Blizzard’s Overwatch has become nothing short of a cultural phenomenon, with the esports scene especially having a massive following. With a game so massive, content is being added at a near-constant rate.
Enter Echo, the newest hero to join the ranks of Overwatch. The new support champion received a short teaser earlier today with a cinematic teaser that Blizzard dropped, helping to show a bit of what we can expect from the new hero both thematically and lorewise.
Those familiar with the lore see a handful of familiar scenes and faces as the trailer moves on. One of the most significant lore figures, Dr. Liao, is shown to have been the mind behind Echo – and in some ways, possibly even the mind in Echo.
Liao is responsible for the creation of the Omnics, which are essentially extremely intelligent robots that border on sentience. You would recognize her fellow support, Zenyatta, as an Omnic, as well as Bastion. As is often the case when a series of extremely intelligent robots are constructed, this ended in a war between humanity and the robots, which also led to the formation of the Overwatch as a whole.
We see as Morrison, who would later become the man we know as Solider: 76, attempts to convince Liao to join Overwatch in the battle against the Omnics, saying that she’s the perfect mind to fight against her own creation. To this end, she creates one more robot to help people, her magnum opus – her Echo.
Echo seems to be an extension of Liao, and while there isn’t much to go off of from a minute-long teaser, it seems safe to assume that Liao’s creation is more than another Omnic. Echo is dedicated to helping the world, holding the same dream that her creator had.
Lorewise, we know quite a bit about Echo beyond her simple creator. She’s been confirmed to have been the precious payload on the Route 66 map, though players weren’t able to see her. Canonically, she’s saved by McCree from the Deadlock Gang, which then prompts him to reactivate her and tell her that she needed to respond to the recall of Overwatch, a scene that you can see in the animated short, “Reunion.”
Echo will be the 32nd playable hero for Overwatch, and it seems that she’ll be one of the most important, as the lore of the game goes. We don’t have an exact release date yet, and Blizzard doesn’t quite have a habit of moving fast, but you should be prepared to see Liao’s legacy in action soon.
