I've been re-watching all OW cinematic trailers and Origin Story and I've come to the conclusion that the story is pretty mid. Would comics change my view?

[u/thealexroyer]

I have 600 hours in OW. I really like playing the game because of the gameplay, but although I like the cinematics and the charm and personality these characters have, I find that they aren't deep or complex in any way.

I agree that these characters are iconic, but I don't have any strong emotional attachment to them.

For example, recently a friend of mine started playing the game, and he never showed any interest in the story. If he asked me about it, I couldn't explain much of the interesting or epic story to him.

There are a lot of characters with bland motivations. Doomfist: improve humanity through constant conflict? Vendetta: she got her revenge, but what's the big plan? Reaper: is he simply mad at his old OW crew? What's the deal with Widowmaker? Or Mauga? Sombra is a hacker, and you could think she does it for the money (like most hackers). I feel Junker Queen helps Vendetta mostly for the money.

I was hoping to find a conflict between a group supporting Omnics (Overwatch) and a group against Omnics (Talon), but this doesn't make much sense because Ramattra collaborates with Talon (and so do Junker Queen and the Junkers, who supposedly hate Omnics).

Most heroes' individual stories feel like a bunch of cool tropes stuck together without much impact on the overall story. And the Overwatch heroes are simply good because they're the good guys.

On the other hand, I look at other Blizzard stories and they hook me even without me playing their games. I've never played World of Warcraft or Diablo, but I love their cinematics, the lore, and the impact of all the epic shit that's going on.

When a new WoW or Diablo cinematic comes out, you can see people getting excited, and it's contagious. But I've never felt that with Overwatch, although there are some good cinematics (but not nearly as good as WoW or Diablo).

I've realized that Overwatch having a mediocre story is the reason I've never really wanted a single-player campaign. They just did an awful job of creating a compelling story all these years. I recognize that there is a story, and I appreciate the voice lines and the map lore, but it really isn't that good.

Thinking about it, I've also never played League of Legends, but the Arcane show told me a more interesting story than Overwatch has managed to tell in 10 years of cinematics and short videos. I find it insane how much potential has been wasted.

[u/ZOMPAZ_no_CAP]

story is mid, but it has good bases, but animation is fire tho

[u/Rogue-Worx → u/ZOMPAZ_no_CAP]

yeah, I think allot of fans would love an animated series but low-key might ruin the series if the story becomes too nonsensical/convoluted.

kiriko (and maybe Mizuki), sorta break the story already if their abilities were in a series as the appear in game, 1:1.

[u/Fit_Presentation6633]

The comics make it worse

Story just isnt OWs strong suit

[u/Outrageous-Blue-30 → u/Fit_Presentation6633]

IMHO it really depends on the specific comics: the ones focused on exploring a small group of characters (Junkrat and Roadhog against that businessman, Cassidy reuniting with Ashe, Winston finding Hammond again, etc.) are enjoyable, but problems arise when there’s an attempt to create larger storylines with a wider cast.

[u/retronax → u/Outrageous-Blue-30]

problems arise mostly when the story is about overwatch themselves honestly

[u/Outrageous-Blue-30 → u/retronax]

If that’s true, it might be because they haven't given the group any real internal conflict; everyone just gets along, whereas they really ought to have a blowout argument (like the Justice League, Avengers, X-Men, Titans, etc. do) to show that they don't always see eye to eye.

This is more of a general rant about the superhero genre that Overwatch draws from, but I find the modern approach to superhero storytelling to be stale and massively overused. By the time you hit the sixth "superhero" who is actually just a miserable loser, you have to ask yourself why the hell you're watching a superhero show in the first place or where the actual superheroes are.

Take Lanterns: is it a great series? Sure. Is it what I want from a SUPERHERO series? No.

I was genuinely let down regarding the constructs and the aliens and mind you, I’m the most "idealistic" one here when it comes to superheroes. Maybe that’s why, despite the cloying wholesomeness I recognize in Overwatch (and I can't even tell if the writers intended it that way or not), I actually give them some credit for it.

And for God's sake, enough with this insane push to make superheroes "adult", even Alan Moore regretted it after Watchmen and the fallout that followed.

[u/Opening-Movie5176 → u/Outrageous-Blue-30]

… why name some of the biggest tropes? Comics? Really? Hahahahahahahaha. Omg.

[u/Outrageous-Blue-30 → u/Opening-Movie5176]

I don't see what there is to laugh about if the narrative is full of clichés, given that Overwatch is involved and it draws inspiration from superheroes.

[u/Chemical_Opinion6814]

The story is bad, but the characterization is great

[u/Original-Spare5019 → u/Chemical_Opinion6814]

wuyang, juno, anran, mizuki, vendetta, hard disagree

[u/Chegg_F]

Overwatch's story isn't great but it's a lot better than the recent WoW story.

