When Overwatch was originally announced, two characters seemed to take the lead in terms of character popularity polls, one was Tracer, and the other was the ever lovable giant gorilla, Winston. As soon as I saw that dumb adorable giant floof ball I knew I had to play Overwatch, and luckily he ended up being one of my favourite characters to play.
Winston originally grew up in the space station, ‘The Horizon Lunar Colony’, where he was part of a genetically enhanced group of gorillas. Over time he became the most gifted of the group, and was taken under the wing of Dr. Harold Winston, who acted as a father to the little monkey, teaching him science and the wonders of the earth. Eventually the other gorillas grew violent and took over the station, killing all the scientists and leaving Winston to flee to earth in a makeshift rocket. Now on earth, Winston joined Overwatch, where he hoped to see the beauty of humanity he came to learn about in his childhood.
Winston is best described as a support tank, using shield abilities, a tesla cannon and a mighty temper to annihilate the enemy team. With a fairly small amount of health, Winston relies on using barrier protectors to shield himself and his teammates from damage. While these shields do act as a good defence, Winston isn’t afraid of getting some damage in to the enemy team, using his tesla cannon to damage enemies, even shooting through their shields. Winston is also equipped with a jump pack that allows him to lunge himself through the air to damage and stagger enemies, or can simply be used to quickly get out of danger. Winston’s special ability is primal rage, where he embraces his inner animal and goes on a rampage, boosting his health and attack.
The biggest difficulty when playing Winston for me had to be his health gauge. I often forgot that Winston is less of a meaty tank than Reinhardt or D.Va, so whenever I jumped into combat, I quickly found myself being killed quicker than I would have thought. Due to Winston’s more defense and buffing nature as a tank, he can sometimes become a little bit of a glasshouse, as if he gets damaged too quickly he is as good as dead. Luckily with his tesla cannons ability to cut through enemy shields, he can shoot from behind defences and chip away enemy damage slowly until he uses his jump pack to wipe out any stragglers.
The minute I saw Winston I knew I had to play as him, not that I have a thing for big adorable gentle giants or anything. Through my fascination with this big dumb cutie I ended up really liking my time with Overwatch and enjoying more characters like Tracer, Lucio and D.Va , but Winston will always be the mascot of the game for me.
Hurry up with those Winston plushes Blizzard, I will buy several.
