Hivemind is a hero that was created for the pitch meeting for Prometheus, which became Overwatch. Her design is taken from unused Titan concept art.^[1] A terrorist with the same name was later referenced in Overwatch: Declassified - An Official History.^[2]

She had the following abilities:

• Lightning gun
• Disable
• EMP pulse

Story

In the last few years of the Overwatch organization, Hivemind, a known terrorist, struck the Palacio de López in Paraguay, taking multiple high-profile hostages during the Asunción Global Security Summit. She leveraged her drone technology to counter security forces and contain hostages while she was locked in a room with proprietary security data. In the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the building, Hivemind held fifty hostages. Reinhardt Wilhelm, who was dispatched to the situation, was ordered by his commanding officer to wait while negotiators were called in to handle the terrorist. As he was preparing to follow this order, Hivemind began eliminating hostages. Wilhelm deduced that obeying his orders would lead to further loss of life. With full support from his team, he refused the order and led the charge to initiate a rescue.^[3]

In the resulting incursion, forty-seven lives were saved, but Hivemind escaped with the data she sought, using the hostages as a distraction. While many in Overwatch praised Reinhardt's actions as heroic, the militaries of various nations at the summit demanded reparations for the stolen data and an accounting for why Reinhardt disobeyed orders. In the end, Jack Morrison and Vivian Chase had to forcefully retire Reinhardt since Overwatch couldn't act unbound by red tape and borders as they had during the Omnic Crisis.^[3]

Trivia

• Hivemind's Disable and EMP pulse may have inspired Sombra's Hack and EMP abilities, while her color scheme bears a resemblance to Moira. Her facial features and armor, with a bulky component behind the shoulders and a head covering extending from the back, are similar to the design of Sigma.

References