Like any competitive multiplayer games, Overwatch has seen plenty of character metas come and go as Blizzard continues to tweak and balance the game. Characters like Reaper, Lucio, Bastion, and Pharah got their moment in the sun for players looking dominate the DPS or support role. A new clip making the rounds on social media is giving longtime players flashbacks to when Symmetra was one of the most powerful characters available, despite being a support hero.
Overwatch launched in 2016 as Blizzard's first truly new IP since StarCraft in 1998 and was the first competitive shooter game the studio had ever made, building on the work of the canceled game Titan and other hero shooters like Team Fortress 2. The game featured a colorful roster of heroes for players to use in 6v6 objective-focused multiplayer matches where hero choice and good team composition was a must to secure victory. Since then, the game has added more traditional multiplayer modes like free-for-all and team deathmatch alongside seasonal PvE events to offer a break from the competitive multiplayer, something which is set to be expanded in Overwatch 2.
As mentioned above, a game like Overwatch has seen plenty of character-focused metas due to the sheer amount of balancing Blizzard needs to do during a roughly six-year lifespan. Symmetra sits among one of the earlier support character metas in the game's life thanks to her spawnable turrets, teleporter, and her light-beam gun which did increased damage the longer it was fired. The clip from Reddit user catgrease highlights just how powerful Symmetra was, getting a 5-player kill streak in relatively quick fashion thanks to her charged gun.
The charged beam was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to Symmetra, though, as her support abilities made her invaluable on defense during Overwatch's early days. Her mini-turrets would regularly plague players at the start of games as they could easily be placed around spawn gates and pester the offensive team. The teleporter was also a pain for the opposing team to deal with as the game's original spawning system was much more flexible, and when combined with the turrets, could be a nightmare in some matches.
It's not to say that Symmetra could have another moment in the sun, though with how the roster has grown and at least two new characters on the way, it could be some time before that happens. Players appear more curious about the overall changes on the way with Overwatch 2, such as the reduced team sizes, how new characters Sojourn and the Junker Queen will play, and how those two may impact team compositions.
Overwatch is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
