There were a lot of great changes enacted in Overwatch’s rework: dropping the ‘2’, a new UI, and a revamp to how content is released. But my favourite change had to be the recentering of Overwatch’s story when it comes to content updates.
Over the years, at least since Doomfist was introduced, Overwatch slowed down on making major strides with its story, other than adding new heroes. This happened for many reasons, but I always thought that Team 4 was in a pretty difficult position when it came to Overwatch and Talon duking it out. This is mainly because, in order to have meaningful progression, some characters may have to suffer. How do you go about killing off a playable character when the story and game are so inextricably linked together? Beats me.
Well, it now seems like Team 4 found the answer: just throw ’em into a foggy pit. Doomfist’s fate is as yet undetermined, and while he’s probably not dead, this cinematic marked the biggest move forward for Overwatch’s story we’ve seen for a very long time.
Article continues below
It also marked the start of the new narrative, Overwatch’s Reign of Talon story arc in which Vendetta takes over command of Talon pushing Reaper, Widowmaker, and Sombra to separate themselves from the group and head elsewhere.
Overwatch’s story has always been one of my favourite parts of this game. I’ve been very happy with just keeping up with the digital comics for the time being, but this move to being narrative-first seemed almost too good to be true. So much so that I was waiting for it to slip between the cracks.
Watch On
But it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen, at least not yet. As Sierra, the new DPS hero just got her cinematic, and it’s not just some spinoff to introduce her character, no, it weaves her into the ongoing narrative and continues where Reign of Talon left off.
The Summit Breach hero picks up after Vendetta becomes the leader of Talon and gathers some new operatives to Talon, one of which being another new DPS, Emre. It also follows on from one of the recent comics, Vengeance Comes, in which Talon plans the incoming attack on Watchpoint: Grand Mesa, an old Overwatch outpost which is now run by Helix.
If that sounds familiar, then you’ve been paying attention. When Sierra was first teased, players theorised that she could be part of Helix, a global security force and Overwatch’s ‘replacement’ thanks to the small logo on her jacket, and they were correct.
The first we see of Sierra is her, on behalf of Helix, intercepting Emre on his mission to steal something from Grand Mesa’s vault. A fight ensues and unfortunately she doesn’t come out on top, mostly thanks to getting third-partied by Freyja.
But there’s so much more going on in Overwatch currently. With the Deadlock gang setting up an attack on the Powder Keg Mine map to act as a distraction for Talon’s break into Grand Mesa, or Team 4 changing Watchpoint: Gibraltar’s map to reflect the damage it took when Talon attacked Overwatch at the beginning of this season.
Overwatch has always had fantastic stories running in the background, and I do enjoy the standalone hero cinematics, but I’ve always preferred when they reflect the hero’s place in the larger story. One of my favourite and most impactful cinematics to date was Doomfist’s intro trailer. It was a style of cinematic that became less common in the following years.
But now, after the rework, it feels like Overwatch’s story has been put front and centre again, just where it should be. And now I get to enjoy a game that I love that also feels lived in.
Read the full article here
