A new hero shooter is announced for the Chinese market and looks suspiciously like Overwatch. But could this Overwatch clone really trouble Blizzard's popular multiplayer shooter?

Overwatch has over 25 million players across PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and so it was only a matter of time until another game would come along to try and take its crown. One such 'rival' is the newly announced Hero Mission: a Chinese free to play mobile game that seems to borrow heavily from the Blizzard-made game and has even been called the "biggest rip-off ever" by fans. The Overwatch clone isn't available to play yet, but the similarities are quite clear by looking at its characters and its maps.

For example, there's Mechanical Angel: Sofia who is a winged healer who looks just like Overwatch's Mercy (blonde locks and all). Then there's Madman Leadon (an immortal version of Roadhog), The Last Knight: Don Quixote (Reinhardt with a sword instead of a hammer) and purple-clad character Black Widow: Natasha (Widowmaker with a different color scheme). Though that's not to say that some characters haven't seen some changes - Soldier 9527 is a combination of Overwatch's Ana and Soldier:76 and Panda Warrior: Panta is the panda version of Overwatch gorilla Winston.

The blatant copying is almost laughable and Blizzard probably doesn't have anything to worry about. Chinese players will be able to purchase Overwatch coins with real money, which is an all important change that should give fans a break from the random and unpredictable loot boxes. The lore and story of Blizzard's game also keeps people attached to Overwatch as they genuinely like the characters - something which rip-off attempts of those same characters probably cannot offer.

With that said, Blizzard has made some missteps recently that make Hero Mission a bit more appealing. For example, Overwatch dance emotes are restricted to Anniversary loot boxes, something which has caused a real upset amongst fans who do not have time to 'grind' for loot or pay real-money for loot boxes before the event ends.

It's unlikely that this will cause a mass exodus of Overwatch players, but players may find themselves interested in other games over time instead, whether that be Hero Mission or the next clone that comes along. In that case, it will be up to Blizzard to make changes to keep its players happy and glued to its games instead of anybody else's.

Overwatch is available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.