Shield Guy

"Shield Guy" was a Talon mini-hero intended to appear in Overwatch Retribution, pitched by artist Qiu Fang. He was heavily armored, with a projected shield and a beam weapon. However, the team had trouble making the design cohere&mdash;it was too abstract, lacking a clear role like "sniper" or "brawler." Despite all its power and versatility, it had a lot of overlap with other members of the Talon response squad. On the game design side, the beam didn’t feel right in playtests, and his silhouette didn’t render him easily identifiable.

Fang made a number of sketches to try and maintain the existing gameplay. Furthermore, if Shield Guy was meant to be part of a fast threat-response squad, it was asked whether a shield would slow them down, especially when the squad was already capable of taking cover.