Overwatch's Hit Marker Sound Effect Comes From Beer

Overwatch is a game of many unique, distinguishable sounds that communicate what's happening in the battlefield. One of these sounds lets you know your attacks are landing, and it just so happens that it comes from someone opening a bottle of beer.

Reddit user Ohrwurms posted an excerpt from the Visual Sourcebook on Overwatch's subreddit (via PC Gamer). It discussed the challenge of creating a sound for the "hit-pip," which needed to "cut through the mix" while not sounding like "it comes from any hero." You can read the excerpt in full below.

"Another extremely challenging sound is the 'hit-pip.' When you hit someone, you need to know you made contact. The sound needs to cut through the mix but not feel like it comes from any hero. It went through tons of iteration. Finally, one night I thought, 'It should be satisfying to hit an enemy.' Just think about what's satisfying: beer. So I literally opened a beer bottle. Pssht. The sound is reversed and tweaked a little, but that sound is our hit-pip."

Of course, hitting a character isn't going to sound exactly like cracking open a bottle, but once you know that's where the sound came from, it can't be unheard. You can hear it for yourself in the video below.

If you want to master each hero in Overwatch, you can check out GameSpot's character guides here. There are already guides for characters like Reinhardt, Widowmaker, and Junkrat with more coming every day.

In related news, we've discovered how much Overwatch's microtransactions cost, and they range from $2 to $40. GameSpot's Danny O'Dwyer and Chris Watters bought a $40 pack of loot boxes on our Overwatch livestream marathon, and you can see the two open them here.