After numerous rumors, Overwatch recently announced the new robotic heroine: Echo. Now that it was announced what the android can do, let's go over what we know so far.Her lore has been moving the Overwatch community for days now: Echo was created by scientist Dr. Mina Liao, who used to be an employee of the Omnica Corporation. There, she worked with the team responsible for the creation of the Omnics. Ultimately, it was this expertise in robotics and artificial intelligence that led to her being recruited by Overwatch to stop her own creations.
The creation of Echo
What Liao created was an adaptive multi-purpose robot that could be programmed to learn various functions: everything from medical support to construction. And Echo was born! Crucially, she had multiple layers of protection, fail-safes, and safeguards to keep her under control.
In truth, Liao had programmed Echo with a powerful general artificial intelligence that learned by observation. After thousands of hours in the presence of the scientist, many of Liao's behaviors (including her language) was adopted by the Echo. When Liao was finally killed in an attack on an Overwatch facility, the leadership of Overwatch hesitated to continue such a dangerous project and the entire development of Echo was stopped.
Now that Echo has joined the new Overwatch team for the first time to defend Paris against the invasion into the null sector, it appears she sees herself as a full team member in action. But as she is exposed to new people, ideas and situations without Dr. Liao, no one can foresee how she will develop.
Echo's capabilities
So what can the Android actually do among the Overwatch heroes? Echo's abilities have now been released and are already on PTR servers for play-testing.
You can learn something from every situation.Echo is now testing on the PTR! https://t.co/TDhOnSDFOF pic.twitter.com/zWBdl2E8Wj
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) March 19, 2020
As a passive, Echo was equipped with the already suspected hovering, one of the coolest movement characteristics in Overwatch. Here's what her other abilities do in more detail:
- Tri-Shot: Echo fires three triangular shots simultaneously.
- Sticky Bombs: The Android fires a series of sticky bombs that explode shortly thereafter.
- Flight: Echo moves quickly forward and can then fly freely for a while, making her very nimble and hard to hit.
- Focusing Beam: A focused beam is fired, dealing massive damage to enemies with less than 50 percent Health, perfect for finishing.
- Duplicate: Echo's Ultimate fits her story perfectly. After all, the android was created to learn from others and copy what she learned. With Duplicate, she completely transforms herself into an enemy hero and can use their abilities which is something Overwatch has never seen before.
How does this all look like in-game? Worry not, the professional players got their hands on Echo already:
When will Echo be released?
With all the videos, fan art and rumors, probably you can't wait to take to the skies yourself and shoot at your opponents from above. But when will Echo be playable for all Overwatch fans?
Blizzard doesn't have an official statement on that yet, but we can assume that it will be in April, so we have to be patient for the time being. And until then, there are still the best Overwatch skins in 2020, which we're sure you're going to like.
