Update: The new Overwatch hero, and the last new hero until Overwatch 2, is now live on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Blizzard announced the arrival of Echo to Overwatch via Twitter this afternoon, alongside a brief yet exciting gameplay compilation.
Echo is a highly adaptable damage hero with an Ultimate that transforms her into a chosen enemy and inherit each of their abilities for 15 seconds. It's been a long wait filled with plenty of teasers for Echo, but now's the time we can finally fill her robot shoes in normal and ranked games. You can catch up on some of the lore behind Overwatch's newest hero here or in the original story below.
Original story as follows...
Overwatch has a new hero, and it's one we've been expecting.
Echo is an "evolutionary robot programmed with a rapidly adapting artificial intelligence", created by Dr. Mina Liao. According to the video, Liao was part of the team responsible for the Omnics, who eventually rose up against their human creators. She created Echo as a means of coping with her guilt, and hopefully rectifying the mistakes she made when creating the omnics - that's why it's important to note that Echo is not an omnic, but functions as more of an "echo" of Mina Liao's consciousness (think Cortana from the Halo series).
From the video, it seems like Liao was the victim of an attack at her laboratory, most likely by the omnics themselves. After creating the omnics, Liao turned to Overwatch to help her build Echo - it seems like the team believed in her ideas and helped facilitate Echo's creation. "She created me, her promise, her legacy, her echo," the robot says at the end of the video.
That's why we've seen Echo with the Overwatch team before, most notably in two different shorts. She first appeared in the McCree and Ashe short "Reunion," where the gunslingers battle over a train's cargo that houses Echo's pod. McCree awakens Echo, welcoming her back into the fold. We also saw Echo in the announcement trailer for Overwatch 2, as part of the cavalry of Overwatch heroes Tracer's always banging on about. Echo's voice has sounded pretty different in each of the three videos she's in, but it's clear from this most recent one that she has a serene, calming voice, not unlike my girl Mercy.
No word yet on what type of hero Echo will be, or when she'll debut in Overwatch. She could very well be a new DPS character, based on the Overwatch 2 trailer which shows her flying in and raining fire down on omnics. Considering the last two heroes were a tank (Sigma) and a support (Baptiste), it seems like it's time for a new DPS character.
Stay tuned, we'll keep you posted on the latest Overwatch and Echo news as it comes across our desks.
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