Echo confirmed as 32nd Overwatch hero, origin story revealed

Echo has been officially revealed as Overwatch’s 32nd hero. 

“Introducing Echo. An evolutionary robot programmed with a rapidly adapting artificial intelligence, Echo represents the cutting edge of technology,” Overwatch tweeted. 

The android’s origin story was dropped on Wednesday morning, with the title “New Hero – Coming Soon.” It starts with Dr. Liao looking back on her life moments before her death, wondering if she did the right thing by helping create omnics for Optica Corp. She wonders if she made the world a better place because of it. 

Soldier: 76 is heard recruiting her to Overwatch, despite Dr. Liao feeling like they have every reason to doubt her. 

“But I helepd create Omnics,” she remembers saying back to him. 

“Who better to help us fight them?” Soldier responds. 

The teaser then shows Dr. Liao looking at Echo. She tells the omnic that she is her “life’s work,” her legacy and promise. Her echo. 

“You will be everything I dreamed. All I wanted, all I needed was to help the world,” Dr. Liao says, before she fades from the screen. 

This leaves Overwatch fans with an image of Echo awakening. She smiles into the camera and players see her face, recognizable from her appearance in McCree and Ashe’s “Reunion” short. In this short animation, Echo appears to be familiar with McCree, inquiring about his arm. He tells Echo that Overwatch needs her right now. 

When will Echo be released in Overwatch? 

Before today, fans were expecting Echo to arrive in the game alongside the launch of Overwatch 2, which Blizzard still hasn’t revealed a release date for. Now it’s clear that Echo will be part of the existing title. The developers haven’t stated when. 

It’s more than likely Echo will appear on the PTR this Thursday. 

Blizzard has been teasing Echo’s arrival all week on social media. One of their most revealing tweets had been a “corrupted” audio file, now quite obviously sound taken just moments before Dr. Liao’s death in the orgin story video. 

She can be heard saying, “Everyone get back. Stay down! Stay down!” in the eerie sound file. People speculated that Dr. Liao had been attempting to become an omnic herself in that moment, or that Echo may have even been a failed experiment.