Check out Overwatch's Zenyatta remade in StarCraft 2

Have you ever thought to yourself, "StarCraft 2 is pretty great, but what it really needs is some Overwatch?" If so, then allow me to direct your attention to the redditor ZeShmoutt, who has recreated the Omnic monk Zenyattta in Blizzard's interstellar RTS.

The StarCraft-rendered Zenyatta, which uses a model created in 2015 by Taylor Mouse, appears to bring all the Overwatch talents to the table, including Orbs of Destruction, Discord, and Harmony, and Zen's ultimate, Transcendance. And they seem to work much as they do in Zenyatta's home game: Transcendance, for instance, appears to grant invulnerability, increased movement speed, and an area healing effect, just as it does in Overwatch.

ZeShmoutt said "not that much" effort was required to make the character. "You just need to understand how all pieces work (actors, units, effects, abilities, behaviors, validators, and so on), and how to combine them. I've used the editor somewhat regularly since Wings of Liberty's release in 2010, so the only "hard" part was figuring out how to recreate the abilities," they wrote in the Overwatch subreddit. "The abilities themselves took around one afternoon that slightly overflowed into the evening, and adding more visual and audio feedback added another couple of hours."

It's not likely that we'll see Zenyatta squaring off against the Zerg anytime soon, but as ZeShmoutt pointed out in the Heroes of the Storm subreddit, HotS and StarCraft 2 "share the same engine and editor." ZeShmoutt also noted separately (and, I would assume, hopefully) that they are available for hire.

PRODUCTS

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.