No matter what you may think of the current state of Overwatch 2, its lore and character development has always been intriguing. Whether it’s introducing new characters via 3D animated shorts or expanding on relationships and backstories in comic book form, Blizzard has taken great care to expand across other media over time. Unfortunately, it has been a bit of a slow drip feed across the last few years, but with Overwatch 2 in full swing things are starting to pick up again, and now we have an anime to watch.
Overwatch 2: Genesis goes all the way back to the birth of the Omnic’s, an artificially aware enemy faction of the fabled Overwatch team, and details the early rise Dr. Mina Liao. Liao will be familiar to people keeping up with Overwatch lore, as she helped create playable character Echo along with co-founding the Overwatch team alongside the likes of Solider 76 and Ana to combat the Omnic Crisis.
At five minutes long, the first episode (subtitled Dawn) fills us in on the Omnica Corporation and Liao’s work on pushing the limits of artificial intelligence, hinting at the war that follows the birth of this evolution. All the while watching it, I couldn’t help but recall The Animatrix, an animated anthology based off The Matrix franchise that debuted 20 years ago. Or, more specifically, its two-part episode called The Second Renaissance that similarly tells a story of humanity dabbling with artificial intelligence before its creation turns on them. Of course, that series didn’t exactly end on a positive note for humanity compared to the more up-beat tones of Blizzard’s video game, but there’s no doubting the similar story beats.
Genesis is a welcome sight for long time fans such as myself, though at only three episodes long (with the following two releasing weekly over the rest of July) it’s devastatingly lacking compared to bolder animated takes such as Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Still, hopefully this sets a precedence for future shorts, along with the upcoming PvE story mode headed to the game itself this August.
Have you watch the short yet? Are you dying for more Overwatch lore? Let us know in the comments and on our socials and, oh, go watch the Animatrix while you’re at it. It holds up!
Known on the internet as Kartanym, Mark has been in and out of the gaming scene since what feels like forever, growing up on Nintendo and evolving through the advent of PC first person shooters, PlayStation and virtual reality. He'll try anything at least once and considers himself the one true king of Tetris by politely ignoring the world records.