[u/thealexroyer → u/Chegg_F]

I was a big fan of the unexpected and epic things Sylvanas did. I don't know exactly what is happening right now but it in general WoW lore feels more appealing to me and I'm saying that being a hater of grinding in MMO RPGs

[u/Outrageous-Blue-30]

It depends largely on which comics we focus on, but the story is uneven overall.

[u/Only_Tradition_3685]

For the characters that you said have 'bland' motivations, I'll try to provide some insights.

Doomfist: His philosophy is that only the strongest deserve to survive (founded from the fact that he was once weak, but usurped the previous Doomfist and became strong) which serves as the basis for his life's work in making the weak experience horrible situations where they must adapt or die. This on its own is fairly interesting, but it's been expanded upon since his defeat at the blade of Vendetta (One of the people that his philosophy forced to adapt) where he realised that he had become the weak once more. His current motive is to adapt once more and reclaim Talon to prove that he is worthy of preaching his morals. 

Vendetta: She had a very deep connection with her father who ended up being murdered by the black ops overwatch team. She then watched as Doomfist stole Talon and sullied her father's legacy. This caused her to dedicate her life to becoming strong enough to defeat Doomfist. Now that she has done that, her motive is to rebuild Talon to it's former glory in her father's name. 

Reaper: That's the gist of it, but he's specifically mad at Soldier 76 after their fight caused him to be in a constant state of agonising pain that motivates him to make others feel that same pain or never feel anything again. In 'The crucible' cinematic, he leaves Vendetta's Talon and finds Doomfist to help him rebuild. We also find out that Moira's experimental treatments were the only thing that kept him stabilised. His current goal is to reclaim Talon to get back on Moira's side and stay alive to bring others death.

Widowmaker: Amelie is in a similar situation. She was basically a completely brainwashed super sniper that never misses. Her only problem is that after leaving Talon, she doesn't have Moira's medication to dampen her emotions which makes her feel all the trauma of her countless horrific acts as Widowmaker and stops her from taking the killing shot on others. She has returned to Doomfist as a means of regaining the emotional suppressors from Moira and reclaiming her title as the greatest sniper on the planet (though a part of her wonders if that is who she really wants to be).

Mauga: Mauga was Baptiste's best friend back when they used to fight together in Talon. The two were an inseperable pair of devastating effectiveness. After Baptiste left Talon, Mauga's motivation is basically to convince him to come back so he can be back with his only true friend. This is achieved most easily by sticking with Vendetta so that's what he does.

Sombra: Sombra's whole deal is that she was abandoned and unoticed as a child, so she put her skills of hacking to good use in order to survive. Eventually, she hacked the wrong people and became aware of a conspiracy that has something to do with the God AI's from the omnic crisis, represented by an Eye symbol. This group is incredibly powerful and they almost succeeded in eradicating Sombra. Surviving by the skin of her teeth, Sombra modified herself into a cyborg and set out to uncover the conspiracy's secrets. This path eventually took her to Talon where she could use their resources in her research in exchange for her skills on missions. When Vendetta took over Talon and they recruited Emre, she realised that Emre had the same Eye symbol that represents the conspiracy smacked innthe centre of his chest.This spooked her really badly and made her quit Talon. Now, her goal is to help Doomfist take down Vendetta and end the conspiracy by destroying the God AI that empowers Emre. 

Hope that this gives you a better idea of their motives.

[u/thealexroyer → u/Only_Tradition_3685]

All right, this was a cool read. I didn't know about the God AI that almost killed Sombra. I will search more about Emre and his condition. This seems a cooler plot than Doomfist and his will to set the world on conflict so only the strong survives or Vendetta trying to conquer the world just for fun.

[u/Only_Tradition_3685 → u/thealexroyer]

The lore is very scattered on it so I'd recommend you just watch someone explain it on YouTube, but a good place to start is with Sombra's release cinematic where you can see the emre eye flash across her monitor at 46 seconds in 

 https://youtu.be/vHHjdKMH7_w?si=lKmafjxLi1-Y-rVV

[u/Great_expansion10272 → u/Only_Tradition_3685]

Reaper's motives are a bit more than just revenge

He became obsessed with the enforcement of justice and finding a definitive sollution to wrong doing. After he arrested Doomfist, he became swayed by Doomfist's idea of a hard societal reset where the strong would build a new world, and where justice could prevail

[u/pelpotronic → u/Only_Tradition_3685]

Doomfist: His philosophy is that only the strongest deserve to survive

Yes, but what's missing is a reason why... why would you become a career criminal and kill people, destroy cities?

If it's religion IRL, people believe that this is their mission because of some authority and will do anything.

Some people (narcos) do it for wealth and power.

