I am asking what was that “thing” that captivated you and initiated you into the bottomless pit of digging into the lore. Was it a character, a cinematic, a voiceline… or anything? For me it was when I heard the song for Watchpoint: Gibraltar, and just that map in general. (I got the game in 2018 and didn’t know there were cinematics or anything- my friend who got it with me and I assumed there would be a campaign mode like most games lol). It is a beautiful song full of both nostalgia and hope but also very wistful. Something about it just matches the sunset and the empty halls of the Overwatch base on the map as well - like the sun is setting on the old era of overwatch and on the past. It made me want to look up what the game is even about, and the rest is history.
I didnt know there was lore at first. But then I heard voice lines implying that so I was like. OOH and then started reading it. If theres lore for a game I’m gonna read it
the retribution event in general
oh, and mccrees backstory (before ashe release, i still like it, but disagree with how they went with deadlock lol)
also the mccree and mercy interaction,
Mercy: You know, smoking’s bad for your health
McCree: Well, I got faith you can get me patched back up, doc.
was the first interaction I heard in game and didn’t know that the characters had character (came from siege where character wise is all in their trailer shorts)
The Alive cinematic is what grabbed my attention. Dragons is what got me invested. The music, the atmosphere, the conflict, Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa/Shang Tsung (who I now know is their father) narrating the mirroring story of the dragon gods, everything was excellent. And of course, I thought the concept of two ninja brothers that can summon dragons was just cool. However, I actually wasn’t into the whole “cyberpunk” robot ninja look of Genji at first. Then I played Metal Gear Rising for the first time and I did a complete 180.
I didn’t want to play a FPS - but my SO did so I watched the shorts, (probably Dragons was the one that catch my attention - but I also loved Recall and Hero), I read the comics, the biographies and I only started playing with Uprising because it was PVE - I guess that’s when I really got inversted in lore!
But Moira and later Retribution had a HUGE impact in my investment and made me started theorizing and joining the forums
Good topic to talk TBH
Well… I got really bored by playing 1111h of Team Fortress 2 so I were looking for smiliar but new experience. I love cartoon style and science fiction stories. So it went natural way.
Sombra’s “Infiltartion”. One of the best character designs in Overwatch, one of the most charming voice performances, great dialogue… and the BooP to sell it off. Her character really got me interested in the game.
tracer and winston in the 1st cinematic with out seeing and hearing either of them be heroes in that and get more story i would have never gotten into overwatch.
Good != Filler. The Last Bastion was good, but it was not very impactful in the main story. It has to do with Bastion/Torb’s storyline, but so far it could have never happened and not effected the main story.
Hero/Shooting Star are pure filler. The rest are events related to Recall, or Infiltration which was tied to Talon’s expansion. I can agree with you on Shooting Star, but the last 2 shorts we got, Reunion and Zero Hour, are pretty core to the overall story.
It’s a work of art imho, and it’s an amazing short movie, and the fact that it shows a robot gaining empathetic conscience is the biggest story development this game has ever seen.
Reunion and Zero hour + shooting star I don’t even see as stories, they are just subplots in in an omnics vs humans plotline (that’s vague af)
Stories? nah story is character, and character development, not plot development per-say.
Those shorts are just tear jerking hero teasers and commercials. With action, explosions and over the top orchestra to cover for one-dimensionalism and cheese in their characters.
Reunion was fun at least. Fun and entertaining for it’s purpose, but I wouldn’t call that a story
I think the problem is that you are viewing the plotline as omnics vs humans. The plot for most of the shorts has been about Winston recalling Overwatch.
Recall was him sending out the message.
The Cinematic Trailer was their debut post-Recall.
Alive, Dragons, Rise and Shine, Honour and Glory, and Reunion were all responses to Recall. (Also the short stories Valkyrie and What You Left Behind)
The Last Bastion, Hero and Shooting Star were filler that didn’t really do much for the story.
/Gasp, how dare you put Bastion in the same basket with those 2
Joking aside
If somebody on the street asked me what is Overwatch about I’d say:
"It’s basically humans vs robots, millitary corp vs millitary corp vs science corp turned milliatry corp, and overwatch is one of those millitary coprs but it got shut down and is now getting back together to fight the evil robots who god knows what they want.
Some robots want to mingle with society and be accepted as one of them, some humans/nations are against that yadayada.
And the whole lore is presented through a series of shorts in which one of Overwatch agents (a monkey from the moon) tries to get them all back together to fight the bots, which is then used as a way to promote new released heroes and see playable heroes in action as a form of commercial for the game.
And this part is just my personal take: Used to be super charming and goofy with colorful original characters and now it’s a tryhard avengers copy that somehow manages to be more cheesy than the avengers themselves…
If I were honest I think that when players said they want PVE, they meant something like an mmo or a campaign, but the thing with overwatch (and not unlike some other games) any story they put out is always going to serve the gameplay, it’s going to be action for gameplay sake and not gameplay for story sake.
I’m not saying that’s bad, but it does get old quickly, the story part, cuz it’s unimportant for the game. It can be completely unbelievable and shallow and it doesn’t matter cuz the gameplay will dictate the longevity of the game. So I never really understood why people cared about the story so much…
But for people who don’t play the game they are not gonna get drawn into it via it’s stories unless they are like 7 or 12, which I guess is their target audience. Which is a shame cuz the gameplay is so f*** deep and intelligent and engaging (even with all the bad metas and paches, it’s such a good game)
I wish companies stopped targeting things at kids exclusively and realized that good stories can be enjoyable for all ages.
