I was watching some Duke Nukem 3D, where the Shrinker is a potent weapon when combined with Duke’s size-13 boots. It’s so satisfying to stomp an Octobrain into a fine red paste.

Now, while I don’t think Blizzard would want to let us stomp on any of its heroes like a bug (too messy), the idea of a shrinking ray would be downright amusing. Just picture hitting Reinhardt with it and reducing him to a quarter of his size, complete with him saying “Now I know how Torbjorn feels.” It wouldn’t last forever, but it’d make him much less of a threat for a little while.

As for a reason for it existing in Overwatch’s lore? Easy: nanotech research. Think about how The Atom (aka Ray Palmer) makes use of it in DC Comics, both as a superhero and as a researcher. Being able to shrink stuff down would also have all sorts of applications on a story level, but as for who would use it in combat? That’s a little trickier to figure out.

What’s your opinion on the subject? Would there be any place for a Shrinking Ray in Overwatch’s gameplay? And if so, how would you design it?