We’ve been getting hints for a while now that Sigma will be the new Overwatch hero. Today, Blizzard finally dropped the origin video to confirm it!
In the description, Blizzard describes Sigma as “an eccentric astrophysicist who hopes to unlock the secrets of the universe, unaware he’s been turning into a living weapon.” (However, playing the video backward suggests otherwise.) Not just a recap of his Overwatch backstory, this video illustrates a mental breakdown right out of psychological horror. Not to mention the voice actor, Boris Hiestand, does an incredible job on those lines. The only thing missing is more specific info on his kit, which we’ll probably get tomorrow like how they handled Baptiste. This shows a change in how they’re handling hero reveals, since every hero before these two would receive their kit reveal at the same time as their origin story.
Most people expect Sigma to be a tank, since we just got a support hero and Jeff Kaplan says they’ll be focusing on tanks and healers for the foreseeable future. With this in mind, the community has multiple theories on what sort of play style he might bring to the table.
Could Sigma have swappable play styles?
The origin trailer makes it clear that Sigma is suffering from some sort of multiple personality disorder, suggesting that he may have multiple swappable play styles. That said, it’s unlikely that he’ll switch team roles considering 2-2-2 role lock is on the horizon. (On the other hand, D.Va morphs into a DPS whenever she leaves her mech, so you never know.) One theory believes the trigger will involve that haunting melody heard. If Sigma’s ultimate involves the melody “activating” him into a new mode like a sleeper agent, he could feel like more of a Winston-style tank.
Time-based abilities?
Not only is Sigma constantly fluctuating between two different states of mind, but the hospital tiles disintegrate and reform around him. The melody haunting his thoughts also lacks a time signature. A theory wonders if he’ll have time-slowing abilities since Blizzard’s currently tweaking slow effects on the PTR. This actually wouldn’t be the first time Overwatch tested a time-slow ability; Lucio’s original ultimate was to slow down time for everyone but himself.
Teleportation-based?
On the other hand, he does seem far more interested in gravity than time. His mantra regarding gravity being a “harness” implies he can use it as a sort of mobility tool. He could either be capable of teleporting himself around the battlefield or of levitating teammates as a support class. It’ll have to be something particularly special to avoid stepping on Tracer or Symmetra’s toes though. Perhaps Reaper might serve as an in-universe explanation for how Talon could have used Tracer’s tech to rescue Sigma for their own nefarious purposes.
Any or all of these could be right, but there’s no way to know at the moment. Fingers crossed Blizzard will continue their pattern and release his full kit tomorrow at 12 p.m. PST. But for now, all we can do is speculate.
