What do you do when you've burnt all of your goodwill in a PR fire? That was the question that was rolling around the heads over at Blizzard Marketing after that debacle last month surrounding Blitzchung. Sure, it's not exactly unique for an American company to bow down before the almighty Chinese market, Blizzard are merely following the trend that a thousand other companys have set, but it's still an undeniably bad look to have that dirty laundry forcibly aired out like they did. So what would they do? Especially with Blizzcon coming up in only a handful of weeks? Well, looks like they settled on giving their aggrieved fans the one thing that they wanted most in life, announcement after announcement.
Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that the recent controversy forced Blizzard's hand into announcing their next games early, as though there wasn't any intention to bring these games up yet. (I'm sure that Overwatch 2 has been stewing for a while now.) Just that when the company stands up and announces two highly sought after sequels within one event, it certainly comes across like a desperate diversion tactic. Who wants to bet that at least one of these announcements is more premature than the typical Nintendo reveal? My bet is on the Overwatch game seeing as how folk have been hounding those guys for Diablo 4 ever since the "Is this an off-season April Fools Joke?" comment last year. Or maybe it was the "Do you guys not have phones?" dig. (Wow, Blizzard are freakin' terrible at marketing, huh?)
Whatever the reason, the Internet has been flooded with information regarding Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 and we even got an extensive reveal trailer on the game that is only- Eight minutes long? Good lord, Blizzard are starving for good PR right now. Now, normally I wouldn't care about some stupid announcement trailer for any old game, and I certainly wouldn't want to signal-boost a game from the Chinese government's biggest scrooge, (you know, outside of LeBron James.) but Overwatch is one of those games that I have an extensive history with. Back when I still had friends, this was one of those few games that I used to play with them on, and I had fun times digging into by myself sometimes too. That isn't to say that the game didn't suffer from considerable problems, especially when it came to lore building, but what was there was a decent enough experience that I didn't care too much. And I didn't even mind the lootboxes, seeing as how none of them contained gameplay effecting items, and the box itself could be earned in-game. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, I don't care. Besides, given my 'audience' consists of basically just me, a single blog won't constitute much in the way of signal boosting anyway.
Before I get into looking over this trailer, I feel it important to note that I'm not entirely up to date with the last year of Overwatch events. Heck, I've never even played as Sigma, Hammond or Ashe. (Remember when I said I used to play this game with friends? Yeah, well lets just say that I haven't had need to dig this one out for a while.) That being said, I am a voracious lore-nut in general and I have been paying particular attention to the nuggets dropped by the Overwatch team over the years. Or at least, I did until the D.VA animation dropped with it's pathetically generic plot and scripting which made an utter pigs ear of representing D.VA's trademark personality. (I may have stopped keeping up with things after that.) But I'm choosing to let bygones lie as I delve into this entry completely fresh faced. So Mr Kaplan, what have you got?
The trailer picks up after THE INTRO TO OVERWATCH! That's right, after all these years the intro to Overwatch 1 is still the furthest along in the timeline in regards to lore, good god this narrative has gone freakin' nowhere for so long. Okay, that's not entirely true. As each of the introductory vids that we have seen throughout the years has shown a member of Overwatch hearing the message that Winston recorded in that intro and deciding to act. With the exception of Lena (A.k.a Tracer) who appears to have been bunking with the monkey for the past few years for some reason, and Mei (A.k.a Free Hong Kong Revolution of our Age) who only recently recovered from a case of being frozen.
We see Winston and Mei in the iconic Overwatch Orca Skyranger, (On loan from X-Com, I presume.) whilst around them are the empty seats of the original members of Overwatch complete with their personal effects, because apparently no one thought to take their pictures home with them. Heck, Ana left a picture of her daughter on the ship. (It belongs in the family picture album!) From this, Blizzard are trying to establish that the Overwatch team are estranged despite the past few years of them fighting together in online matches. I'm being mean. I do appreciate that the team are trying to establish a comprehensible narrative from which the story can begin to evolve, I just think it's silly that we've gotten this far without one.
The story then moves on to show us that this Overwatch remnant consisting of Winston, Tracer and the newly conscripted Mei, are on their way to intercept an Omnic terror attack in Paris. (Despite that fact that it appears to have just begun when they arrive. How did they know it was happening? Is this all part of some elaborate false flag operation by Winston in order to provide a stage for Overwatch 2's debut? Big if true.) For those who don't remember, the Omnic are the vague 'bad guys' of the Overwatch world who's only motivation appears to be "Humans and robots shouldn't mix". (Disney called, they want their generic social commentary back.) This of course stems back to their creation decades ago when they where made by humans to be workhands. The Omnics were accidentally granted sentience (Whoopsie) and decided to rebel against their creators in what has come to be known as the Omnic Crisis.
In the years since, humans have come to peace with a majority of Omnics and now humanity co-exists with the new race that it created in harmony. (Huh, guess Terminator was wrong about machines.) However, new Omnic attacks have begin spreading around the world and no-one quite knows why and what they want. It's this big mystery that is sure to be the driving force behind the initial main story of Overwatch 2. A mystery that I'm sure is going to remain just as impactful despite the fact that in the years of Overwatch 1 being a thing we have already been introduced to Talon and their mantra of: making humanity stronger through conflict. ("The memes!") Huh, I wonder who set off the Omnics?
