Final Overwatch Short "Hero" Hits You in The Feels

[Steven Bogos]

Final Overwatch Short "Hero" Hits You in The Feels

The last of Blizzard's Overwatch animated shorts features Solider 76.

Overwatch [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/overwatch] launches tomorrow, but before it does Blizzard has one last animated short, this time featuring everyone's favorite generic FPS guy: Solider 76. Taking place on the Dorado map, the story follows a young Mexican girl as she gets into a bit of trouble, and how, true to Mercy's battle cry, Solider 76 demonstrates that "heroes never die".

The short also shows us a little bit more about the world of the game, expanding on what we learned in "Alive" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHwzFkjm1Kk] - there is a lot of hostility towards "Omnics" (sentient robots), and everyone seems to think of the Overwatch organization in past tense.

Hero tells a familiar tale in the action genre - the kind-hearted viglinate, and Blizzard does a fantastic job pulling it off. The animation is absolutely Pixar-tier gorgeous, and the dialogue, while cheesy at times, really fits the characters. Forget Overwatch - the game, Blizzard should just make Overwatch - the movie already!

If you missed the other shorts, check them out here:
"Recall" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/166939-Overwatch-First-Animated-Short]
"Alive" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHwzFkjm1Kk]
"Dragons" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167455-Overwatch-Short-Dragons-Released]

Overwatch launches tomorrow for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

Permalink

 

[xitel]

Really? A Greek girl? Her name is Alejandra, her mother says "mija", and there are pinatas in the background. And let's not forget "Los Protectores" being out and out Spanish.

 

[Hawki]

Few points:

-This felt a bit anti-climatic, in that if this is the end of "season 1" for Overwatch shorts, there's not really anything connecting them.

-So, Tracer helps the boy in the museum, and Morrison helps the girl in Dorado. Parallels, anyone?

-Almost certainly over-analyzing here, but Morrison takes out a guy wielding a chain gun and yelling like a maniac? Am I the only one who thought "wait, is this guy based on the Heavy from TF2? And Morrison taking him out is a spin on the Overwatch vs. TF2 thing that some are pushing? If so...huh.

-Oh sure Anjedara, tell your mother about your hero encounter. What about the omnic you left in the street?

-It's the later half of the 21st century, and people still use physical money? Tsk tsk.

-The girl's mother...Sombra, perhaps?

 

[crimsonspear4D]

Forget Overwatch - the game, Blizzard should just make Overwatch - the movie already!

Forget THAT, Blizzard should make Overwatch: the series. Still in CG and TV-MA, of course.

 

[pyrojam321moo]

Final Overwatch Short "Hero" Hits You in The Feels

Taking place on the Dorado map, the story follows a young Mexican girl as she gets into a bit of trouble, and how, true to Mercy's battle cry, Solider 76 demonstrates that "heroes never die".
Permalink

Fixed that for ya.

In other news, these animations have made me seriously want a single-player campaign. There's plenty of material here, just, come on Blizz, I need my fix. My playable, lore-filled fix.

 

[Steven Bogos]

Really? A Greek girl? Her name is Alejandra, her mother says "mija", and there are pinatas in the background. And let's not forget "Los Protectores" being out and out Spanish.

My apologies. I thought it took place on the Ilios map but it looks like it is actually Dorado, which is indeed set in Mexico! I've fixed the article

 

[RJ 17]

-Almost certainly over-analyzing here, but Morrison takes out a guy wielding a chain gun and yelling like a maniac? Am I the only one who thought "wait, is this guy based on the Heavy from TF2? And Morrison taking him out is a spin on the Overwatch vs. TF2 thing that some are pushing? If so...huh.

I'd definitely chalk that up to a nice bit of over-analysis. If they were going for such a parallel, I'd imagine they'd at least make the guy with the chaingun big and bulky. As it is the only thing he has in common with The Heavy from TF2 is his weapon of choice. If that's all it takes to be a reference to TF2 then no one can use a minigun without being compared to that game.

In other news, these animations have made me seriously want a single-player campaign. There's plenty of material here, just, come on Blizz, I need my fix. My playable, lore-filled fix.

As much as I'd like a campaign for this game as well since I love a good story and Blizzard has already done well in its world-building for this game, I'm not quite so certain that it would work. Since the "story" of Overwatch is based very heavily upon the characters, you can't really make a FPS campaign based around that. What, would you just have a generic "shoot a bunch of bad guys" level capped off with a boss fight against Reaper? I honestly don't think it would be worth it.

