Overwatch’s newest hero had a long journey ahead of him surveillance 2, at least from the perspective of when players first saw it – three and a half years ago, during the original game’s Storm Rising event – until its final release last week. Like many heroes in Blizzard’s shooter, new tank hero Ramattra is a collection of ideas that have taken a long time to gel.
The hero’s long pregnancy is also the result of the Overwatch team’s desire to lay Easter eggs and hints of what’s to come, even if the payoff is years in the future.
“It takes us a really long time to create a hero for Overwatch,” art director Dion Sanders said in a recent interview with Polygon. “Especially as we keep getting more heroes, it’s going to take a while.” But Ramattra is “pretty important to the game’s ongoing narrative,” Sanders said, noting, “We’ll have to, you know, release some as the time moves.” feels right.”
Ramattra dates back to 2017 when Blizzard artists were designing zero sector units. A lieutenant figure from this group, a monk-like figure with a staff, stood out from the crowd, according to lead concept artist Qiu Fang. The sand-based powers of these Egyptian-inspired robots eventually evolved into nanites, which give Ramattra his powers.
Ramattra’s lengthy development was compounded by its complicated nature, both in terms of its gameplay mechanics and narrative design. Playing in two different forms – Omnic and Nemesis – Ramattra brings technical complications and doubles the workload for the Overwatch art team, much like two-in-one heroes like D.Va and Ashe (and BOB).
Ramattra’s dual nature in matches of surveillance 2 reflect his personality, said Lead Hero Designer Alec Dawson.
“If you look at him mechanically, we want to capture this hero who did it [two] Pages for him in terms of what he is willing to do to protect his people,” Dawson said. “[Ramattra] can be a bit quieter or more reserved, and you can tell by the way he puts up his shield barrier [and] browse from afar. And then when he transforms, when he transitions into his Nemesis form, you see a different side of him. You see some of that power coming out – which he’s actually capable of.”
On paper, Ramattra’s abilities sound scary and potentially meta-breaking. He can switch between two forms, giving him dual offensive and defensive abilities, he can penetrate barriers, and his Ravenous Vortex ability will disrupt flying enemies like Pharah, Echo, and Mercy. He pairs well with a Lucio or a Kiriko, which can give him a speed boost. But he’s also very vulnerable to counterattacks like Ana’s Sleep Arrow or being flanked in Nemesis form. Using it effectively requires skill.
“With Ramattra’s gameplay, we’re really focusing on some of the skill elements, [like] when to capitalize and turn the tide,” Dawson said. “We’re very focused on turning into Nemesis, getting into the opposing backline and making sure that all of that is happening [happening at] the right moment. You have a lot at your disposal, but the focus is still on exactly when you need to shift, when exactly you need to band together with your entire team and be that leader at the top.”
Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, lead narrative designer and writer for Overwatch, said his writing for Ramattra’s backstory and ongoing narrative “stems from a fascination that I’ve had throughout my career with the interactions between machine and human intelligence,” topics he explores has in wasteland 3, Torment: Tides of Numeneraand Horizon Zero Dawn.
“You have this character that was created to hunt down and ultimately kill people in the omnic crisis, that was his sole purpose,” Jurgens-Fyhrie said. “He became aware when he woke up in New York, so to speak, and was forced into a confrontation […] what he had done during the omnic crisis – basically leading countless omnics to their deaths. These are omnics who would never know consciousness like he does, and that’s something that drives him. It’s something that haunts him.”
As said in a recently published short story “Reflections” for Ramattra, the Omnic Ravager goes to Shambali to study under the monk Mondatta, but experiences something of a second awakening. “He wanted to find his place in the world to answer such questions what is my purpose‘ said Jürgens-Fyhrie, ‘but also to understand how he could atone? How could he improve the world for omnics who are a finite race? We’ve seen him try and we’ve seen the world fail him. From his point of view, not only is humanity not making the same effort, but many of the Ravagers – his Omnic model type – are dead. So we have someone who is no longer trying to make peace with humanity. He thinks it’s impossible. And indeed he thinks it is dangerous to seek peace with humanity.”
Sanders said players shouldn’t think of Ramattra as a villain, but as an “antagonist.” Jurgens-Fyhrie added that players may philosophically agree with the omnic responsible for all this death and destruction.
Players will get additional dribs and drabs from Ramattra’s story and personality in his interactions with fellow Omnic Zenyatta – and fellow engineer Wrecking Ball surveillance 2, and players will be able to absorb part of Ramattra’s narrative path to Shambali as they scale the map of the same name. But Jurgens-Fyhrie said that Blizzard “is far from done telling the story about Ramattra and Zenyatta.”
What to do next surveillance 2 Heroes, Jurgens-Fyhrie noted, “We’ve already said we’re teasing a future hero based on some stuff in [Esperança, the Portugal-set map]’ and hinted at voice lines in the game’s New York map that offered some clues. Hopefully for surveillance 2 Players hungry for more heroes to play with will not take as long to come back as Ramattra did.