After teasing us last week, it seems the cat is out of the bag, as Overwatch‘s new hero has been revealed. The clues pointed to the hero being Hammond, based on the painting on the walls and the wrecking ball that follows in the second teaser video. However, earlier today on their official twitter page, the new hero was shown, and its a fuzzy fat orange hamster in a wrecking ball mech suit with guns.
The ten second teaser shows a rolling mechanical ball of death appear on screen, then show off its weapons by firing them at something off screen. But the twist is when the pilot pops its head out from the cockpit at the top, where the camera zooms in for the reveal, and once again its a chubby hamster. Its very likely that this hamster is in fact the aforementioned Hammond, but Blizzard has yet to confirm this. Overwatch recently changed the hero class system, unifying the Offense and Defense into the Damage class, so it may be a possibility that he’s put in there, its also possible that he’s a Tank class. We’ll more than likely see more about our fuzzy wrecking ball pilot in the PTR at some point, fully revealing his name and abilities.
The response to the the hamster mech-ball-of doom so far has been very interesting. Fans appear to be split, as some of them were hoping for another ape/monkey such as Winston, while others praise the idea for a hamster in a mech suit. Either way, its just more proof that the Overwatch team continues to come up with ideas that are full of ingenuity and plenty of gumption. Overwatch is known for its tongue in cheek humor, but this just might be the most ridiculous hero they’ve ever created, and the cutest.
Update
Well that didn’t take long, as Blizzard has fully revealed that the hamster is indeed Hammond, but his hero name is Wrecking Ball.
Along with the new video, Blizzard also has a new web page dedicated to Wrecking Ball which you can check out here. In the description, it confirms that Wrecking Ball is in fact a Tank hero where his description states ” Wrecking Ball’s tinkering capabilities and iron-clad mech make him a formidable tank hero, capable of bowling through the front line of the opposition and causing mayhem in the back line.” Wrecking Ball is available to play in the Overwatch PTR right now.