Eagle-eyed Reddit user u/FrozenFroh spotted a suspiciously upbeat bit of NPC dialog in the latest promotional video for Overwatch 2. The video was released this weekend at Blizzcon, the annual celebration of games made by Blizzard Entertainment, and focuses on the upcoming game’s ‘Push’ PvP mode. In the video, a fairly generic robot NPC utters the following, “Who’s ready to push? I am.” The dialog, but not the delivery, is very similar to the combat bark, “Who’s ready to fly on a zipline? I am.” which is a signature line from Apex Legends player character, Pathfinder.
It’s nothing new for Blizzard to include references to other games and pop culture works as easter eggs in its games. World of Warcraft, for example, is chock full of references to other games. Including the “Arrow in the knee” line best known from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim which is, ironically, a reference itself to the Kingkiller Chronicle series of fantasy novels. The fact that Blizzard referenced a line from Apex Legends might be a sign that Respawn’s battle royal has arrived, that it is a true mainstream success.
On the other hand, Blizzard is often criticized for cribbing too heavily from its sources of inspiration. Blizzard’s Warcraft is notably similar to Games Workshop’s Warhammer in terms of style at the very least. Overwatch shares some core gameplay DNA with Team Fortress 2. Starcraft, arguably, stands on the shoulders of a lot of real-time strategy games that came before. Diablo is, in some ways, a distillation of the isometric western RPG genre. Heroes of the Storm doesn’t exactly break the mold of what you’d expect from a MOBA which, in fairness, is already a genre not known for originality.
This may also be a much more benign case of two development teams mutually appreciating each other’s work. A theory supported by the inclusion of a skin for Pathfinder in Apex Legends that remakes the plucky bot in the image of Overwatch’s Bastion.
Still, be on the lookout for the next Overwatch character, Waypointer, a happy go lucky omnic who sets up their patented ‘slide ropes’ to provide a totally new and one hundred percent unique way to traverse the environment.
Source: Reddit