See The First Overwatch Animated Short From Blizzard

Blizzard released their first animated short for the upcoming first-person shooter, Overwatch. The game is set within a futuristic world where heroes are outlawed and villains still cause chaos and havoc. The short film that Blizzard put out gives gamers an emotional look at one of those heroes named Winston.

PC Gamer spotted the new video for the game as it details the origins of the genetically enhanced and cybernetically proficient gorilla named Winston. We get to see briefly what he was like when he was young and some of the inspiration that helped shape his character, his morals and his heroism. You can check out the Overwatch video below.

The video starts off showcasing Winston in his lab working on one of his in-game special abilities, the barrier shield. It later comes into play later on when Winston encounters one of the villains in the game.

We find out that as per the lore, the Overwatch committee has been disbanded after heroes were outlawed. It's not unlike the lockdown on heroism that they had in the movie The Incredibles. Like most of Blizzard's games, there's a very robust and engaging backstory to all the characters and all the entire world of Overwatch.

Anyway, the short plays up Winston's eagerness to reassemble the team after a catastrophic event takes place. He hesitates after the AI, Athena, warns him against doing so.

During this time a group of soldiers led by Reaper, infiltrate Winston's lab and attempt to hack into the service to get the location and names of all of the Overwatch operatives. Winston manages to hulk up using his special ability to subdue the enemy forces. Unfortunately for the genetically enhanced gorilla, he ends up being taken down by Reaper in their face-off.

Before Reaper can finish off the scientific sapien, Winston uses his failed shield barrier to blow up Reaper and knock him down before blasting him into particle dust.

Winston manages to save the AI, Athena, and proceeds to contact the rest of the Overwatch group to get them back into action.

A lot of people on the YouTube video note how good Blizzard is with cinematics and storytelling and would love it if Overwatch became a full length, feature film. Heck, it might even work as an afternoon cartoon series for the whole family.

The game is expected to enter into an open beta phase first on the Xbox One in early May. This will be followed by its full release at the end of May for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. It's interesting that Microsoft managed to land the exclusive this time around, but I wonder how well that will work for overall sales of Overwatch on Microsoft's console?