Overwatch 2 Gets New Animated Short, Extensive Roadmap, and Beta Signups

comingsoon.net:

Blizzard Entertainment has released many shorts over the years that build on the lore established found in its games.  got its fair share of them, but it’s been almost four years since the last one released, which centered around Cassidy and Ashe. Blizzard remedied that by debuting a new animated short based on the upcoming hero, Junker Queen. This short also came alongside a whole lineup of updates and a detailed roadmap of Blizzard’s plans for the free-to-play game after it launches on October 4.

shows Junker Queen, whose name is Odessa “Dez” Stone, on her journey to become the actual Junker Queen in a gladiatorial arena (which also has short cameos from Junkrat and Roadhog). This expands on her backstory in the origin story animatic that also released in conjunction with Blizzard’s stream.

The stream in question also went over her abilities that have only been teased thus far. She’s an aggressive tank that uses her axe and knife, both of which are different abilities. The former appears to just have a regular axe swing, while the knife throw will pull the stuck enemy toward herself when she calls it back as if it were a serrated Mjölnir. Her melee attack also does more damage and wounds enemies (which seemingly is Blizzard’s term for a status effect that keeps the enemy from healing). Her other normal ability is a shout that boosts the speed and armor of her nearby allies. Junker Queen’s ultimate shooters her in a straight line, wounding all she comes into contact with, which, as appears to be the case with her melee swipe, lessens the healing they can receive to zero for a limited time. Some of these moves drain enemy health and increase her health, as well, but Blizzard didn’t spell all of that out just yet.

Junker