Overwatch 2 players are trying to get to the bottom of why water is so deadly in-game
BlizzardOverwatch 2 players are trying to get to the bottom of why water is so deadly in-game despite heroes being able to live on through all sorts of earth-shattering damage.
Even the weakest member of Overwatch 2’s roster is able to withstand a bomb or two. In fact, an ordinary human like Mercy is technically even able to carry on after taking a giant boulder to the face. When you stop and think about it, we really do have to suspend our disbelief a great deal.
But the one thing Overwatch 2’s characters can never seem to withstand is water. If you’ve ever played on maps like Rialto, you’d know that the moment you jump in a body of water, you die. No two ways about it, instant death.
And with no real in-game lore explaining its deadly effects, players are now questioning exactly what makes water so deadly in-game.
In a post on the Overwatch subreddit, a player asked exactly that, “In the lore what makes water so powerful?”
Further questioning in the post, “What is the lore of the water in Overwatch? Why is it so powerful compared to the heroes we play as? Could someone take over the world with a water hose?”
Lacking a proper lore explanation, others got to speculating. One player jokingly wrote, “The Overwatch organization failed to include mandatory swimming lessons in favor of cooking classes instead. A lot of them can’t swim to save their lives, but they can make some tasty biscuits.”
Another offered a more thoughtful explanation, saying, “Water could be bad for anyone with cybernetic implants, armor, Omnics, etc. Rein would sink to the bottom in a second and drown pretty quickly after that and he’s not the only one.”
Unfortunately for that explanation, characters like Ashe and Junkrat should be fine, except they are absolutely annihilated by the slight touch of water as well.
Another said of the real-life city the map is based on, Venice, “To be fair, after visiting (and smelling) Venice earlier this year, you probably would die if you fell into one of those canals.”
Of course, the real explanation is purely gameplay-driven as the devs needed a way to create out-of-bounds areas, and unfortunately, water has become extremely deadly. For now, it appears the devs aren’t rushing to provide a proper lore-based explanation to keep it all grounded. It’s just a fact we’ll all have to accept.