After many teases, the 45th hero being added to the Overwatch 2 roster has finally been revealed to be Vendetta, the game’s first melee-focused damage hero. Recently, I got a chance to attend a roundtable interview with associate game director Alec Dawson and senior character artist Bryan Bedford about the creation of this hero, who looks to have a big impact on the game’s lore going forward.
Unfortunately, we were told going in that there were no story or lore elements to be discussed in this interview, but, as seen in comics and her hero trailer, Vendetta is the daughter of Antonio Bartalotti, the Talon boss that Reaper killed in the Retribution Archives mission. Between this and the various updates to the game’s story, it really feels like Blizzard is building up to something lore nuts like me have been waiting a long time for, but we will have to wait longer to learn more about that.
Making a DPS Melee Hero for the Game Today
Focusing solely on gameplay and design going forward, a lot of concern for the nature of the Vendetta gameplay in Overwatch 2 was raised. In the past, we have heard that melee-focused heroes were too difficult to balance around. Genji is a prime example of this, as his kit was drastically changed from its original iteration before the first game’s release, and Doomfist, who was developed around the idea of a fighting game, was later turned into a tank for balance reasons.
So, in a game filled with guns, why is now the right time to make a melee damage hero?
Dawson: “A lot of times when we’re developing heroes, you know, we’re coming up with different styles and what might be right, what the game’s missing, and what challenges the team might want to take up, and I think one of our designers had a really good early prototype of this melee DPS with this big old sword.”
“While we’re prototyping new heroes and investigating where the holes in the roster may be, this is one of the holes we had on the board, right? And we just happened to land on something very early that was initially super engaging, and we thought, okay, if we have this base kit already here, we can probably develop the rest of the things that get this hero into a place where she can become a permanent fixture in the roster.
So part of it was having something really strong early on, and then part of it’s just, this is what we, you know, this is what we want to do. We want to fill another gap in the roster and make sure that there’s a play style in there that, you know, players haven’t seen before, and also one that might be, you know, really attractive for a whole new subset of players.”
Dawson later threw in that when designing her, Blizzard really wanted to make a gladiator character, and that players had been asking for a melee damage hero for years, and it was something they wanted to deliver on.
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Overwatch Hero Releases Don’t Follow a Pattern
Recently, fans have also been looking at release patterns for Overwatch 2, which really pushed people to think that Vendetta would end up being a tank. Bedford says what hero comes out really comes down to how fun they are to play.
Bedford: “I saw a lot of very confident expectation that Hero 45 was going to be a tank based off of like a recent release pattern that we’re now like switching it up a little bit, but I think one of the most important aspects of adding new heroes is honestly just coming up with something that’s fun to play.”
“Once we got a hold of her kit, I cannot overstate how fun it is to just jump in and start tearing through the sky with the blade throw and being just an absolute menace. We knew we were absolutely hooked, and she immediately jumped forward. So, yeah, she was just immediately fun to play, and that’s one of the things that pushed her forward as far as getting a DPS and then a melee DPS on the roster immediately.”
Vendetta Strengths and Weaknesses
While there are definitely going to be concerns with Vendetta against ranged characters in Overwatch 2, Dawson says this is the latest introduction to the dive cast, meaning she’ll share a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses as Tracer and Genji.
Dawson: “Yeah, this is a dive-oriented hero through and through. She wants to play alongside Winston. She wants to jump into the back line and wreak a bunch of havoc. So, you know, if a Zenyatta is in the wrong place, good luck. But characters that have strong [crowd control] can deal with her pretty well. You know, if you are able to land that sleep dart, if you hit that flashbang, if you’re able to do some of that, Vendetta, when she gets stuck in a place, it can be rather difficult for her. So, I would say, she’s going to be wanting to be in a very fast comps flying through the air, trying to come down and get a quick kill.”
Bedford describes her playstyle as “high-risk, high-reward personified” and also referred to her as “the ultimate dive hero.”
Bedford: “That’s the type of hero that if you want to get into a backline and cause chaos, she is the character for you, but she’s a little bit more resilient than a squishy character like Tracer.”
“What I like about Vendetta over something like DPS Doomfist is DPS Doomfist, if you mechanically get your combo right, you could pretty much dominate, but I think Vendetta operates more on, like, a strategy level. So you have to gauge when you’re going in, how you’re going in, from what direction you’re coming in, and so there’s a little bit more strategy there. Whereas Tracer can just kind of get in and out, you have to commit if you’re going in with Vendetta.
While Zenyatta was brought up as a good target for her, he noted that playtests had a lot of instances where Zen’s discord orb would “blow her up” very quickly because she is not a tank. She can block some damage, but her resources for blocking and escaping danger are very limited when compared to a tank.
According to Dawson, the original iteration of Doomfist back in the first Overwatch played a role in Vendetta’s creation as well.
Dawson: “One of the big differences in some of the things we learned, looking back at DPS Doomfist, was like how much burst was acceptable. So, Vendetta won’t have that combo that, like maybe Overwatch 1 Doomfist had, or ‘Oh, Doomfist hit me, then I’m instantly dead.’ It’s going to take a few more swings, but she is that character that is going to try to make this similar place where she’s going to try to dive, going to try to take someone that might be just slightly out of position and single down the enemy team, and try to burst them down.”
“There’s still that element of combos and linking all of your abilities and making sure you’re using the right sequence, but I do think there’s there’s something slightly different about going for the one big punch versus going for multiple swings [of the sword].”
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Making Vendetta Standout in the Overwatch 2 Cast
During our interview, I mentioned that Vendetta gives off some Junker Queen vibes in how she handles herself, and asked how Blizzard set out to make sure that she is her own character. From a design standpoint, Bedford says that she is actually quite small, only being slightly taller than Tracer. When designing her, they had a stated goal to make a character that was smaller than the sword she swings around, so even if she seems to be quite large in images and videos, she is actually one of the smaller heroes in the cast.
Dawson added that Vendetta and Junker Queen also carry themselves differently.
Dawson: “I think there’s elements, even in the voice print, that set them apart. Like, while they can both have this ferocity to them, they can both be big and loud with their voice, I think Vendetta has this element of kind of swinging back to composure, too. That may not be as present within Junker Queen.
Chiara Preziosi did an amazing job as the voice actor there, and just like, you can really feel how much Vendetta comes through in terms of like just this ultimate ruthlessness, like I think the [ultimate] line in particular is one that we heard immediately and were like okay, this is the person who’s going to voice Vendetta, but then also able to dial it back to some of the stuff you saw in that hero trailer with some of the real emotion that’s in there. That’s a bit more composed, a bit more self-introspective at times about what her motivations are, right? So, I think there are differences in terms of how their personalities actually play on the battlefield and some of the conversations they may have.”
Bedford: “Yeah, I’d say where Junker Queen is like really brash and boisterous, Vendetta can be that, but she’s a lot more anime villain. She’s a lot more dangerous, I’d want to say, like, confidently so.”
