Watch Overwatch's Latest Animated Short - The Last Bastion

[Steven Bogos]

Watch Overwatch's Latest Animated Short - The Last Bastion

The Last Bastion tells the story of everyone's favorite "Play of the Game" stealing robot, Bastion.

Overwatch has received several reported earlier [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167506-Overwatch-Hero-Short-Solider-76], the short focuses on Bastion, the death-robot-turned-forest-guardian that somehow always manages to get "Play of the Game," every single time.

The short has a very The Iron Giant (or Laputa for anime fans) vibe, telling the story of how a robot programmed for destruction can be swayed by the beauty and kindness of nature.

Originally created for peacekeeping purposes, Bastion robot units possessed the unique ability to rapidly reconfigure themselves into an assault-cannon mode. During the Omnic Crisis, they were turned against their human makers, forming the bulk of the omnics' rebel army. Following the resolution of the crisis, nearly all of them were destroyed or disassembled.

[gallery=6415]

If you missed any of the other shorts, check them out here:

"Hero" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167506-Overwatch-Hero-Short-Solider-76]
"Recall" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/166939-Overwatch-First-Animated-Short#&gid=gallery_6046&pid=1]
"Alive" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHwzFkjm1Kk]
"Dragons" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167455-Overwatch-Short-Dragons-Released]

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[Renegade-pizza]

This was basically if Pixar made a movie about war. Loved it

 

[Hawki]

So robots suffer PTSD? Huh. See, our future machine overlords? Wipe out the human race and it'll haunt you for the rest of your days!

Snark aside, I think this might well be the best Overwatch short so far. Crafting a short animated film without dialogue isn't new (just look at this year's Piper for instance), but it certainly deserves kudos, especially after the (still enjoyable) cheesefest that was Dragons.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yeah I too got a Iron Giant vibe from Bastion and aswell abit of WALL-E since it was left forgotten for many years and develop self awareness than to follow protocols. Also it seen no one is aware of the last Bastion unit aswell.

So who's next for the Overwatch animated short?

 

[Hawki]

So who's next for the Overwatch animated short?

This is entirely speculation, but my guess is dVa or Zarya.

I say this beacause season 1 had a pattern with its first two episodes, how we have 'good Overwatch' (Winston) triumphing over 'bad Overwatch' (Reaper), then reversing it in Alive (Widowmaker bests Tracer). Dragons is a bit of an odd one out, but then we have Morrison, who's more in neutral territory.

Come season 2, we start with Bastion, an omnic. Now, I would guess Reinhardt would be the next choice, but he's already starred in a comic. dVa and Zarya haven't however, and both have a history of fighting omnics. So, here we have Bastion, who shows that omnics can be more than mindless killing machines. Zarya or dVa could reinforce that omnics can still be dangerous, and were a threat 30 years ago.

Basically spec, but if I'm right, I can say 'I told you so.'

 

[Erttheking]

I was wondering something. Was he marching on the city to fulfill his old objective? Or because he was angry at seeing the other Bastions and wanted revenge? Something to think about...

That was fucking amazing. I was actually tearing up a bit.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

I was wondering something. Was he marching on the city to fulfill his old objective? Or because he was angry at seeing the other Bastions and wanted revenge? Something to think about...

That was fucking amazing. I was actually tearing up a bit.

The battle memory he saw sent him back into Battle Program mode, hence the red eye-light as he marched. Think of it as him suffering PTSD due to the memories he saw, reverting to a preprogrammed response of ?Kill All Humans."

 

[Areloch]

I was wondering something. Was he marching on the city to fulfill his old objective? Or because he was angry at seeing the other Bastions and wanted revenge? Something to think about...

That was fucking amazing. I was actually tearing up a bit.

Given that the city was marked and pathed-to once he woke up, I'm pretty sure it was the original objective. Reliving the dead bastion's memory kicked it back into battle mode as @InsanityRequiem said. More curious, in my opinion, is why Bastion had been shut down in the first place.

Anyways, it was a really predictable movie, pretty much like all the other ones, but it's so polished and well produced I just can't bring myself to care about that.

Well played, Blizzard. Well played. Overwatch feature film, when?

 

[Xerosch]

Well, even though I groan internally whenever I see a Bastion running around in Overwatch, this movie is very sweet.

 

[loa]

Ah, that explains why he's mowing down everyone in that fragfest.
oh wait.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

That was ... unexpectedly touching.

Well played, Blizzard.

 

[Jodokh]

that was a whole lot of meh... to me anywho.

Something felt forced and odd about it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Cool story bro. Anyway, on with the deathmatch.

 

[Rednog]

More curious, in my opinion, is why Bastion had been shut down in the first place.

Sombra is most likely behind it. The ARG so far has shown that she is very good at hacking, and there have been hints of ties to Bastion. My best guess is that Sombra played a heavy hand in shutting down the Omnics.

 

[SirSullymore]

Was kind of disappointed in this honestly, I mean I didn't even have to watch it, it was literally exactly what I thought it would be the second I heard they were doing a Bastion short.

 

[RJ 17]

My favorite part is how the content rating warning is "Violence, online interactivity"

At least now they're coming right out and admitting that the community will make you lose faith in humanity. :3

 

[Solkard]

Ah, that explains why he's mowing down everyone in that fragfest.
oh wait.

Sure it does. He obviously sets out on a journey to rebuild bird nests around the world. But then Overwatch or Talon always shows up and either knocks them down or scares off all the birds with their fighting. So obviously he must "cleanse" the area to restore the peace and tranquility necessary to continue his work.

He's like a mass murdering version of Scrat from Ice Age.

 

[twcblaze]

So... Judging from the end of the video: Bastion will be removed as a playable character to spend the rest of his days alone in the forest. Cool.

 

[The Madman]

I like it, it was a sweet little mini-story.

Also that shot of the Omnic crisis was fantastic. Story-wise it's super easy to forget that the events of the game and most of the short stories take place 10ish years after a near skynet style robot apocalypse that was only narrowly diverted. Seeing that makes characters like Zarya or Junkrat who dislike omnics suddenly seem much more reasonable.

 

[Obbi]

Man, I'd love to have a game mode for that Bastion Apocalypse.