Brigitte shield-bashes onto the Overwatch's live servers
It's clobberin' time
Tis' the season for the smashing of fools. Swedish mecha-knight Brigitte, daughter of Torbjorn and squire to Teutonic man-missile Reinhardt has officially joined the fray, after a brief stint on Overwatch's public test server.
If you managed to miss out on her initial lore-filled reveal, you can check it out here, but here's the long and short of it: She's a miniature Reinhardt, and also a healer who cures her friends by bashing enemies faces in. A D&D Paladin, in essence, and a new kind of support character.
While Reinhardt was a clearly defined team defender, with his massive projection shield playing almost as iconic a role as the Heavy's constant hail of bullets in Team Fortress 2, Brigitte plays a much more flexible game. She's a front-line healer that can buff her team, while at the same time being a shield-wielding mobile melee brawler. Both sides of her skill-set synergise with each other, too, with her team-healing aura growing in power as she smashes people in the face with her rocket-powered flail.
Brigitte was immediately well received on the public test servers, with players figuring out the quirks of the character within hours. She's just the right kind of simple; accessible and understandable to play, but with just enough subtlety and depth to allow dedicated players to really become a force to be reckoned with.
As for why she has a German name despite being Torbjorn's kid? As thanks for saving his life in the attack that claimed his arm, the diminutive engineer went and promised his enormous buddy the right to name his first kid. The fact that she went on to effectively adopt Reinhardt as a second dad is just heartwarming icing on the complex family cake.
Anyway, she's live and ready to play now. Go synchronize your Overwatches and go clubbing tonight. It'll help you come to terms with the existential nightmare that is realizing that Tobjorn has done the dirty. Repeatedly.