'Overwatch' has a new playable support character in Brigitte Lindholm

Brigitte Lindholm joins "Overwatch's" hero roster.Blizzard

Blizzard's first-person shooter game "Overwatch" has released its 27th hero, the first to be introduced this year. The new playable character is Brigitte Lindholm, and she is now available for players using the game's Windows PC version. Brigitte comes with her own custom-built armor as well as a special set of skills that can make her valuable to her team.

According to the story of "Overwatch," Brigitte is the daughter of Torbjörn Lindholm, the famed weapon maker and engineer. Brigitte grew up working with her father in his workshop, thus turning into a skilled mechanic herself. While Torbjörn was known for the weapons he built, Brigitte's specialization was building defense systems and armor.

Brigitte was first introduced as a character in November of last year in the animated "Overwatch" short, "Honor and Glory."

Even though Brigitte's reveal was meant to be a surprise, Blizzard had been dropping clues that she was set to be the game's new hero. One clue was a letter from Torbjörn and another was an image showing what looked like sketches for Brigitte's shield and weapons.

Brigitte's primary weapon is her Rocket Flail, which has an extended range despite its classification as a melee weapon. The Flail also allows Brigitte to heal her allies when it causes damage to enemies.

Another ability allows Brigitte to throw Repair Packs at her allies to heal them. If a Repair Pack heals an ally beyond their maximum health, the ally then develops armor. She also carries a Barrier Shield, which absorbs damage and allows her to protect any ally standing directly behind her.

However, Brigitte's ultimate ability is Rally, which allows the character to move faster. It also provides her allies with armor that can only be removed by retaining sufficient damage.

This combination of abilities has made Brigitte quite unique as a character. Her skills make her a combination of her father and the character Reinhardt, who trained Brigitte for battle.

Brigitte is not the only recent addition to "Overwatch." Before her, Blizzard added another support character named Moira to the game. Blizzard also released a new map called "Blizzard World," which is basically like a virtual theme park that includes features from a number of Blizzard games.

Brigitte became available on Blizzard's Public Test Region on Feb. 27. However, only users of the Windows PC version will be able to access the character. There is currently no announcement on when Brigitte will become available for Xbox One or PlayStation 4 users.