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 choice to maneuver on from these preliminary glory days and reinvent itself as a sequel. Properly, now Overwatch has gone and seduced me once more, like a Hanzo scatter arrow delivered straight from Cupid’s bow. And it is all thanks to 1 lady: 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”, carried out 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 outfitted with extra firearms than precise arms; Mizuki, a cursed ex-yakuza member with a therapeutic hat; and Jet Pack Cat, who’s, properly, 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 feel I really like her.
Vaira, if I ought to be so daring as to make use of her actual identify, is the form of aggressive tank character that I’ve at all times 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 the entire reverse group’s consideration as I attempt to trigger as a lot chaos as doable. Domina isn’t a dive tank, although. Sure, she will be able to trigger enormous quantities of injury like everybody’s favorite South Korean mech fanatic can, but when I have been to check her to anybody, it could be a robust mixture of the reworked Orisa and Reaper.
Domina is a drive to be reckoned with with regards to taking the enemy head-on, because of a few abilities 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 nervous about this capability, since I nonetheless carry psychological scars from that interval when Overwatch was a whole shield-fest 5 – 6 years in the past — by no means once more do I wish 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 drive subject has a enjoyable wrinkle that performs tactically into each groups’ method, as squares may be punched out of it with a average quantity of injury, creating literal home windows of alternative for these confronted with it. It’s a sensible method to shielding in Overwatch that, at the very 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 arms. They not solely deal a bit of injury, but additionally boop individuals away from her. I’ve already had possibly 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 the 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 most likely too highly effective proper now and can, in all chance, 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 advocate 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 recreation 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 every other. It nonetheless feels probably the most balanced, satisfying method to play Overwatch, and if Blizzard was ever to completely revert again to the 2 tank, two help, two DPS group construction of previous, I feel Overwatch would actually 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 abilities that concurrently really feel contemporary, but additionally 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 properly, or imprison them in her explosive Panopticon final capability.
I can’t assist however smile once I see that Overwatch is benefitting from its highest concurrent participant numbers in over a 12 months, and really feel completely happy for the builders who’ve labored so tirelessly to ensure this universe that folks love a lot is not going to die. This replace has made me fall again in love with a recreation I as soon as held nearer to my coronary heart greater than any, and a big a part of that’s all the way 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 could 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.