You heard it here, folks. While everyone continues to be frustrated by poor loot drops in Overwatch’s anniversary event, Blizzard has gone ahead and started teasing out their next plan for their widely-praised and often-criticized FPS.
The Overwatch website has updated with a new article, detailing the reveal of new information pertaining to the Horizon Lunar Colony, a colony on the moon that lost contact with the earth prior to the events of the game and the place of origin for peanut-butter-guzzling science gorilla Winston. The update reveals several emails between Dr. Winston and his staff with regards to an incident with some of the apes on the station.
While few care for the mundane office-email chain, those who stick with it are duly rewarded with some tasty drama. All the gorillas are confined to their quarters, save for one: a “Smaller specimen” named Hammond. Things then take a turn for the dramatic with this rather grim email:
It’s mentioned that these emails were sent prior to the last days of the colony’s connection to Earth. The story continues in Winston’s bio page on the Overwatch site, describing how the gorillas took over the colony, murdering all the scientists and Winston escaped to Earth shortly after. However, the blog post continues with a “Breaking Update” saying they still have access to present-day surveillance of the lunar colony, and this is where things get exciting:
It took me a while to realize this was a present-day surveillance (at least that’s the assumption I’m going with by this being a “breaking update” and them referring to surveillance as “still-operating”. Pay attention to the bottom left of the map, and look at the unaccounted specimens- Hammond and Winston. The truth is we know where Winston is, he’s on the payload (Unless you’re scum and just galivanting on your own). That leaves Hammond, the other unruly specimen, unaccounted for. Given Winston succeeded in escaping to Earth, it’s not hard to believe Hammond might have done so too. This leads us to Speculation Time:
1. What is this event?
My first thought was that this event would be like Overwatch’s uprising event. This was changed once I realized the map they put up is recent, and the focus seems to be on Hammond. I now believe this is most likely a new hero, with maybe a new map thrown in.
2. Who is Hammond?
Is Hammond Doomfist? Doomfist is still at large, as was revealed with the Orisa event, but it seems almost like Doomfist’s reveal will be like Sombra- slow, teased out through the year. Or maybe Hammond isn’t a new hero at all, much like Efi was revealed before Orisa.
As for Hammond, we know he’s a “Smaller specimen”, leading one to believe he might not be a gorilla at all. For ape-diversity’s sake we may be looking at a chimp, or even an Orangutan character. Reddit user Flypaper_90 points out an interesting detail in some old Overwatch concept art- a second ape character. Here it is, bottom right next to proto-Symmetra
/speculation end
So what are your thoughts on the new teaser? Is it a new hero? Another addition to the ongoing legend of Doomfist? An ape boyfriend for Winston? Leave your speculations in the comments and bookmark Gamer Malaya for all your future Overwatch speculations.