Watch - Overwatch's First Animated Short Tells The Story of Winston

Steven Bogos

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Watch - Overwatch's First Animated Short Tells The Story of Winston

The first of many Overwatch shorts tells us how Winston the Gorilla came to be.

Earlier in the month, Blizzard told us that its upcoming shooter Overwatch would have a series of companion animated shorts and comics [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/166878-Overwatch-Anime-Comics-Incoming#&gid=gallery_6003&pid=1] in the lead-up to its release. Well, it has now just released the first of those shorts: "Recall" - which focuses on the character Winston, and how he became the giant science gorilla that he is in the game. You can check out the 8-minute video to the right.

Winston's story also gives us a bit more information on what exactly Overwatch is, and why he has decided to bring it back now. The trailer is a great bit of fun, and up to the top-notch standard of cinematics that Blizzard is known for. It's a great way to build up plot and character information for a multiplayer only shooter.

According to Blizzard, we should be getting several more of these shorts before the game's release, as well as some free comics that will focus on other characters. The first comic will focus on McCree, and is due out in April.

What's particular interesting about the video is that it may have revealed some upcoming characters. Overwatch's roster currently stands at 21, but many of the faces we saw at the end of the video are completely new to us. Have a look at the 15 new faces below:

[gallery=6046]

Some of them could simply be alternate skins for existing heroes (one in particular appears to be Pharah's mother, who was a part of the original Overwatch team), but a lot of them look quite unique. Blizzard has not yet revealed any plans to add heroes post-launch, but did confirm that any new heroes added would be free [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165362-Overwatch-Post-Launch-Heroes-Will-be-Free].

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Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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1. Of course Chris Metzen voices Winston in his Thrall voice why would he not voice what looks to be the face of Overwatch :p

2. And yep this is more Disney/Pixar-inspired to me then Team Fortress 2 ever was.
 

Khrowley

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K this is how the World of Warcraft movie should have been like. The short has got me wanting more and I'm tempted to actually break my pre-order ban. Especially since the launches on my birthday.
 

Protocol95

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Samtemdo8 said:
1. Of course Chris Metzen voices Winston in his Thrall voice why would he not voice what looks to be the face of Overwatch :p
Except that it's Crispin Freeman voicing Winston, you can confirm on his twitter.

I'm liking the feeling of these Overwatch cinematics. If I had to condense my feelings of them I'd say they were somewhat safe and easy to read. Not that those are bad things inherently, tropes are tools after all and I think it also has a fair bit of self-identity that all adds together nicely.
 

Hawki

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So, that was pretty darn good. Nice writing, nice animation, nice narrative (brief as it was). And a completely difficult kettle of fish from the "meet the class" series in TF2, so that's nice to see.
 

Cowabungaa

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Why does Blizzard not have themselves an animated movie department yet?

I like where they're going with this in any case. And it helps that the game itself is dope as hell. Sorta sad I didn't really like to play Winston though, he's got himself a great introduction that's for sure.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Khrowley said:
K this is how the World of Warcraft movie should have been like. The short has got me wanting more and I'm tempted to actually break my pre-order ban. Especially since the launches on my birthday.
No I don't Warcraft looking as cartoony and "humorous" as this.

Keep Warcraft looking like Warcraft, Dramatic and Serious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqB3KeiBLuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCr7y4SLhck

And keep the cartoony and humourous stuff in Hearthstone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmu0XXpUYog
 

Zhukov

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Man, that was pretty weak for Blizzard. I've come to expect better from their cinematics team.

Baby Winston was cute though. Also, I like how he types with his feet.
 

Zhukov

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Samtemdo8 said:
Keep Warcraft looking like Warcraft, Dramatic and Serious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqB3KeiBLuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCr7y4SLhck
Did you just use the word "serious" to describe a scene in which a demon-elf named 'Illidan Stormrage' stands on a cliff against a stormy sky (a ragestorm if you will) and pulls lightening down to summon mermen?

I'm pretty sure that abusing the English language like that will get you arrested in some states.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Zhukov said:
Samtemdo8 said:
Keep Warcraft looking like Warcraft, Dramatic and Serious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqB3KeiBLuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCr7y4SLhck
Did you just use the word "serious" to describe a scene in which a demon-elf named 'Illidan Stormrage' stands on a cliff against a stormy sky (a ragestorm if you will) and pulls lightening down to summon mermen?

