What do you think of Venture in Overwatch 2?

There’s a new hero on the scene for Overwatch 2, and this weekend, the community got a chance to try out Venture before they officially join the game’s lineup of damage characters in Season 10. I spent some time getting acclimated with them and so far, I’m finding the hero to be a fun addition to the roster. The kit is very satisfying, with those drill attacks feeling particularly great to land.

They really do remind me of Doomfist in action. Venture is a real brawler, getting up in enemies’ faces to push them around and wreck their lives. I used the character to pull off a couple big flank plays where I got to the backline and secured multiple kills before the enemy tank got wise to what was happening. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of those PotG moments from this hero. And bursting out of Burrow with a charged up attack is just a treat.

But at least for now, I don’t think they’ve fallen prey to the overtuning that so many new characters have at launch. The mobility skills are on just long enough of a cooldown that I felt like I needed to be intentional about their use, rather than Tracer with her stash of three blinks. That’s particularly true with the Drill Dash, where the cooldown is 8 seconds if used aboveground, but slashed to 4 seconds if used while Venture is in Burrow. While they have a high mobility potential, I do appreciate that most of Venture’s abilities include a tiny window of cast time. It might be less than a second, but that was enough for me to get burst down sometimes before I could successfully Burrow, and for me to dole out the same treatment to opposing Venture players. Plus, Venture has to be in close range to do anything, so there are plenty choices for counters picking characters with more range or their own escape tools.

Maybe it’s just my Moira bias talking, but I appreciate that Venture’s underground mechanic demands a higher focus on spatial awareness. Sure, you might keep an extra eye on the ground if there’s an enemy Junkrat causing you grief with traps, but having a Venture on either side requires you to be alert to where they may be heading and popping up. I dig that challenge (pun absolutely intended).

The tl;dr is that I think this character is loads of fun. Have any of you had a chance to try out Venture this weekend? What did you think?