Anyone with even the faintest connection to gaming has by now been exposed to the fleet of anger and bitterness towards Blizzard’s Overwatch character Bastion. This little robot has raised the ire of certain players who claim that he is overpowered or boring. They complain that he always gets the play of the game and remark that he needs no skill to use.

When I got the chance to play Overwatch in the open beta I was instantly drawn to Bastion. He is a cute, nature loving robot who doubles as a Gatling gun and communicates using Walle like beeps. And it is true that he is a very straight forward character that anybody can play. He can heal himself and can rip through characters in seconds in his turret form. I really enjoyed using him.

But to anybody who thinks that he is overpowered, you clearly don’t understand how to play Overwatch. When set up in the right place against the right people, sure, Bastion can wipe out enemies left and right and this will be what is shown in the play of the game. What you don’t see is the excruciatingly slow movement speed that leaves you watching the rest of your team run off without you at the start of the game or the lonely times sat waiting in a chosen location for enemies to show up. It doesn’t show the massive amounts of 1v1 battles where you are outmatched or all of the (pretty easy) counters for the turret form. For Bastion players it is very much about a game’s worth of patience for a few seconds of slaughter.

Genji is the devil incarnate for Bastion players with his ability to deflect bullets back at the shooter. Widowmaker can snipe him from a safe distance and anybody can deal critical damage if they come up behind him in turret form. Hell, my biggest moments of frustraition playing the game have come from times where I have played Bastion against players who know how to deal with him. I learned from that too. Watching how players messed my Bastion up so easily made it so I knew how to deal with enemy Bastions. And that is how Overwatch should be played. Every character has other characters they are weak to. Adaptability is key.

But the point of my writing this is that I almost am made to feel shamed for choosing to play as my favourite character because of his reputation. That when I do well it is because I am a scrub using an OP character rather than just having a good round. I played twelve games in a row yesterday and a Bastion got play of the game in only one of them. All of the chat comments were still “Who saw that coming, Bastion PotG”, “F*****g Bastion” and the like.

I’m going to end this piece with some advice from my time playing Dark Souls and anybody who hates Bastion should consider it. Don’t get angry, git gud.

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