Reinhardt is the bread and butter “Tank” hero within Overwatch. In the game’s lore he is one of the original members of the Overwatch team, this has been known for some time now. Recently however, we’ve been given some background info into Reinhardt’s story.
Blizzard announced a new map at Gamescom last week called Eichenwalde. They later explained that the small town and castle of the map were the site of a tremendous battle in Germany during the war against the Omnics. It was at this site that a small force of German forces called the Crusaders, including Reinhardt and his mentor (who made the ultimate sacrifice and can be found dead in the castle), managed to hold back and defeat the Omnic forces and start to create peace in Germany.
Along with this new map, we’re getting some fresh new skins for Reinhardt as well.
Balderich
This skin features Reinhardt wearing the suit of his mentor Balderich. Balderich’s suit is similar to Reinhardt’s in a lot of ways, but has more of a medieval knight feel to it. The claws on the gauntlets and the horns on the helmet make Reinhardt look rather menacing.
This skin also replaces Reinhardt’s hammer with a giant, spiked mace. Eichenwalde, the new map, has one team pushing a payload to the castle where Balderich’s body rests to retrieve his suit. So it’s pretty cool that we actually get to see Reinhardt don his former mentor’s garb.
Greifhardt
Greifhardt is basically Reinhardt’s version of Bastion’s skin “Overgrown”. It’s Balderich’s suit with years of decay, moss and plant growth on top of it — even his hammer/mace has vines growing on it. In the lore, Balderich’s body remains within the castle where his final battle took place over 30 years ago. So this skin really feels old, like the suit has been sitting around awhile.
It’s also sort of symbolic that life is growing on top of the armor of a dead warrior because even though Balderich’s life ended it was done to save the lives of others, and protect future lives. Having Reinhardt, his protege, wear that armor just brings everything full circle.
There hasn’t been a release date set yet for when these items will be dropping. However, these skins and the new map Eichenwalde are currently available to experience on the Blizzard PTR (public test realm), along with the current proposed balance changes. The new changes, items, and map from the PTR are expected to hit live servers sometime in September.
Overwatch is already available on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
