Blizzard shows off new Overwatch 2 hero, a Scottish Phreak called Hazard, in slick anime trailer

A new Overwatch 2 hero is just over the horizon, and we’re getting a new tank this time, a Scottish Phreak named Hazard

Activision Blizzard

A new Overwatch 2 hero is just over the horizon, and we’re getting a new tank this time, a Scottish Phreak called Hazard. Blizzard showed Hazard in sort-of action in a new anime trailer where he and his fellow Phreaks infiltrate a Helix facility in Oasis, but you’ll get to try him out in the multiplayer game soon enough.

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From Nov. 22, 2024, through Nov. 25, 2024, you can test Hazard for yourself and see how he plays, a trial that’ll help Blizzard fine-tune the hero before his eventual launch, probably sometime in 2025. Blizzard conducted similar trials for recent heroes, including Mauga, and used that feedback to address some pretty big weak points.

The Hazard trailer shows the big fella leading a squad of Phreaks into the Helix stronghold to claim some kind of concoction that has transformative powers. Hazard and team deactivate its defenses, only for Helix to surround them, so he injects the stuff into himself and leaps into combat. Whatever the liquid is, it gives Hazard spikes that he rains down on his foes in what looks very much like an ultimate skill, but he also has a handy built-in energy gun – built into his arm.

You’d be forgiven for wondering how Hazard is a tank when he seems designed very much for frontline combat. The trailer showed none of his defensive skills, though he is absolutely massive, so perhaps he is the defense just by existing. 

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Anyway, if you’re wondering what a Phreak is, it’s the name Blizzard gave a group of vandal hackers who plagued Oasis with their technological brand of punkery. This is the first time they’ve been mentioned since a brief Hazard tease a few months back, but it’s nice to see Blizzard digging out some of the old lore to tell new stories.