Published , by Brittany Vincent
Published , by Brittany Vincent
Overwatch just introduced its newest hero Echo, who's rocking some of the most "game-changing" abilities seen in the game thus far.
Game director Jeff Kaplan took to a special Developer Update to detail more of Echo's powers as well as more of what we should know about Overwatch's latest character. For one thing, she is "very likely" the last new hero until Overwatch 2 rolls around.
Echo is an AI who can quickly adapt to the world around her without fail. Kaplan referred to her as a "very special" character, the product of scientist Dr. Mina Liao, an expert in artificial intelligence and one of the founders of Overwatch.
Echo was created as a riff on the original Omnic design in a bid to try to save humanity by way of utilizing artificial life. Dr. Liao was eventually killed, but Echo lived on as part of her greatest work – that's all part of the character's back story, at least.
The new damage-dealing character can be counted on to launch full-scale attacks primarily based on energy. Her primary attack is called Tri-shot, but she can also launch several bombs that will explode after a beat. Her Focusing Beam will also allow for explosive damage for a short time.
But it's her Ultimate, Duplicate, that's a literal game-changer. Duplicate does exactly what it sounds like. It lets Echo choose an enemy character's role and use their abilities for a set amount of time. While in Duplicate mode, the character Echo is playing will get their own Ultimate faster than they normally would, effectively meaning that players may have to deal with some ridiculous and dangerous turnarounds from even more powerful characters.
Echo is available on the PTR now if you want to give her a spin.