overwatch, we simply had no concept when.
We first met the beautiful blue Omnic again when Ashe was announced in 2018, which looks like a lifetime in the past now. In the animated quick Reunion, Ashe tries to steal a pod that Echo is being stored in by blowing up the freight prepare on Route 66. We don’t know why she was in mentioned pod, or why McCree simply occurred to be there along with her “on” button to avoid wasting the day, however hey! It’s actually cool and it’s fantastically animated, and also you’re doing your self a disservice if you happen to’ve but to observe it.
So, why do I believe this implies Echo is about to be launched? Well, for starters, the timing is ideal. For the final three years, Overwatch has persistently launched a brand new hero persistently each March. We obtained Orisa on the 21st in 2017, Brigitte on the 20th in 2018, and Baptiste on the 19th in 2019. Going by this logic, Echo might drop as early as subsequent week when Overwatch will get its Tuesday replace.
For seconds, we obtained an excellent higher have a look at Echo alongside one other new character, Sojourn, when Overwatch 2 was announced at BlizzCon last year. During the occasion, Blizzard mentioned that a minimum of yet another character could be making their method to the unique game. While they confirmed that Sojourn could be coming to Overwatch 2, they did no such factor for Echo – regardless of the actual fact we’ve identified about her for longer.
It’s nonetheless unclear precisely what position Echo will probably be. To me, she lools a bit too petite to be a tank, and a bit too type to be injury, so my cash is on her being some kind of healer.
I’m hoping she’ll be a cool flying character to be sincere. When she seems within the above trailer for Overwatch 2, she’s flying round and taking pictures blue beams at that huge mech attacking the remainder of the squad. It’s too quickly to say proper now, however this may very well be a glimpse of what to anticipate when she’s launched.
If all this teasing has given you the itch to play some Overwatch, the story-based PvE missions are all at the moment stay for the annual Archive event. We’ll get extra of those types of missions in Overwatch 2 as properly, although proper now Blizzard are retaining fairly quiet on the sequel’s launch date.
