One veteran Overwatch player has dug up an old clip showing off Symmetra when she was at her most powerful during the early years of the first Overwatch. With the Overwatch community constantly growing, it's not uncommon for many new players to be unaware of just how powerful some of the game's heroes used to be.
Symmetra certainly isn't the only example of an over-tuned character being brought down to a more reasonable level of power. Many other heroes, such as Torbjorn, Bastion, and Mercy have all seen substantial changes to their abilities over the years since they were first introduced, and many more heroes have seen almost total overhauls to their kits in Overwatch 2. Symmetra has gone through more changes than most since her introduction in 2016, having her original moving barricade replaced with a constructible short-range teleport and even having her old Ultimate replaced with the ability to cast a huge, map-spanning barricade wall.
The clip was shared on Reddit by the user Vossel_, showing some Symmetra defense gameplay on the Temple of Anubis map. Before the round begins, the player is seen setting up all 6 turrets near the enemy spawn room and firing a couple of projectiles toward the door just as the match begins. Even the player is surprised to see an almost immediate quadruple kill, wiping out over half of the enemy team within the first few seconds. Just the power of the six mini turrets alone is seen to be enough to eliminate a single target almost instantly.
While Symmetra remained in this state for quite a while during the course of the original game, it's no wonder that Blizzard eventually reduced her maximum turret count to three. Being able to fill a room with tiny turrets made the hero top-tier for defense objectives, and the community even invented the term "microwaving" as a way of naming the strategy. Not only that, Symmetra's primary weapon used to be one of the most damaging in the game, even having the ability to lock onto targets to some extent, which largely removed the need to aim.
While most fans are relieved that they no longer have to deal with Symmetra in her prime, many share the same nostalgia for the early days of the shooter where some heroes had crazier abilities than they do now. Though Symmetra's original Ultimate ability allowed her to fabricate either a shield generator for the whole team or a teleporter which allowed players on the same team to teleport from a spawn point, it seems the benefits provided by the character proved to give a team too much of an advantage. Even so, many players urge the developers to introduce a mode that allows players to revisit some of the crazier times of the game, perhaps as a mode in Overwatch 2's Arcade area.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
