The next Overwatch 2 hero is getting a brief trial period for those who want to take them for a spin before launch, just like Blizzard did with tank hero Mauga before his launch. Venture, a non-binary, drill-using damage hero, is set to join the roster in season 10 (which kicks off on April 16), but Blizzard is giving fans a few days to test them out beforehand. This will no doubt make the historically long damage queue times even longer, but this is the price we damage players must pay for playing the most popular role.
Venture’s test period will begin Thursday, March 28, and last through the weekend until Sunday, March 31. The announcement also came with a new trailer showcasing all their abilities. Their drill-based kit centers around their Burrow movement ability that lets Venture dig beneath the action, making them invulnerable and able to move through the map. It’s not too dissimilar to how characters in Splatoon traverse the environment by swimming through the ink they spray on the ground. Also shown in the trailer is their ultimate ability Tectonic Shock, which creates a shockwave similar to Reinhardt’s Earthshatter, though we don’t see exactly how that affects other enemies beyond doing damage. It might not have the same stun effect as Reinhardt’s ultimate.
While Venture is the star of the show, the trailer also seems to hint at a new map similar to the original Overwatch’s Temple of Anubis, which hasn’t been part of the sequel’s typical map rotation since it sequesters two-point capture modes to the Arcade and custom games. The Overwatch 2 team has started creating new maps with old aesthetics and settings evocative of those 2CP locales, such as the Hanaoka Clash mode map set to launch in season 11. It looks like the beloved Temple of Anubis map may be getting an homage at some point, as well.
Check out the trailer below:
Venture will be the first Overwatch 2 hero available without purchasing the season’s battle pass on April 16 after Blizzard announced that new heroes would be free for all players moving forward. This addresses one of the biggest criticisms of the sequel after its launch in October 2022, and comes when the game needs good news after it sounds like Blizzard is reportedly canceling the planned story missions that were a pillar of the sequel’s announcement.
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