Bastion Will Be Wildly Different In Overwatch 2

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After being announced in 2019, Overwatch 2 faded into the shadows and has only reemerged a couple of times for little announcements and details. Blizzard now appears to be shining the spotlight on this highly anticipated sequel again with two deep looks at how some of its heroes are being reworked.

It is important to keep in mind what is going on within Activision Blizzard at this time regarding ongoing allegations about the work culture. The ongoing lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) against the company is over reported toxic workplace culture. The bulk of the suit focuses on "violations of the state's civil rights and equal pay laws," specifically regarding the treatment of women and other marginalized groups. To learn more about the proceedings thus far, including details listed in the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, please check out our previous coverage here.

A few days ago, Blizzard released a video (below) that shows how Somra is changing for the sequel. Her hack can still disable hero abilities, and she can also use it to reveal their location to her teammates. More impressive yet, Sombra can hack while being in stealth mode.

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Sombra still looks like she plays in a similar way to her Overwatch 1 potential, but that may not be the case for Bastion. In a new video (above), Blizzard shows us that this adorable robot will play quite differently. Bastion's Ultimate attack is now an artillery strike. When activated, Bastion locks to the ground and unleashes a long-range barrage that the player manually pinpoints on the map from an overhead perspective.

Bastion can no longer self-repair, meaning a healer will need to be nearby. Bastion has a little more firepower now, and can launch a tactical grenade that can bounce off of walls and stick to enemies. The grenade has a large radius and can do serious damage when a team is trying to stand on a point for capture. Bastion's recon weapon also has zero spread and can function like a sniper rifle (just without a scope). Finally, Bastion can move while in sentry mode to deal rolling death, but it comes at a price – Bastion can only stay in this form for eight seconds and it has a 10-second cooldown after popping out of it.

We still don't know when Overwatch 2 will hit, but Blizzard's move to release more information could signal that date is drawing near. Our guess is early 2022.