‘Overwatch’ Art Director Reveals Bastion Used To Fly

(Photo: Blizzard)

According to Overwatch’s Assistant Art Director, Arnold Tsang, Bastion once was able to fly. That’s right, Overwatch’s loveable turret originally had the magical power of flight.

Speaking to Gamerant, Tsang revealed that Blizzard originally had a much different design for Bastion.

“Bastion used to be able to fly – we tried a lot of different things for his ultimate,” said Tsang.

Tsang seems to imply that perhaps Bastion only could fly when he used his ultimate. I like to believe that he had hidden wings that only appeared when he busted out his ultimate? That sounds awesome. Or maybe he could fly all the time. Unfortunately, Tsang doesn’t provide any more specifics on the matter.

What he did reveal though is that Bastion also at one point featured a front facing shield, which was eventually scrapped before the game released during a series of balancing adjustments.

However, before Blizzard took Bastion’s shield away, it provided him with a big, 1000HP cover that protected his front. However, in order to use it, players would have to sacrifice mobility, because when active Bastion could only turn 60 degrees.

For those that remember, back when the game first released on May 24, 2016, many complained about Bastion being over-powered and sometimes game-breaking. And he was, to an extent, in other words, if you were on a team that didn’t know how to properly counter him (which was many for awhile) then he could be a nightmare on certain maps, at certain chokepoints, and with certain characters around him.

That said, imagine if he had a shield and could fly everywhere? Imagine how much of a nightmare he would have been? It would have been cataclysmic, though how cataclysmic, we’ll never know. Probably not as bad as a Torbjorn with wings.

Overwatch is available for PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One. To date, there is no word of a Nintendo Switch release. But if you know anything about the Nintendo Switch, never count it out for a port. Ever.

Anyway, for more news, information, and media on Overwatch, be sure to peep our previous — and regularly updated — coverage of the team-based multiple shooter by clicking right here.