The History and Lore of Overwatch (Part 1)

Overwatch, just like many other Esports games, has a backstory that leads up to the present mission and tasks that players have to complete. As we await the release of Overwatch season 2, let’s share with you the big story behind this legendary game that has kept us all glued for years. Below is just a summarized version of the story behind the game Overwatch.

The Golden Age

The story of Overwatch begins some 60 years into the future, when the world is at the climax of its industrial revolution. Artificial intelligence has reached its peak, and humans are able to build advanced robots that execute all forms of tasks with the speed of light, and can upgrade to a higher intelligence at will.

Riding on the waves of this technological golden age, a massive tech company called Omnica Corporation comes onboard and starts manufacturing a lot of these advanced robots called Omnics. These robots become an indispensable part of human society, helping to ease activities in all sectors of the human economy. Among the other achievements of humanity, they also build a science lab on the moon where they will genetically modify some organisms into super-smart apes.

Omnica builds lots of manufacturing companies called Omniums all over the world, and each of these branches churn out several of these self-improving superintelligent robots every other day. Some Omnics also have high grade combat abilities such that they can face and disseminate a whole battalion of enemies. One of the most popular units of Omnics is the “Bastion” who is also called a “Peacekeeper,” and can transform between three moods namely Tank, Sentry and Recon. 

Within a little time, these robots bring about lots of economic growth, making the different host nations richer than their wildest imaginations.

The Golden Era Ends in Doom

Up in the moon, one day, the advanced apes got tired of being experimented on, so they started revolting. They attacked the scientists and escaped from the facility. One of the advanced apes, a peaceful guy called Winston, didn’t want to take part in the revolt, so he built himself a rocket that’ll launch him back to earth. Another genetically modified organism, a hamster called Hammond, manages to get on Winston’s rocket, and together they blast back into the surface of the earth while the chaos continues on the moon.

Things aren’t any better on earth either. There have been a series of corruption allegations against Omnica Corporation. To make it worse, the omniums start malfunctioning, so the company can no longer really meet its manufacturing requirements. Things get so messy that the governments unitarily shut the company down.

The Omnic Crisis

While the company sinks, after sometime the omniums start operating secretly in the background, operated by some aggrieved members of the company. This time, they start manufacturing lethal robotic weapons; a whole new form of hostile omnics. They especially produce new and violent versions of Bastion units and program them to start revolting against mankind.

The omnics start killing and destroying the world. Humans try to defend themselves, but of course, the robots are stronger and superintelligent. Different countries formulate individual strategies of combating this omnic crisis.

In Germany, the fiercest soldiers align to form a team codenamed Crusaders. They use medieval weaponry and massive suits of armour to fight the omnics and defend their territory.

Russian omnic manufacture, Volskaya produces high-tech piloted mechs to defend Moscow. In the United States, scientists start performing an enhancement procedure on their soldiers, to bring their strength, tact and lethality to par with the omnics.

After the different countries try their individual best to end the omnic crisis without much success, they realize that they’d achieve even more if they all unite to defeat their common enemy.

More in Part 2!

 

(Header image via PlayOverwatch)