[Rant] Storm Rising is simply badly designed

Story Discussion
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The Archives missions are maybe the only bits of lore we get; So why is it that they are not designed to actually deliver a story?

I just don’t get it; Storm Rising ends with Mercy asking Max for “an introduction”, then jumpcuts to the scene of Doomfist in Egypt. When you watch the scenes, you finish with one thought: “well, wtf does this mean”?

This is because you learn nothing about the story. You chase an Omnic bad guy which you know nothing about, you catch him, and he tells you - nothing. Next scene, Doomfist talking to an Omnic bad guy, turns over to him, and he tells you - you got it, nothing.

But here’s the kicker: there’s a huge story reveal in the Storm Rising event! There’s only one problem though - it’s not in the game. To be honest, it’s not even on the Overwatch website, and not on their Youtube channel as well.

The biggest lore reveal of Storm Rising was made in a single, random tweet on the Overwatch account, labeled as “STORM RISING INTEL EXAMINATION – MAXIMILIEN”. There, a bomb drops! Maximilien was the one to rat Doomfist out! A betrayal within the lines of Talon cost Doomfist years upon years in prison. When I found this piece, I was in awe; It was interesting! An actual development of the story.

But how many people have seen this single tweet?
How many people did not?
How much of the game’s playerbase didn’t watch this?
Hell, I love OW lore and I barely found this.

Why is it so that the most important, interesting reveal in Storm Rising, an Archives mission that is supposed to focus on the story, is not even in the game itself?
It’s not supposed to be a secret - it was posted on Twitter, for 20k likes.

Storytelling wise, Storm Rising is simply badly designed.

3 Likes
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The storytelling isn’t much different from how it was in previous events. The only difference here is that the climate was much more light-hearted and the overall effect of this mission was on a smaller scale. It wasn’t as compelling as Retribution, but neither was Uprising really.

It definitely seems like a filler story that didn’t really need to be told, but I get the feeling they wanted to show us these four characters and how they relate to each other, as we’ll be seeing more of them together post-recall eventually. If I had to pick four Protagonists for an Overwatch story, it’d be them. To that end, Storm Rising serves a purpose.

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It was kinda obvious from the first even teasers, no?

3 Likes
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I kinda believe that Max and Akande lured them for a fight in Singapore. They knew that Mercy has to stay to help the injured after the hurricane has gone. Breaking Genjis systems in his armor and ripping off Tracers chronal accelarator was a huge stepback for OW while Talon still can be active with the Mysterious Omnic replacing Doomfist until the jailbreak.

1 Like
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Rising Storm is world set up as everything else we got to this time. All of them give us some answers and more questions. Blizzard said soon it’s end of faze 1 of Overwatch story. I think #31 hero will be the last in faze 1. The faze 2 will start #32 hero, animated short and who-knows-what-else at Blizzcon 2019.