'Overwatch's' Hidden Story And Why Plot Matters

“I’m a one man apocalypse.” –Roadhog, a seven foot tall, shirtless maniac who huffs grenades to heal himself.

Overwatch has quite the cast of colorful characters. From deranged ghost assassins to mechanical dwarves, Blizzard’s take on the first-person-shooter chooses to ignore many of the generic videogame tropes and instead focuses on making something new.

Unlike other MOBA-style games, Overwatch actually has a story and a reason to fight. Omnics, or fancy robots, used to be in a war with the humans, until the Overwatch program was created, using people (and gorillas) with special skills to fight in the war. After the dust settled, the people realized that they didn’t want a group of all-powerful beings around with limited authority, so the group was disbanded. Now the world is in chaos again, and the members of Overwatch are back to kick some ass. It’s a little bit of the Matrix, Justice League and Halo , with just a splash of social commentary.

Playing Overwatch has reminded me how much I love having a reason to fight. For the last few years, League of Legends no longer had a story; all the lore was removed and is now slowly getting rewritten.

Back in the olden days of Riot, the League was a place where the warring factions of Runeterra would solve disputes by having their champions duke it out on Summoner's’ Rift. In a post, Riot said that they found this idea “limiting” so they just got rid of it. Now, these champions have no reason to fight, and it’s really starting to affect my enjoyment of League of Legends.

It doesn’t help that Riot keeps introducing more grandiose champions to League of Legends . The last guy we got was a dragon who literally makes universes and fights with stars. Why is he fighting a squirrel with a blow dart gun?

Unlike League, Overwatch has an abundance of story, which is pretty hard for a game with no story mode. Every single map is crawling with detail, from the desolate highways of Route 66, to the gorgeous cherry blossoms of Hanamura. The towering robots and giant ship blueprints of Volskaya industries don’t really mean anything unless you look closely. Some players might ignore these details entirely, just thinking of them as cover or places to bolster defenses. It’s entirely up to the player, which I think is one of the reasons Overwatch has gotten so popular.

There are Overwatch comics , video character bios and beautiful cinematics . I have gushed over these Pixar-style vignettes before, and if you haven’t watched them you really should. Blizzard has done an amazing job with creating a world in this game; it’s not just a place with nameless targets.

If you haven’t tried the game yet, I recommend giving it a chance. The Open Beta is currently running and the game launches everywhere May 24.