What you need to know
- Overwatch 2’s Bastion was temporarily removed from both Competitive and Quick modes shortly after launch on October 10, with Torbjorn removed from Competitive only.
- The exploits available with Bastion and Torbjorn’s Ultimates have apparently been fixed and they’ll be storming back into the game on October 25.
- The bug fix will have taken Blizzard over two weeks to rectify.
As with any other launch, Overwatch 2’s blast onto the scene on 4 October didn’t come without its hiccups. Two particularly game-breaking bugs lead to Torbjorn and Bastion being removed from competitive play. In addition to this, Bastion was removed from the game completely without a trace on October 10. We finally have word today on when Bastion and Torbjorn will be returning to Overwatch 2, as Jon Spector, Overwatch commercial leader, tweeted out this message:
Good news, everyone. Bastion and Torbjorn have been located in Junkertown, and we are arranging for them to rejoin the other agents of Overwatch on 10/25.October 19, 2022
Bastion and Torbjorn will be returning to Overwatch 2, all game modes, on October 25. Their return comes along with the re-enabling of Junkertown which was also removed from all game mode queues due to some graphic performance issues. Blizzard hasn’t expanded on why, what was originally penned to be a short fix, has taken so long — or indeed why Bastion was scrubbed from existence in the game all together. Bastion was made unavailable in all game modes, the cosmetics screen, and even in the training environment.
Both bugs caused game-breaking advantages with the use of Bastion and Torbjorn’s Ultimates. Bastion’s artillery Ultimate allows players to fire three devastating artillery shells at any location on the Overwatch 2 map, and the bug in question was being exploited to manipulate the timer on this Ultimate. Players could launch up to 20 artillery shells onto unsuspected enemies and cause complete chaos – death truly did rain from above.
Torbjorn’s issues weren’t quite as destructive, providing a slight advantage with his Overload ability that doubled the window of extra health and firing speed from his Ultimate. It appears with this announcement though that Blizzard is confident the issues are fixed, and Bastion and Torbjorn will be available to play again, along with the Junkertown map on October 25. Turret lovers rejoice!
Check our full review of Overwatch 2 here.