Due to their focus on the actual characters and their personalities as opposed to "This is the group that stand opposed to the evil organization of (fill in the blank with a random Evil Terrorist Organization)", the best way to handle things is indeed to take the LoL route: release bits of lore based around those characters, even if that lore has absolutely nothing to do with what you experience in the game itself.

Basically they'd have to make G.I. Joe the videogame.

..............which really wouldn't be that bad if it was done as well as Overwatch has been done so far. :3

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Eh, I think my feels are relatively untouched. As Hawki said, pretty anti-climactic. Certainly wasn't as cool as Alive and Dragons.

But I do wonder how important this robo-racism thing is gonna be for Overwatch's future.

 

[TheSYLOH]

Some guy on reddit pointed out (and I agree)
The shorts should have been released in reverse order.

Heroes was the worst of the lot, it's vague and doesn't tell alot, but it might tease you on the story.
Dragons was a clichefest, but it's flashy, colorful and tells personal stories of the characters and hints that a team is forming in the end, it's also better than Heroes.
Alive is the best of the lot, and really sets up the background for why you would have a story.
Recall is almost as good and begins the story proper.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Soldier 76 eh? Might have to check him out as 76 is my birth year. Blizzard turning out a fantastic cinematics is pretty much a given.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

The potential of this IP seems really wasted on a 5-on-5 shooter. Hopefully they will branch out and make something in a genre that will actually allow the world and story to flourish, as the setting is screaming for a single player RPG or action adventure game.

 

[The Raw Shark]

Anyone else think of this upon seeing the title of the short?

 

[Hawki]

Some guy on reddit pointed out (and I agree)
The shorts should have been released in reverse order.

Heroes was the worst of the lot, it's vague and doesn't tell alot, but it might tease you on the story.
Dragons was a clichefest, but it's flashy, colorful and tells personal stories of the characters and hints that a team is forming in the end, it's also better than Heroes.
Alive is the best of the lot, and really sets up the background for why you would have a story.
Recall is almost as good and begins the story proper.

Holy bum nuggets, you're 100% correct. I always thought Heroes and Dragons were the weakest of the bunch, but putting them in order like that makes a lot more sense.

 

[Ishigami]

Don't care for the game. Competetive MP shooters aren't my thing anymore.
But those shorts are really cool.
Could be a cool TV series.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Shame that this is the last of the short. Sure I can get that it took a long time for them to make these but I hoped thre is a season 2 shorts in the makings! The reamining characters need their spotlight!

 

[Evil Raccoon]

I hate to be 'that guy'. But the article has a few spelling errors in it with 'Solider 76' instead of 'Soldier 76'

 

[Aeshi]

The short also shows us a little bit more about the world of the game, expanding on what we learned in "Alive" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHwzFkjm1Kk] - there is a lot of hostility towards "Omnics" (sentient robots), and everyone seems to think of the Overwatch organization in past tense.

[tinfoilhat]What if they deliberately made Bastion that salt-inducing to help players get into the spirit of the thing?[/tinfoilhat]

 

[Phantom Renegade]

That short was pretty boring, it was probably a bad idea to put it right after Dragons, as clich? as "ninjaguy brother's duke it out" is, "shooterguy saves the little girl" is even worst and at least the action in Dragons looked cool.

 

[SirSullymore]

I liked the parts that actually have 76 in them, don't really care about the little girl who got most of the focus.

Also, am I the only one who disliked "Alive"?

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

As it is the only thing he has in common with The Heavy from TF2 is his weapon of choice (minigun). If that's all it takes to be a reference to TF2 then no one can use a minigun without being compared to that game.

What about Bastion? He IS the minigun!

Also, I thought of a good way to make a semi-decent campaign. Give each character a mission that relates to them, and their style.

So Widowmaker needs to sneak past sentry bots to get to vantage points and snipe certain people while occasionally fending off Tracer who tries to gank her from behind.

Winston has to escort the payload on Gibraltar with a handful of handmade robots (like the training mode bots) while fending off waves of Talon Mercs, where he needs to tank and disrupt to win.

Mercy needs to keep a small band of civilians with crappy weaponry and training alive while they fend off waves of an omnic invasion.

etc.

It's totally doable, but would take a long time to make, and some characters are just hard to make levels for (Mei would be hard to work with, as would Lucio unless you make his a jet-set-radio-race type thing)