It's been quite a ride
There is no doubt that Overwatch is one of the biggest games right now. With everything that's being going on in the Overwatch League, the addition of 5 new heroes, several maps and game modes you could say that it's a pretty big hit.
Animated Shorts
With this post I want to take a moment and reflect on the amazing Overwatch Shorts.
The first one that I would like to share is the Overwatch Cinematic Trailer, that had a collaboration form the Vancouver Film School (VFS). In this video we can see an epic introduction to Overwatch, this intro is played on the Overwatch Museum and we see two young brothers watching the exhibition. One of them is pretty excited while the other has quite and attitude. An explosion is heard and Winstons falls from the sky. He and Tracer try to defeat Reaper and Widow while protection a very important object.
I still get goosebumps from this video:
"The world could always use more heroes" Tracer
Recall
Winston is having a tough time creating his famous shield. We find him in Watchpoint Gibraltar missing the old days with the Overwatch team. News related to the Omnic Crisis is bringing him close to the point of recalling his former team. He was a flashback from his childhood on the Moon with professor Winston. An intruder alert is activated. Reaper is here...
Alive
Widowmaker is searching for a prey. By the way this character has one of the most epic and twisted original stories on the Overwatch Universe. She was brainwashed by the evil Talon group and was pushed to murder her own husband, an important Overwatch Agent. Anyways, in this short we see Widowmaker trying to murder a very important Omnic leader on King's Row. Tracer is also there and an epic battle starts. Who would win?
Dragons
This short is one of my favorites. Even though I don't main any of the Shimada Brothers, they are two hard for me, I think that they are one of the most interesting characters. A fun fact about them is that at the beginning of the development they were one character, later they decided to make two characters. Hanzo Shimada is a very serious character who is full of bitterness and sorrow, he was seeking power and he killed his brother Genji. At least that's what he thought.
A mysterious assassin approaches Hanzo as he meditates on the Shimada's Clan Castle. They both fight with great skill. Hanzo's anger rises, but he keeps being deflected by the mysterious ninja. Hanzo gets a great surprise when his opponent reveals his true identity.
Hero
This is Animated Short is special for me because it's in Dorado, Mexico! It's cool to see Mexico from the future (I live in Mexico for those of you who don't know). Alejandra a young girl goes out to the store and is robbed by some thugs from "Los Muertos" gang. She is soon involved on a fight between this criminal group and a mysterious Soldier. He manages to defeat them all and we find out that he is Soldier 76. And we all know who he is, Jack Morrison, former Commander from Overwatch. Now Alejandra knows that the heroes her mother told her are real.
The Last Bastion
This was the first Overwatch Animated Short released after the launch of the game. In a peaceful and abandoned forest a little yellow bird wants to make a new friend. The bird wakes up a robot who starts walking on the woods. Everything is peaceful and calm. The robot, which has been asleep and inactive for round 20 years is doing fine until a woodpecker activates its war mechanism and he starts shooting into the woods. The robot is following a path out of the woods and we can see a city in the distance. After tripping on a broken robot he has a very violent flashback on where it sees a part of the omnic war that was fought in Germany. Bastion starts walking towards the city with intentions of killing all humans when Ganymede (The Yellow bird) changes his mind.
Infiltration
Sombra the infamous hacker is working along Reaper and Widowmaker to infiltrate Volskaya Industries in Russia. This is the first time we see the Mexican Hacker on action and I remember watching this for the first time and thinking how amazing she is. The mission is to assassinate the famous CEO Katya Volskaya. The mission doesn't go as planned, because Sombra values her more alive than dead. Sombra blackmails her and force her to become "friends" for information privileges.
Rise and Shine
Mei and his environmental team are doing climate change research on Antarctica. The results will take a little while to deliver so they decide to hibernate. Soon after she wakes up she realizes that something is really wrong. Alone and with little hope she plans to deliver the precious data to the HQ. We can see the evolution of Mei, from a weak character to a hero that defeats all odds.
Honor and Glory
Reinhardt is my favorite tank hero and I loved to see part of his origin story. We see a young, brave but stubborn hero. There is an big battle on Eichenwalde Castle and for the first time Reinhardt confronts someone he can't defeat. The battle is tougher than expected and this becomes a turning point on Reinhardt's life.
This are all the Overwatch Animated Shorts so far. I can't wait to see more stories from the Overwatch Universe. There are a lot of great characters left that have great potential. Imagine a movie made with the quality of these animated shorts, that would be great.
Overwatch also has several comics and origin stories for all the characters. Comment if you would like to see a post about this.
Which was your favorite Animated Short? Comment below!