We spent some “intense hours” with the Overwatch character Roadhog. You’ll learn why it’s so much fun in this report.
Roadhog – The likable big guy with breathing problems
In the coming days and weeks, we want to report a bit more intensively on Overwatch and focus on individual characters from Blizzard’s upcoming hero shooter. Because instead of just being able to introduce the heroes through a video, we’ve now gotten a taste for it ourselves. We start with the tank Roadhog.
Roadhog, the big guy, doesn’t look like much, and I would trade him for Widowmaker or Mei at the next street corner. Still, he has become my absolute favorite. After all, it’s the inner values that count, right?
To refresh our memory, let’s take a quick look at Roadhog’s abilities:
- The shotgun has a wide spread but causes (for a tank) very high damage in close combat. In the alternative fire mode, the spread only kicks in after a few meters, making him effective at medium range as well.
- The Take a Breather ability allows Roadhog to regenerate a whopping 300 hit points over 2 seconds – that’s half of his max HP!
- The Chain Hook is thrown at a target. If it hits, the target is briefly stunned and pulled right in front of Roadhog’s gun.
- The ultimate ability Whole Hog allows Roadhog to fire a “minigun” for 9 seconds, damaging and knocking back enemies with each hit.
The tank that doesn’t want to tank
Even though Roadhog is actually described as a tank, he lacks truly defensive abilities (aside from his self-healing). He is hardly suited to charging into enemies. If you charge in with Roadhog like with Winston or Reinhardt, you often find yourself in the respawn area. No, Roadhog is best when played cautiously and sneaks up – which is not so easy given his size.
But the most satisfying moment of any match is when the Chain Hook hits. It’s that half a second when you realize that the opponent is “on the line” and the opponent knows, “Damn.” For that very brief moment, it feels as if you could look through the screen at the other player. Because what happens next is the same for almost all characters. A well-aimed hook almost always results in a precise headshot and a direct hit to the face. That takes out all offensive and support characters in 99% of cases.
The excitement about these moments is hard to put into words when you finally pull the annoying Widowmaker off her roof with the hook or drag the lousy Bastion out of his supposedly safe hideout to shoot a nice load of scrap between their eyes. The best part: You can counter almost all ultimates with it! McCree whispers again, “It’s high noon…”? Reaper rages with his “DIE! DIE! DIE!”? A hook to the face and the troublemakers are quiet. Is it brutal? A little. Is it fun? You bet!
Roadhog is fun. If you’re struggling with the fast, fragile characters like Tracer but still don’t want to be carted off to the retirement home together with Reinhardt, you should keep this character in mind or better yet, give him a chance.
Yes, Roadhog may not be the rendezvous of the century in terms of looks. But that isn’t too important because one thing you can be sure of with this big guy: He will hook you.
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