I'm pretty sure that abusing the English language like that will get you arrested in some states.
Certainly is not comedic and hurmourous either.
 

Zhukov

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Vedrenne said:
Was I the only one expecting serious feels when they showed the name of the scientist?
Yeah, they didn't show his entire backstory. Suffice to say, there were other intelligent Gorillas on the moon base and some of them weren't as laid back as Winston.

Maybe it'll come up in later episodes. Although I'd expect those to focus on different characters.

Samtemdo8 said:
Zhukov said:
Did you just use the word "serious" to describe a scene in which a demon-elf named 'Illidan Stormrage' stands on a cliff against a stormy sky (a ragestorm if you will) and pulls lightening down to summon mermen?

I'm pretty sure that abusing the English language like that will get you arrested in some states.
Certainly is not comedic and hurmourous either.
Are you sure?

Because saying "Illidan Stormrage" out load definitely makes me giggle.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Zhukov said:
Vedrenne said:
Was I the only one expecting serious feels when they showed the name of the scientist?
Yeah, they didn't show his entire backstory. Suffice to say, there were other intelligent Gorillas on the moon base and some of them weren't as laid back as Winston.

Maybe it'll come up in later episodes. Although I'd expect those to focus on different characters.

Samtemdo8 said:
Zhukov said:
Did you just use the word "serious" to describe a scene in which a demon-elf named 'Illidan Stormrage' stands on a cliff against a stormy sky (a ragestorm if you will) and pulls lightening down to summon mermen?

I'm pretty sure that abusing the English language like that will get you arrested in some states.
Certainly is not comedic and hurmourous either.
Are you sure?

Because saying "Illidan Stormrage" out load definitely makes me giggle.
That is the weakest joke I have ever seen about Illidan ever, this is how you make jokes about illidan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsZJC-Lda-Y
 

Scarim Coral

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Cowabungaa said:
Why does Blizzard not have themselves an animated movie department yet?

I like where they're going with this in any case. And it helps that the game itself is dope as hell. Sorta sad I didn't really like to play Winston though, he's got himself a great introduction that's for sure.
Ditto. I mean they are clearly good when it come to the cinematic side to their games like Diablo, WoW and Starcraft 2.

OT- Wow, 15? I saw several at the most. I was going to mention the possible DLC character reveal from that recall scene but in saying so, a few of them look too generic (4-7). Maybe those one will only appear in the shorts, comic etc but not in the game itself?

Lastly, I guess this is why Wiston was so angry when Reaper step on his glasses from the first cinematic trailer. Wheather or not it's the same glasses but it must remind him of his father.
 

happyninja42

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Fun video, love how effective Blizzard is for hitting my emotion button like a hyperactive hamster. Not going to play the game, but damn I love the "call to action" feel of this superhero vibe. xD
 

shintakie10

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Baby Winston is so damn cute.

Now I'm curious if the Scientist man gave him the name Winston or if he took the name Winston after whatever...probably horribly unfortunate thing happened to the original Winston.

Also there was something amazing to me about the fight between Winston and Reaper. Reaper calling him a monkey and Winston responding "I'm not a monkey." I was like 'oh yay, this joke again. So original' and then Winston throws the busted shield and yells "I'm a scientist!" That was great and incredibly unexpected.

Also I adored the idea that Tracer immediately calls as soon as Winston hits the Overwatch Recall command. Like she's just been waiting these last X amount of years for Winston to hit that button. Its perfect.
 

thewatergamer

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I enjoyed the short, though I still feel a bit lukewarm about the game itself...then again I haven't played it, (closed betas) so hopefully it will turn out good. I am still confused on exactly what the "lore" of the game is going to operate on, the problem with establishing such a somewhat serious world is that when it comes to the actual gameplay you run into major suspension of disbelief problems. I get that alot of people don't care about that sort of thing and that's just fine, but I feel like TF2 did a better job of avoiding that problem. Overwatch is starting to dip into "Ok wait...why are Winston and Reaper fighting on the same team in this match if they are supposedly sworn enemies?" IDK I'm sure most players don't care but for me it's just a little weird. Correct me if I'm wrong, again I haven't played nor watched too much of the game so maybe Blizzard has something to explain it better?