Overwatch Origins: Bastion Used To Fly | Gaming News

Bastion has always been an intriguing character in Overwatch. The robotic unit is the last of his kind, and in an unlikely series of events was able to overcome his programming and forge his own path. He deals devastating damage in his tank mode, but features plenty of versatility throughout both a sentry and scout mode as well. Before the Overwatch hero had a tank mode, though, he initially launched a remote mine that players would drive around before burying it in the ground. This gameplay mechanic was moved to Junkrat for his RIP-Tire attack.

We spoke to Overwatch assistant art director Arnold Tsang at the Toronto Fan Expo, and he was able to reveal one more interesting tidbit of information about Bastion. It’s something that gamers might have a hard time picturing:

Bastion used to be able to fly – we tried a lot of different things for his ultimate.

Arnold also revealed that Bastion briefly had a front-facing shield, though this was removed in the prototype stages of his development. The 1000HP shield protected his front-facing armaments, though he only had a 60 degrees of rotation when he was in his shielded mode. This was removed as balance adjustments were made for the robotic hero.

It goes without saying that the omnic crisis may have gone very differently if each Bastion unit was capable of flying, but in the canonical events it was a strictly ground battle for the omnic units themselves–though it did feature some hazmat-clad soldiers on the opposing side that could have tied into Ana’s hazmat-heavy concept character. In any event, Bastion never ended up dropping into the mix Titanfall-style, but he’s certainly still one of the deadliest heroes out there.

Blizzard is currently making some hefty changes to Torbjorn, who Bastion fans will know was the first character (aside of Ganymede) to befriend the omnic unit. The studio has been busy with plenty of new features this month, adding a new Busan map along with a D.Va’s own origin story. While there’s plenty of exciting things looking forward, it’s still enjoyable to take a look back at origins of the Overwatch roster, so stay tuned for some more interesting factoids from Arnold Tsang.

Overwatch is available now for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.