Rachel Schaffner – Staff Writer

rls6117@psu.edu

Step aside, Tracer, Mercy, and Winston: There’s a new DPS, support, and tank in town. In anticipation of Blizzard’s announcement of “Overwatch 2” replacing the original “Overwatch,” the company revealed three new characters that were going to be released with the new game.

The new DPS, which stands for damage per second, hero, Sojourn, was announced around May/June, four months before Overwatch 2 was released. Sojourn’s appearance resembles that of a robot’s, with a railgun in her arm.

I have yet to play the new DPS hero, as a half veteran and a half newcomer to “Overwatch,” I mainly played the support role, but I have dipped my finger in the DPS pool by playing mostly Tracer. What can I say, call me a normie. However, seeing Sojourn’s abilities through their origin story trailer, I might consider trying to pick up Sojourn.

Alongside Sojourn’s release announcement, the new tank hero was announced. After being teased in Wrecking Ball’s trailer back in 2018, the Junker Queen of Junkertown is the next tank hero. While being completely different from her original design, which was not as muscular as she is now, Junker Queen’s development took Blizzard a long time to finalize.

I am not one to look heavily into the lore of “Overwatch,” but seeing Junker Queen’s cinematic trailer, in which both Junker Queen and the new support hero were given cinematic trailers,  poor Sojourn,  made me want to dive more into the lore of “Overwatch.” Ultimately, it ended with me redownloading the game and playing it once more, just because I wanted to play as Junker Queen, who is my tank and overall main character. There will be more on my opinion on Junker Queen after the explanation of the new support hero.

Four weeks before “Overwatch 2” was released, Blizzard came out with not only an origin story, but also a cinematic trailer for the new support hero. Coming from Japan, Kiriko has a famous Japanese mythological creature guiding her: the kitsune. Also known as the fox spirit, the kitsune in Japanese myth are known to be tricksters who have immense power. They also are known to repay debts and remember friendships. The most notable kitsune references in the media come from “Naruto” with Kurama,  and Ninetales in “Pokémon.” However, with Kiriko, the kitsune guides her and her teammates with expanding their health in her ultimate ability called Kitsune Rush. 

Recently announced as the new tank hero, during the Overwatch League Grand Finals, that took place on November 4, Ramattra is hero no. 36 in the “Overwatch” roster. Being an omnic, which there are not many on the roster in general, is a new sight to see. It was teased that Ramattra will have two forms by two team members of Blizzard, this deadly omnic will definitely be a scary sight on the maps, more so than any Wrecking Ball, Winston, and Roadhog. Unfortunately players will have to wait until December 6 for Season 2 of the battle pass for Ramattra to make his debut into the game. 

With the three new characters being a recent addition to the “Overwatch” roster, there was more backlash on one certain character than the others. A lot of players took to Sojourn quickly, as Sojourn made her first appearance worldwide in the Overwatch League Playoffs, as well as Kiriko’s loveable personality, especially her love for donuts. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said with Junker Queen. While most people love her character design, such as myself, a lot of people took note that she looked very similar to Mad Maggie from “Apex Legends.”

There is one thing I would like to point out. “Apex Legends” came out in 2019 while Junker Queen was teased in the lore of  “Overwatch” through two different means. She was teased in Wrecking Ball’s origin story as well as “Overwatch’s” map Junkertown. With that in mind, still, people compared her to Mad Maggie and how “Overwatch” ripped off “Apex Legends.” Who ripped off who here?

There are many differences from the characters that set them apart. Mad Maggie is not as built muscularly as Junker Queen. Also, as confirmed by Blizzard’s Senior Art Supervisor Kacey Helms, Junker Queen is an astounding seven feet tall! Get on her level Mad Maggie. When compared to Junker Queen, Mad Maggie does not have the same kind of hair style. Mad Maggie just has normal black hair that is pushed back on the other hand, Junker Queen has a blue mohawk with braided hair on both sides of her head. With a hairstyle like that, people have also said that Junker Queen looks similar to Jinx from “League of Legends” or from “Arcane” the TV series based on some of “League of Legends” characters and lore. The only comparison that both Junker Queen and Mad Maggie have in common, is the punk appearance in clothing they have. This has caused a lot of hate towards Junker Queen as well as her being a terrible tank character. I do not agree with what some of the fans are saying when it comes to Junker Queen’s playstyle and her set of abilities.

Having played Junker Queen for longer than I probably should have, her playstyle is probably the most unique I have seen with any tank. With her handy weapons Carnage, which is an ax, Gracie that is a knife, and her gun, Junker Queen can be a nasty character to go up against. Her knife, Gracie, can be thrown and come back at will, almost like a boomerang. If landing on the target, it heals Junker Queen to an extent. Her ax, Carnage, can be used as a combination with Gracie being a set, throwing the knife and hitting a target, then pulling them back to where Junker Queen is. Using Carnage, she can land a devastating blow to the opponent. 

Her other ability, commanding shout, gets an added boost to her 425 health to become 625. Not only does this increase her health, but the players around her get an added 50 points to their health as well. She gets an increased movement speed as well. As for her ultimate ability, called Rampage, if enemies are hit with it they lose damage overtime and are prevented from being healed by support characters. It deals a total of 100 points of damage over a 5 second duration and heals Junker Queen the same amount in the same time duration. If all of her abilities are used to their utmost potential, Junker Queen can be a deadly force to be reckoned with. 

Finishing up my point, the assumption that I love Junker Queen is an understatement. While both Sojourn and Kiriko are great additions to the game, upon watching Junker Queen’s cinematic, it was enough to get me back into “Overwatch.” If anyone sees me on the battlefield as Junker Queen, in the wise words of the Queen of Junkertown herself, ‘Bow down.’