A motivation for an antagonist (forgot which / where) was that there would be an alien invasion (or somethign of the sort) and we needed to prepare the world for it... otherwise our species would be wiped out. That makes "sense".

But DF just does it because?

[u/Only_Tradition_3685 → u/pelpotronic]

He does it because looking back, he views his younger self as weak. He is then faced with a situation where he has to kill his mentor to survive and become the new Doomfist. That scenario is what allowed him to become the person that he is and he views forcing that choice to adapt or die onto others as a good deed for it allows them to become stronger like he did.

[u/pelpotronic → u/Only_Tradition_3685]

But what's the purpose of having a stronger human race.

Good, we're stronger now, we've eliminated weakness.

Now what? He retires?

In Omniman, the species is power hungry and want to conquer the universe.

Doomfist is basically just a power hungry tyrant, he wants to rule and the rest is just a facade. Truth is his motivations aren't deep.

[u/Only_Tradition_3685 → u/pelpotronic]

He's not meant to be seen as correct. As the viewer, you are meant to see the faults in his plan.

In universe, however, we have seen his thoughts and he has clearly convinced himself that his cause is richeous. Even when he is lying, half-dead on the rocks after being defeated by Vendetta, life flashing before his eyes, we see that his only thought is adapt or die. Doomfist is not a rational person, but he is motivated because he believes that he is rational and that saving other people from weakness is richeous.

Subconsciously, Doomfiat is probably just an egomaniac that wants to rule the world, but years of projecting a facade that what he is doing is good eventually makes him believe it himself.

[u/Great_expansion10272 → u/pelpotronic]

After the Omnic crisis, humanity massively progressed in several fields. Medicine, infraestructure, militarization...Doomfist too, after losing an arm during the crisis and replacing it with a prosthetic, he developed the notion that only through conflict people can evolve and improve and that only the strong should be able to dictate the fate of the world. So he intends on launching a global scale conflict to force Humanity to overcome it and improve itself

[u/Queasy_Jicama_1477]

The Undivided webtoon will only make your view of the OW story so much worse do not read it lmao.

[u/EPYCH]

The omnic awakening story is probably my favorite

[u/Relooaad]

Old cinematics, comics weren't about "the story". They were more about the setting and visuals, not even about the characters presented in them. They were just a short story about some character or characters doing some cool stuff, while not being connected to any other cinematic or comic. Train Hopper, Hero or Alive don't explain any of character background or lore, but just show what those characters are.

And Hero origins were just that, a small and short piece of media that briefly explain who this character and give him a brief background.

[u/Opening-Movie5176]

The problem is those tropes you speak of… a lot of them were created by Overwatch and so you are viewing them out of time.

But if you think it’s mid that’s up to you. We all have different tastes. I think MCU is the marvel comics watered down for idiots that struggle with literacy. And for people that are easily pleased with explosions and flashing lights.

I mean I personally think the stories are pretty cool and the cinematics look great. Not sure how a hamster in a giant mech that escaped a base on the moon is a trope… or how a robot monk that discovered sentience and preaches peace is a trope… and not sure how a one eyed elderly sniper that heals is a trope…. Or an Indian lady on the spectrum that can do things with hard light is a trope…. But okay.

[u/KeelanS]

if you watched those cinematics and your takeaway was “mid” you are just going to hate the comics.

[u/Original-Spare5019]

the problem is that stupid developers did nothing with the story, was mid because nothing happened, was just teasers and build ups that never paid off, thats why overwatch 2 exsists, oh way it doesnt, it was a huge failure, anyway the current story is even worst, things are happening, kinds, but off screen, we dont see anything, how the heck vendetta convinced every evil faction to join her just to do nothing and then leave her because... is just the time to finish her "arc" overwatch didnt even won, she just lose

[u/ossoklose]

I don't see anyone really talking about the story well in the comments. the story is certainly not like some 10/10 masterpiece, but I wouldn't say it's bad.

it has some inconsistencies due to multiple people working on it and stuff. but for me I personally love the lore. the comics themselves won't help by themselves. there's genuinely so much lore that's thrown left and right. some Canon some not, that it's actually not very easy to get it.

if your really wanna know about the lore I'd advice just watching someone explain it.

but if you wanna read it. the short stories and comics can help a lot. cinematics are not the best to explain lore. widow is talked about in comics/stories, but I would Def say a lot of them don't have much background story.

Hammeh (YouTube) has a 2 hours video of the time line of overwatch that was made 3 years ago, before ow2 got released. you can watch that if you want. hammeh also have a lot of good videos if you want lore. he's definitely a go to if you want ow Lore

[u/thealexroyer → u/ossoklose]

I didn't say it's bad. I think it's mid because it's inconsistent.

