Wolfenstein: The New Order, developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda, should have been awful. They were assembled using an accretive process, where abilities were assembled piecemeal and then unified with a story-based concept.Ĭontinue reading Strange Symmetra: Accretive Design in Overwatch → Symmetra (and indeed all the heroes) were not designed from the ground up. I have no special insight into the Overwatch design process, but I can speculate with some confidence about how it proceeded. She is the only character with “photonic” technology, and it is not explained how being able to project physical holograms also lets you bend space and time to craft a teleportation portal. This is explained by her being a combination architect and sci-fi construction worker, shaping solid forms out of light. She builds many tiny sentries, gives minor shields to allies, builds teleporters, and can attack with either a short-range cumulative auto-aim beam or a slow-moving death orb.

In a game where most heroes’ roles can be summed up in a few words (“fast flanker,” “mobile area-denial tank,” “ AOE healer,” “slowing defender”) and their story concepts naturally arise from their roles (“time-traveling jet pilot,” “leaping electric gorilla,” “portable DJ,” “cute ice Satan” 1), Symmetra makes little sense.

Symmetra is the most strangely-designed character in Blizzard’s Overwatch.

Spacechem postmortem