As seems to be tradition with new hero releases in Overwatch 2, the internet was quick to take abilities and aspects of the game’s upcoming tank hero Mauga and compare them to other games.
In a post to popular content creator Asmongold’s subreddit, someone created a video suggesting that Blizzard’s new hero is a ripoff of the Paladins character Raum. Checking out a side-by-side comparison of Mauga and Raum, Asmongold didn’t seem too concerned that Blizzard created a very similar character to one from another game.
However, instead of defending Blizzard by claiming their hero is unique, the experienced gamer took an even more meta approach to addressing the situation by telling fans that it shouldn’t even matter if Overwatch 2 developers have incorporated ideas from other games into their latest hero.
“It’s close, but I don’t think it’s a one-to-one,” he said. “At least whenever they copied this homework, they made it look like it was their own, which is fine. At the end of the day, I don’t really care if they copy. I think this character looks cool to play so that’s fine, and if I played [Paladins] I’d want to play [Raum] too.”
With both Paladins and Overwatch 2 being objective-based games with characters that have numerous special abilities, this isn’t the first time that these sorts of comparisons have come up. Both games have numerous heroes that have at least a few similar abilities, and even when it comes to games from other genres, like League of Legends and Dota, it’s not out of the norm for developers to draw inspiration for a character from other titles.
What makes Mauga somewhat unique is just how long the team has been working on him and how many iterations of the hero existed in the development phase. During BlizzCon, OW2’s developers admitted that Mauga was originally supposed to be the hero that ultimately became Sigma, who was released in Aug. 2019.
Whether you think Blizzard stole some ideas from other games or not, a lot of players seem to be excited to have Mauga in Overwatch 2 as a tank that can deal massive amounts of ranged damage and help deal with aerial threats like Pharah and Echo. In the grand scheme of Overwatch 2, it seems like Mauga will help to diversify the tank role, and when he’s available at the start of season eight in December, you best believe a ton of people will be instantly picking him.
