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Overwatch's Wrecking Ball Is Now Live
17 minutes ago
Overwatch's furry sphere of fighting fury, Wrecking Ball, is now available as a playable character, giving folks a chance to see what it's like to control a tiny hamster who is himself controlling a massive orb of destruction. For your full sensory pleasure, we suggest you play Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'" on repeat while reading the rest of this update.
Hammond the hamster was first introduced to the Overwatch community just a few weeks back after being teased in images and trailers for a while preceding the official reveal. While a hamster on its own isn't all that scary, a hamster that pilots a metallic ball of mayhem looks to be a worthy addition to the game's ever-growing cast of oddball characters.
As Gameinformer points out, the teasing has officially drawn to a close, as Hammond is now available for all players to take for a spin in the game proper. Folks who have already played the character on test servers seemed to really like Wrecking Ball, the name of the rig the lil fellow cruises around in.
Similar to series staple Winston, Hammond is yet another animal experiment from the Overwatch universe that went so, so right. Up on the moon base, he would apparently escape his cage on a nightly basis in order to teach himself the fine art of engineering. When things went south on the moon, Hammond attached his escape pod to the one being utilized by Winston and, once they hit the atmosphere, his rig detached and landed somewhere in the Australian Outback.
All alone in the wastelands, Hammond turned his pod into a rolling tool of destruction known as Wrecking Ball, which he then entered into combat tournaments in order to win enough money to fully pimp his ride and venture further out into the world.
A Tank class character in the game proper, Overwatch has Wrecking Ball/Hammond listed as a three-star difficulty, so he shouldn't be too hard to get the hang of. His base weapon is a set of cannons, while his abilities take advantage of his roly-poly goodness. Roll, for instance, makes him tuck in his legs and speed across the battlefield with increased mobility. The Grappling Claw ability shoots out a line like Spider-Man before swinging forward and striking enemies to cause damage.
Wrecking Ball also has an Adaptive Shield, an ability that lets him temporarily absorb incoming damage. There's also a Piledriver ability, which lets him slam into the ground to cause some serious damage. We figure chaining Roll into Grappling Claw and then Piledriver will be a fan-favorite maneuver, followed immediately by Adaptive Shield to keep him safe from any survivors while scurrying to cover.
Wrecking Ball's ultimate ability is called Minefield, where he deploys a bunch of mines that explode whenever enemies touch them. It seems like another great way to control the opposing crowd, or just another great way to finish off your combination as Hammond rolls into the thick of enemy territory.
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