Thanks to the Overwatch Workshop – added to the game yesterday in a surprise announcement – the community is already realising some long-held dreams. One early example that you can already import and play is Silver Surfer Mei.
The pitch: a version of Mei who can move faster by freezing the ground beneath her feet, skating over her own ice. The idea has been around almost since launch – especially since she does it in one of her highlight intros – but the moniker ‘Silver Surfer Mei’ emerged last February with this thread on the Overwatch forums. Original poster Rhaevon later admits they got their heroes mixed up and meant to say Frozone from the Incredibles (my first thought was Iceman, from the X-Men).
Interestingly, designer Geoff Goodman says Blizzard actually discussed this very idea when first creating Mei, but the main issue was that it meant you were “always staring at the ground as you moved around.” Another idea was throwing out a snowball that would lay a path for you, but the team decided against giving Mei extra mobility.
“From a game design standpoint, she’s a hero that is more about slowing enemies and stopping them, rather than herself being fast,” Goodman says. “In general, we often find ourselves trying to resist putting tons of mobility on every hero, to make sure we keep every hero feeling unique.”
Finally able to create something I’ve always wanted – Silver Surfer Mei! from Overwatch
But hey, what’s the Workshop for if not to experiment with not-quite-balanced ideas like this? Redditor u/ChemicalWeather has made Silver Surfer Mei, and you can import her to your own PTR with the code ‘PT13F’. As you can see in the clip above, you do have to stare at the floor, but otherwise it seems to work pretty well.
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There are already some amazing Workshop creations going up, and we’ve already got a list of the best Overwatch Workshop codes so you can take them for a spin. Highlights include Gun Game, the Floor is Lava, and D.Va’s Bumperkart (everyone’s D.Va with unlimited boost and you have to bump people out of the arena to win, it’s like sumo).