Have you ever ever fallen in love?
I did almost a decade in the past, with Overwatch, Blizzard’s hero shooter of near-immaculate design. However that relationship sadly grew to become strained, distant even, ever since its resolution to maneuver on from these preliminary glory days and reinvent itself as a sequel. Nicely, now Overwatch has gone and seduced me another time, like a Hanzo scatter arrow delivered straight from Cupid’s bow. And it is all thanks to at least one girl: the company villainess tank, Domina. And it has completely nothing to do with these thighs.
This week noticed the launch of a brand new period for Overwatch. Blizzard has ditched the “2”, applied a long-overdue menu overhaul, kicked off a model new, year-long story, and, crucially, added 5 model new heroes to the roster. You’ve obtained Anran, a fire-fan-wielding damage-dealer; Emre, a tactical operative geared up with extra firearms than precise arms; Mizuki, a cursed ex-yakuza member with a therapeutic hat; and Jet Pack Cat, who’s, effectively, a cat with a jet pack. After which final, however definitely not least, is Domina, an extremely damaging tank with a lethal pulse-action laser beam, explosive crystal bombs, and a large additional pair of mechanical arms that erupt out of her shoulders. I believe I really like her.
Vaira, if I needs to be so daring as to make use of her actual title, is the kind of aggressive tank character that I’ve all the time been drawn to in Overwatch. With almost 300 hours clocked in dive tank D.Va alone, it’s fairly clear that there’s nothing extra satisfying to me than launching a behind-enemy-lines assault on an goal and absorbing all the reverse workforce’s consideration as I attempt to trigger as a lot chaos as potential. Domina isn’t a dive tank, although. Sure, she will be able to trigger enormous quantities of harm like everybody’s favorite South Korean mech fanatic can, but when I have been to match her to anybody, it could be a robust mixture of the reworked Orisa and Reaper.
Domina is a pressure to be reckoned with relating to taking the enemy head-on, due to a few expertise that deter foes. One is a really giant protect that looms excessive over her and her teammates. I’ve to say I used to be initially fearful about this potential, since I nonetheless carry psychological scars from that interval when Overwatch was an entire shield-fest 5 – 6 years in the past — by no means once more do I need to see a Bastion and a Torbjorn turret sitting behind an Orisa and Reinhardt protect combo on that dreadful first Paris choke level. However Domina’s pressure area has a enjoyable wrinkle that performs tactically into each groups’ method, as squares could be punched out of it with a reasonable quantity of harm, creating literal home windows of alternative for these confronted with it. It’s a wise method to shielding in Overwatch that, at the least proper now, feels balanced for each attackers and defenders.
Then there’s her sonic repulsors, a pair of power blasts fired from the palms of her additional mechanical fingers. They not solely deal a bit of harm, but in addition boop individuals away from her. I’ve already had perhaps an excessive amount of enjoyable pushing gamers off the sting of Illios and Lijiang Palace’s perilous factors like a super-sized Lucio. Mix that with a crystal grenade that floats by way of the air in direction of enemies earlier than detonating, and a laser beam that fires off a shotgun-like burst on the finish of a set off pull, like a devilish mixture of Symmetra and Reaper’s weapons, and you’ve got a hero who can single-handedly run a whole match. I did inform you it wasn’t concerning the thighs.
Look, I’ll admit that she’s in all probability too highly effective proper now and can, in all probability, be subjected to a nerf within the coming days or perhaps weeks. However whereas she’s right here in all her glory, I can’t suggest Domina sufficient.
That’s to not say there isn’t loads of enjoyable to be discovered elsewhere in Overwatch proper now — this whole replace is a genuinely unbelievable shift for a sport that solely a short while in the past confronted an existential menace, and it’s inarguably extra enthralling to play now than it has been in lots of, a few years. That being mentioned, I do nonetheless yearn for these glory days of 2017 to 2019, and discover myself queuing to play its unranked 6v6 mode greater than another. It nonetheless feels probably the most balanced, satisfying technique to play Overwatch, and if Blizzard was ever to completely revert again to the 2 tank, two assist, two DPS workforce construction of previous, I believe Overwatch would really personal my coronary heart as soon as once more.
As for now, I worry my beating chambers belong solely to Domina and her stacked set of expertise that concurrently really feel contemporary, but in addition referential to the Overwatch of previous. As I’m penning this, I’m counting down the hours till I can play as her once more and ship individuals falling to their doom down an Illios effectively, or imprison them in her explosive Panopticon final potential.
I can’t assist however smile after I see that Overwatch is benefitting from its highest concurrent participant numbers in over a 12 months, and really feel blissful for the builders who’ve labored so tirelessly to ensure this universe that folks love a lot won’t die. This replace has made me fall again in love with a sport I as soon as held nearer to my coronary heart greater than any, and a big a part of that’s right down to how enjoyable its 5 new heroes (however primarily Domina, let’s be sincere) are. If Overwatch carries ahead this momentum into the remainder of 2026, it might turn into an issue for the remainder of my social life.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Observe him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.