Overwatch: Declassified reviews?

Story Discussion
1

Hello,

I’m considering buying “Overwatch: Declassified”, but I’m not sure if it is worth it. I don’t want to purchase it if it’s mostly just a big encyclopedia of the lore already available on the comics, short stories, etc.

So, if anyone here has bought it: does it bring a lot of new lore/information, and would you consider it well written?

Thank you

EDIT: Sorry I just noticed that only the French version has been released yet. I assumed the English one would be as well.

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If it’s under $30 is probably worth it.

Over that, I’d just wait for the price to drop.

3

Just saw this and I can wholeheartedly recommend the book. It does not just tread old ground. It introduces tons of new lore, especially pre-Crisis and during the Crisis. It lays a lot of potential groundwork for new story. And it doesn’t give everything away (i.e. the mystery of what happened to the Swiss headquarters is maintained).

As an Overwatch lore nerd, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book.

4

Ok, here’s what I think: it’s a book made by someone who actually knows what he’s talking about.

Advantages:

  • it is a well written book, with chapters dedicated entirely to the lore before, during and after the omnic crisis. It introduces factions never specified before very well, such as the Ironclad, the ecopoints, and the technological importance on all fronts (exploration space, prosthetics, etc.). There are entire pages that very well develop the technology visible in Esperanca, and other small innovations never mentioned before seen with OW2. It’s definitely not a “recap” like the Genesis shorts;
  • delves into some military backstories of the first Overwatch task force quite well: ana, torbjorn, soldier, reyes and reinhardt. various mentions also for Sojourn, although I highly recommend a combo reading with the book dedicated to her;
  • The political aspect is not ignored: there is a lot of talk about Gabrielle Adawe and the foundation of Overwatch, there is also talk about the formation of Junkertown, or how the Petras Act developed in a more detailed way;
  • The book ends with short paragraphs that summarize what happened in OW1, such as the Rio Vishkar uprising, the doomfist escape, the omnic attacks in Russia and South Korea, and obviously Winston’s recall.
  • What I appreciated most is that they take notable teasers written over the years on Overwatch’s Twitter and put them into context. there are even notions of characters that have been lost in community speculation.
  • Last but not least, the printing of the book is of the highest quality;

Disadvantages:

  • it is essential not to think that it could be a book that provides dates: it does not specify how many years pass between one event and another. like “5 years later, 10 years later, in 2077”… there’s none of that in chronological terms;
  • Generally, it does not tell the details that were deliberately left in mystery by the Blizzard team such as the explosion in Switzerland, while most of the new names it introduces seem more related to non-combatant political figures or those who are no longer alive in the present of OW2.
  • The book specifies all the info after the closure of Overwatch onwards in a fairly cautious way, preferring to focus on the organizations rather than the characters in the roster. They probably don’t want to create too many conflicts with the development of the narrative of any new heroes in the future (as has already happened with Kiriko and her biological age with the Shimada brothers);
  • In my opinion Blizzard is making two big mistakes in spreading this book, not allowing for greater localization (the only alternative language is French) nor a more convenient kindle version for those who live far from Anglo-Saxon countries. and I’m especially sorry not to have seen any kind of advertising from blizzard about the book, almost as if only the most passionate fans should be looking for it.
  • The purpose of the book is not even to put a real chronological order to all the OW1 media (from recall), and it absolutely does not specifically mention what happens with zero hour (probably let the PVE do it);
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