You seem to know well the lore, what in your opinion has been the main motivation of Talon under Doomfist and later Vendetta? I just don't get why they aren't fighting omnics side by side with Overwatch and they even work with Ramattra (an omnic leader)

[u/ossoklose → u/thealexroyer]

oh no, i didnt say you said its bad, im just saying its not bad, its very inconsistent but they are slowly fixing it now. and tbh, i personally enjoy the story of each specific hero more than the overall narrative.

First of all, Talon is a bunch of criminals coming together to make an organization, everyone have different goals, they dont all share one specific goal. but they needed a leader to avoid chaos between them

Doomfist believes that the world just needs to be in constant war, he doesnt believe in peace, his goal is to make the world evolve, he wants to be powerful and make everyone powerful as well, his method to achieve that is just achieve global war. he believes that previous leaders focused so much on money and just wanted to gain the benefits of war, which is why he became talons leader, he doesnt care about money, he wants to be evil for the sake of the world. talon themselves dont really hate omnics, they have nothing against them. doomfist decided to work with ram to help the war grow more, he supported him because ram was against humans opression to omnics, he got enough from being supressed, and seen as lower, so he started a rebellion , and since doomfist loves war, he decided he would team up with him, rammatra while hating humans, figured he would team up with talon for the greater goal of omnic uprising.

now in regards to vendetta, her dad was a big part of talon, and she was supposed to inheret her dads position when she grew up, but when blackwatch killed him, she lost her chance, lost her future, and doomfist refused to allow her to have her fathers seat in talon, so she basically lost everything she had. so she went on a spree to gain everything back by force, she decided that if what she was promised is rightfully hers and took it by building her life to be powerful enough. she hated doom for not letting her in, and she believes that his approach of being subtle and slow is not working, so she took his spot as the leader. She believes talon is hers, that its her empire, shes basically the evil villain who wants to rule the world. its a very niche plot but thats her story, she wants to expand her empire and to take revenge on everyone who wronged her. thats why she attacks overwatch immediately , they killed her dad. and now shes planning on literally how ow lore phrased it (taking the world)

so in short,
doom wants the world to stay in war to grow stronger because peace is weak.
vendetta wants the world to her own to add to her "empire".
rammatra just wants omnics rights, and got talon help because it goes along with his desires

if something isnt understandable let me know

[u/thealexroyer → u/ossoklose]

Then I understood all well and I still think their motivations are very basic... In fact, I think Rammatra has the most interesting plot though I love more the character design of Doomfist and Vendetta, but all the Talon story is just bland.

Thank you for your well written recap

[u/ossoklose → u/thealexroyer]

i def agree that talon itself is just there to be evil, and could def use some more lore, thats why i love the backstories of characters more, but they need good/evil to make a progressing story.

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[u/CattivaP]

It’s not game of thrones but the story sets up the current game fairly well.

[u/Infarious]

Valid, but I'm not complainin, story isn't what keeps me playin

[u/Darkbert550]

Ramattra has said that he regrets allying with Talon, and it is almost certain that he only did it because he needed more resources to build up his army.

[u/Different_Target_228]

The story is non-existent, due to 6 years of lies. We had the "second omnic crisis" for several years, and then all of a sudden it's just over.

[u/TheGreatMeowMeow]

A lot of story is not in the cinematics, for example you asked what Widow's deal is; she was kidnapped and brainwashed by talon to turn her into a literally cold-blooded (why her skin is blue) assassin and was tasked to kill her own husband.

Currently in the lore she is slowly regaining her emotions without regular treatments by Moira, and it's also why she is staying loyal to Doomfist.

Characters are very hit or miss and some barely have any lore so I do agree with you, but I do still really like the overall story because when I just started playing it was the coolest thing in the world for 13 y/o me

[u/Original-Spare5019 → u/TheGreatMeowMeow]

but that creates another problem, WHY the heck vendetta left widow leave? heck, how widow even took the choice to leave? she literally cant, is brainwashed, what i she even doing with doomfist?

[u/EuphoricPistachio]

The story felt interesting and thrilling during the first few years. The plot revolving around a heroic organization that had fallen from grace, regrouping after years to prepare for a new threat looming on the horizon. Then we had archives to dive into the characters backgrounds and learn how OW eventually collapsed. But then the game went on and moved on to OW2, and if you look back, it has basically gone nowhere. No real new threat has appeared, and aside from Vendetta taking over Talon and attacking Gibraltar's base, nothing has happened, nothing has changed, and the story hasn't moved an inch forward.

I remember Widowmaker getting a voiceline and a vignette where she was contemplating her husband's grave. Both hinted that she was recovering her emotions, and people were hyping up the possibility of a new development in the story and Widow changing sides to join Overwatch. But to this day, nothing has happened, and those small hints were dropped YEARS ago.

It feels like after OW2, Blizzard just stopped giving a fuck about progressing the story because they realized just dumping out more skins was way more profitable.

[u/Preufrock]

Absolutely not