‘Overwatch’ Doomfist Abilities and Gameplay: Orisa is a perfect matchup, for 1 awesome reason

Overwatch has always done a surprisingly good job of conveying story through all sorts of extra materials — comics, animated shorts, etc. — that exist in the margins. But with the addition of Doomfist, Blizzard’s managed to convey lore through something else entirely: the interactions between two characters’ abilities.

In short, it turns out that the tank hero Orisa is a direct counter to the newly unveiled Doomfist — and the reason why is a manifestation of the two heroes’ backstories. Get ready to have your mind blown.

Orisa is a direct counter to Doomfist — and the reason is rooted in Overwatch lore

In the time leading up to the release of Orisa, Blizzard told the story of Efi Oladele, a young, genius inventor. After winning a “genius grant,” Efi witnessed a terrorist attack at the Numbani airport carried out by the notorious criminal Doomfist. It’s worth noting that at this time, we, as an audience, had no idea what Doomfist could do — all we saw was the aftermath of his attack. Immediately thereafter, Efi got to work on Orisa, a souped-up OR-15 defense robot with special abilities.

In March, Blizzard released Orisa as a playable character. Overall, she was well-received, but it’s been noted that her abilities are essentially remixed versions of the abilities of other heroes. Her abilities were cool, but they didn’t create quite the same stir that Sombra’s did, for example.

But then, on July 6, Blizzard finally unveiled Doomfist, an offense hero whose strengths lie in knocking enemies around at close range — and Orisa’s abilities suddenly make so much sense.

Her “fortify” ability protects her against all of Doomfist’s knock-back abilities; her graviton charges can pull Doomfist away from her and her allies; and her long-range gun can mow him down before he has a chance to unleash his fists of fury.

In short, Efi seems to have literally designed Orisa to be an anti-Doomfist machine after seeing what he could do at the Numbani airport.

Blizzard hasn’t said they designed the two heroes to interact in this way, but it’s hard to imagine it wasn’t intentional. Regardless, it’s made me appreciate Orisa — and Blizzard’s eye for subtle storytelling — on a whole new level.

More Overwatch news and updates

For more on Overwatch, check out the rest of what Mic has to offer. Here is an intro to the cute, new “Wholesome Overwatch” subreddit, a look at some gorgeous Overwatch-themed PS4 and Xbox One controllers, a cool Easter Egg in the new Horizon Lunar Colony map and a criticism of Blizzard’s failures in its design of Symmetra.