Paris appears to be having a rough go of things and Ladybug and Cat Noir are seemingly too busy right now to help out. (Oh god, just end me...) So it's up to the team to stop the Omnics from crushing- one cop, an Omnic pedestrian and a single child. (You are still paying your animators aren't you Blizzard?) As none of the other Overwatch alumni decided to answer the call, we are treated to a a high octane action sequence starring Winston wherein he positively refuses to put down his shield. (This is why the team keeps wiping, Winston!) It is at this point where Blizzard show off their mastery of Disney-like animation. And I'm not overstating things, this animation is as good as anything you'll find in Disney. (If only the creative team could boast the same.)
Now we enter the Endgame as the team need to escort people to safety but Winston realizes that they'll need a distraction in order to make it. Somehow he believes that the time Sahelanthropus will take to microwave him will be enough for them to get away, and so he goes to sacrifice himself. So guess that's the end of Winston. I'm 100% convinced that Blizzard are about to kill off Winston right now and nothing inexplicable will happen in the final moments to turn things awry.
Oh my, Genji showed up. What a surprise! Although I will say that this scene did make me a bit confused as we see Genji reflect an energy beam with his sword. (He must polish that thing really thoroughly.) What follows is a spattering of ex-Overwatch fellows coming back into the frey to save their brethren, with all the cliche gusto that such a scene implies. We see Reinhardt and Brigitte, Doctor Ziegler (Doesn't she run a hospital? Are we sure that she isn't risking more lives by playing hooky than she is by intervening?) and Echo.You remember Echo. That feminine robot that was introduced in the Mcree vid alongside Ashe and Bob. Yeah she plays like... wait a minute, she hasn't been released yet! Hmm... If I were one to buy into conspiracy, I might say that this lends fuel to the claims that this announcement was rushed in wake of the recent scandals...
The rest of the trailer is mostly just canned heroics with nothing really worth noting aside from the fact that the trailer ends with no release window whatsoever. >cough< this was rushed >cough<. I did notice some other little things in the trailer that I thought was worth mentioning, like how Mercy heals Mei by touching her on the shoulder rather than using her healing stick. (Does this mean that Mercy is the second coming of Jesus? I'll believe it.) We also see a couple examples of heroes combining their ultimate abilities together, which may indicate something similar being possible in gameplay. Plus, D.Va didn't bother show up. Really? One of the biggest flagship heroes of the franchise couldn't make an appearance? What, has she got more important things on her plate? You know, an e-sports career isn't exactly that most stable choice in the world, it has a faster dry-up rate than regular sports.
Most outlets have made the sound observation that this trailer seems to have focused heavily on PvE aspects rather than the PvP that the first game built it's brand around. This fits in line with recent leaked news that this time around Overwatch 2 will have a story (Shocking) and it will be driven by PvE missions. For my part, I hope this is true to an extent. Overwatch is renowned as a solid online shooter first and foremost and I would like them to remember that when it comes to designing their narrative missions. A handful of games have tried the 'narratively driven a-symmetrical multiplayer matches' thing before (Like Titanfall and Black Ops 4 before the whole campaign was scrapped) but I think Blizzard might be the first team to get it right. But maybe I'm just saying that because Sombra was my main and I'm not looking forward to playing an entire campaign with having an excuse to shout "Apagando las luces!" every 3 minutes.
There was also a gameplay trailer released alongside this cinematic which showed off the new direction of Overwatch 2 in order to justify the reason why folk should make the switch when the time comes. (You know, if Blizzard have any reputation left by then.) In that, they teased off a whole new RPG mechanic that will bring customization to players abilities. "Isn't that ripe for monetiseable exploitation?" Why yes, yes it is. I suppose it's just up to Blizzard to implement this new feature in a way that is moral. Wait, what am I talking about? Blizzard and morals? Yeah, this system is going to straight-up ruin Overwatch.
That gameplay trailer also boasted something they called "Highly replayable co-op." (Think we'll be the judge of that, Blizzard.) New maps (From a new game? Wow. How generous!) New looks (Which seems to amount to the team cutting Mercy's hair. I miss the old look already.) and New game modes. (Like one in which a robot pushes a payload back and- wait a minute...) Most interesting, however, was the brief (and I mean brief) look we got at some of the Missions that the new Narrative approach will be offering. There was a collage of very cinematic moments including one of Tracer racing through a burning Omnic gunship whilst a timer ticked down overhead. It seems that Blizzard are going the right direction for creating dramatic moments, but so far nothing appears to be hold any actual dramatic tension. That is to say, every scene has showcased the heroes battling against faceless robots that no one cares about, rather than the villains characters that we've spent the past 3 years getting cosy with. Maybe Blizzard are just playing their cards close to their chest right now, but I must say that such a weak showing does leave me rather concerned.
I may be the only person in the world who cared enough about the lore of Overwatch to be excited that the team are actually working it, but I will admit that this reveal event left me with more worries than giddiness. That cinematic was just a fun little thing to watch, but the gameplay trailer had far too many red flags for a sensible gamer to wave aside. I would not put it past Activision/Blizzard to use the fame of Overwatch to push a whole slew of unwelcome systems onto the playerbase through these light RPG mechanics. How much do you wanna bet that in the next trailer they start talking about collectible hero weapons and the rarity tiers attached to them? Honestly, the whole thing stinks and I can't be the only one who smells it. But will the Blizzard masses care? Honestly, I don't know.
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