Back in 2018, Blizzard revealed something very funny about its iconic mech hero D.Va: Everything about her is a mess under the hood.
Game director Aaron Keller likened the way D.Va is programmed to a “plate of spaghetti,” when speaking to Kotaku at the time. When she ditches her mech, she’s actually transitioning into a separate hero as far as the game understands it, and this led to lots of weird problems and even weirder bugs.
That won’t be a problem with D.mon, the newest mech hero to join Overwatch, lead hero producer Kenny Hudson explained in a recent group interview with PC Gamer. D.mon is “actually one entity,” he said, even though she can be separated from her mech just like D.Va.
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“Took a little bit of work, definitely doubled the animations and stuff like that,” he added. “But overall, [it] makes the experience of making D.Mon a lot easier and fixing D.Mon and providing assets for D.Mon down the road a lot easier for the rest of the team.”
That’s good news because I think D.Mon will draw a lot of players over to the tank role when she debuts in season 4 next week. Hudson provided a brief demo of her kit built around an energy sword and shield. D.Mon is sort of like the sequel to Reinhardt, holding the frontline and boosting straight into her targets.
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As the leader of MEKA Squad, a group of Korean mech pilots that includes D.Va, D.Mon is much sturdier than her Overwatch elder, who zips around the battlefield like a bee. D.Mon is anchored to the ground, but she can still dash in any direction using a limited fuel resource. Her shoulder has a mounted machine gun that can be used long-range before she’s close enough to take out her shield. With the shield up, she basically becomes a slightly faster Reinhardt with a bonus charge ability to knock enemies back (or off ledges).
Her ultimate, Limit Break, will probably be the reason to play her (or ban her). She does a big whirlwind slash with the sword, tearing open a weakness on every hit so that enemies take increased damage. It also gives her a huge chunk of overhealth. Hudson said she’s dangerous in team compositions that can trample over enemies fast and pairs nicely with any damage-dealing heroes who can quickly capitalize on her ult’s debuff.
My favorite part about D.Mon only happens when she’s been knocked out of the mech with nothing but her mech’s machine gun. In addition to knocking enemies back when she calls down her mech, you get to see the arms and legs fly in and lock together like an episode of Voltron. The whole animation is slick and now has me eager to see if Blizzard will one day surprise us with more members of MEKA Squad.
D.Mon will touchdown with season 4 on August 11.
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