With Blizzard’s Overwatch Season 3: Shion, we as players are swimming in new heroes. Five new heroes at the time of relaunch with Emre, Domina, Jetpack Cat, Anran, and Mizuki; Sierra in Season 2, and now Shion in Season 3. Shion, as a flanker in design and mobility, stands out as an excellent addition on top of most other new heroes. Yet Shion, even when she isn’t the most powerful, shines a light on Sierra’s shortcomings.
First, let’s go over why Shion is an excellent addition to the game. She’s a Japanese Omnic with deep ties to the Hashimoto clan and is an enemy of the Shimadas (Genji and Hanzo) and Kiriko. In fact, she was a training bot for the Hashimotos before taking on and eliminating anyone who’s harmed her. She’s broken, dangerous, and deadly because of her past.
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Shion’s design highlights her dark past. She’s augmented to appear more human, and has ultimately ended up as an Omnic who looks like a Yokai who’s come to exact revenge. Even more so, this season and Shion’s release highlight the danger the new era of Talon imposes on Overwatch and the world. Her voicelines highlight how unhinged she is, making her a clear threat to all who face her.
Shion rarely feels overpowered.
This anger and inhuman level of rage come through in every piece of her kit. The Dual Pistols pack a punch. Her right-click “Execution” shoots an X pattern that gets tighter the longer it’s held. The E, “Joyride,” ends with Shion throwing her motorbike wherever you aim it. A shift dodge that provides a temporary health bonus, which really helps for quick flank dives.
And finally, her ultimate, “Satsuriku Spree,” has Shion dash around firing three deadly AOE rounds while shouting loudly in Japanese. Each attack has lots of voice lines supporting it, all filled with rage, clearly conveying that Shion is deadly and will take her anger out on anyone in her way.
After playing with Shion for two weeks, she has rarely felt overpowered, like many other new heroes in hero shooters. She even got nerfed in a pretty fair way early on, reducing the bullet size for Execution to match her normal bullet size. Totally fair to standardize her kit.
Shion is a lethal flanker.
Even her perks add to the overall lore and uncanny design. She can reload through her dodge or deal more damage with her Execution. Then her major perks can either add further to her diving recovery by giving Joyride a self-heal or equip her with all four Damage subrole passives.
Simply put, Shion is a lethal flanker who can be opposed pretty handily if facing one. Accurate players may be great at poking even when going against the opposing team head-on, especially when pairing every one of her abilities (particularly the bike throwing) to allow others on their team to finish off foes.
And ultimately, even if Shion isn’t the strongest flanker or doesn’t have the most escape in her kit, she is just a blast to play. Little touches like her reload animation just add to the badassery that emanates from her at all times.
Hopefully, over time, as the story of Overwatch vs Talon gets expanded more and more.
Yet one thing is clear from playing with Shion: Blizzard dropped the ball with Sierra’s kit. At launch, Sierra seemed like a good hit-scanner and a good first-damage hero for newcomers to the role. But Sierra doesn’t have the same flourishes or finer details as Shion, Mizuki, Anran, and many other newer heroes. In fact, her overpoweredness is still a little exhausting a whole season later.
Sierra feels like a sore spot in terms of lore and execution. She is bland, which is sad to say for a hero shooter full of personality in every single one of the characters Blizzard has chosen to add to the game. Hopefully, over time, as the story of Overwatch vs Talon gets expanded more and more, particularly with the focus on having the seasons contain more story and a consistent throughline in every beat dropped with its comics, cinematics, short stories, and more throughout each season, Sierra becomes an overall better character lore-wise. But from gameplay, she still just has her auto-aim going for her.
Shion is another amazing addition to Overwatch Season 3.
Like a boulderer who uses a recon drone, Sierra does very little climbing and uses her drone infrequently, in contrast to her design that accentuates the drone’s use. This all could easily change with a good rework of her. For now, she feels like the excellent character design Blizzard has been on a roll with was lacking here.
Time will tell if Sierra can reach the greatness of every other new hero introduced in this new era of Overwatch. Yet for now, Shion is another amazing addition that adds a whole new level of play to the game. Particularly as a dangerous flanker who carries quite a punch with her impact on the lore and worldbuilding of the game. Blizzard, as the kids say, still has the sauce.
Overwatch Season 3: Shion is available now wherever you play Overwatch.
