Overwatch's next hero is Sigma, a gravity-bending villain with a PhD
Why don't we try defying gravity
Overwatch picks up another academic super-villain with new lad, Sigma.
An "eccentric astrophysicist" with a fondness for harnesses and eyebrows that could skin a bear, Sigma's origin story was revealed last night. This followed some tantalising Tweets from Overwatch boss Jeff Kaplan (the tease) wherein an entire update video was sucked into a piano rehearsal.
It's your classic supervillain stuff. Kindly old scientist Sigma flies a little too close to the sun during an experiment, resulting in sick gravity powers that the law doesn't understand. Deemed a "threat to humanity" and sustaining "serious psychological damage", Sigma joins resident rascals and terrorists-at-large Talon.
That whole mad scientist angle sits a little uneasy, mind. Sigma's origin tale is maybe the most comic-book nonsense in Overwatch to date, and uncritically plays into a lot of iffy mental illness imagery of that kind. Deeming a mentally ill person a danger to the public? Exploiting them as a "living weapon"? Thanks, Blizzard.
But enough of this story guff - Overwatch is a very serious competitive videogame. For now, we can only speculate on his role, abilities and where he'll fit in the meta for now. With all this gravity chat I wager he'll be slowing down foes and making his allies lighter-than-air.
Blizzard will probably spill the beans on all that within the next week or two. Stay tuned.
