Wednesday, August 29, 2018

T5W#159-Top 5 Overwatch Animated Shorts


Overwatch has been a bit of a recurring guest here on my blog.  While it isn’t Anime per say, there’s Anime influence everywhere within it.  From the character designs to the special abilites to the way the action plays out on screen.  The in gameplay battles are chaotic and fun.  However, there’s a special kind of magic to be found in the numerous Animated Shorts that Blizzard puts out every few months.  These mini features usually highlight at least one character and tend to pour on the feels like no other.  Seeing as how we just got a brand new one a couple of weeks ago, I figured it was time I gave Overwatch another shoutout here on Top 5 Wednesday, this week looking at my Top 5 Overwatch Animated Shorts.  Be warned, I will be talking SPOILERS about what happens in these tales…cause really without revealing them I cant truly talk about how special they really are.


#5-Hero (Soldier 76)
In the main game, Soldier 76 is the easiest starter character since he plays a lot like someone from Call of Duty or Halo.  Like many others on this list, however, there’s a bit of depth we only glimpse at in his various bits on in game dialogue.  “Hero” shows the former commander of Overwatch out to deal with a gang in a way that even Frank Castle (The Punisher) would be proud of.  It’s definitely one of the more action packed shorts, with 76 taking out gang members left and right with a mix of Batman stealth and aforementioned Punisher gunplay.  However, beyond the battlehardened bad assery is a man who still wants to do the right thing, even if that means risking the mission and his life to save a girl who gets caught in the crossfire.  “I’m not a young man anymore,” Morrison says, but there’s still a hero behind that visor.


#4-Alive (Widowmaker)
One of the first Overwatch shorts I saw introduced me to two characters ive always had a soft spot for.  While this is a Widowmaker based story, there’s equal amounts screentime dedicated to Overwatch’s flagship speedster Tracer.  The tale follows the two battling it out in London: Widow after an Omni Peacemaker and Tracer trying to protect said Peacemaker.  The battle between the two is amazing, showcasing their equally unique skill sets and giving us some great back and forth that emphasizes why Widow and Tracer continue to be shipped by the community.  The ending is the part that really stands out.  Tracer loses the duel and her charge is killed.  If anything, Alive emphasized that while this is a fun and energetic universe, it isn’t afraid to let the bad guys win if things do play out that way.


#3-Shooting Star (D.Va)
The most recent of the Animated shorts, Shooting Star is a more straight forward action fest featuring Overwatch’s second most featured promo character, the sexy MEKA Pilot D.Va, battling a squadron of Sentinel like Omnics solo.  D.Va’s skill in the cockpit of her awesome mech is on full display along with all the glowing confidence, personality and genuine likeablity she has always been gifted with.  The short also proves to be a lesson for the cutie pilot, being forced to let her lone wolf attitude take a backseat to trusting that lucky guy who gets to hang out with her in her hanger.  While my main’s in recent months have become Sombra and Moira, I could always start training with a Tank character…and I think D.Va would be a good one to go with after this short.  Plus ahhhhh I wish a girl would look at me the way D.Va glimpses her handsome friend from time to time.


#2-Infiltration (Sombra)
Oh Sombra.  I never knew that from the moment this short ended, I would find the Overwatch character I would excel with in the main game…but also fall for super hard.  The first appearance of everyones favorite sultry Mexican hackeress follows her infiltrating Volskaya Industries with the help of Reaper and Widowmaker.  We get to see Sombra’s hacking and stealth on full display, God she is such a boss.  I love the climax though, showing that Sombra is really playing her own kind of game, not on the side of Talon but also far from the side of Overwatch.  What kind of favor would she ever reach out to Volskaya for?  What is Sombra’s ultimate objective?  I don’t know but I would love more adventures with her down the line (though I guess every character needs to get at least one feature first and we’ve barely gotten through a quarter of the cast list).  


#1-Rise and Shine (Mei)
Of all the shorts released so far, this one legit made me cry.  And if you’re not crying by the end, there’s something wrong with you.  You wouldn’t know it behind her shy and cute personality but Mei has one of the more tragic backstories of any character in Overwatch.  When Mei and her Antartica based science team decide to spend time in cryo stasis to preserve resources and await resupply, no one expects anything to go wrong.  But then Mei wakes up…in her cute Pajamei look no less…and slowly realizes that not only have 10 years gone by and Overwatch is no more…but she is also the only survivor of cryo sleep, her team perishing one after another throughout the years.  It’s such a sad fate to wake up to and Mei hugging her faithful robot Snowball only sells it more.  But then Mei decides to pull a Mark Watney and make her way back to civilization…and the recall message put out by Winston.  Goes to show you that even in the darkest of times, the strongest of hearts can always pull through.  Mei proves in this short more than anything that she belongs with the revitalized Overwatch…and dammit you just wanna hug her too.

No comments:

Post a Comment