Overwatch's New Character Is A Robot Named Orisa

Following a series of teases over the last two weeks, Blizzard has finally unveiled the newest addition to Overwatch's roster: Orisa.

Orisa is a Tank-class character whose "gameplay is engineered around protection." Her weapon is the Fusion Driver, an automatic cannon that deals constant damage but slows her movement speed. The alternate fire is Halt, which launches a charge that she can detonate to slow enemies and pull them towards the explosion.

Her abilities include Fortify, which reduces the damage she takes and makes her immune to "action-impairing effects;" and Protective Barrier, a stationary barrier that can be deployed to block enemy attacks. Her Ultimate is Supercharger, which launches a device that buffs damage done by any teammates in its line of sight. The device itself can be destroyed by enemies.

You can try out Orisa now on the PC version's public test realm. A date for her release in the live game has not been announced. You can see all of her skins in the gallery below, along with a story trailer further below.

Teases for Orisa began last week. Through a series of posts, most in the guise of faux news coverage, we learned about Efi Oladele, an 11-year-old scientist with apparent plans to build whatever was to become the new character. Subsequent teases were tied to in-game changes, including a pretty significant one to the attacking team's spawn room on Numbani.

Prior to all of this, director Jeff Kaplan said that the next character was "not who you think it is." This was seemingly meant to deny that it would be Doomfist, who is believed by many to be a future character. Actor Terry Crews has actively campaigned to voice him if and when he becomes a character.

Separately from the new character, a new patch arrived for Overwatch this week that adds a server browser and significant balance changes, particularly for Bastion.