The History and Lore of Overwatch (Part 2)

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. We left Part 1 off during the crisis of the Omnics.

How did Overwatch Start? 

After fighting the monsters individually for a while, the affected countries realize that it would be best to join forces and share resources to destroy the enemy. Thus, the United Nations meets and agrees to form a unified force called Overwatch. Overwatch will be a lethal defense team comprising the most powerful and talented fighters from the different countries. 

They appoint two American soldiers, Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes to lead the squad. The pioneer members include Torbjorn Linholm, an engineer from Sweden; Reinhardt Wilhelm from the Crusaders squad in Germany, and Ana Amari, a dangerous sniper from Egypt. 

Having all the manpower and support they need, Overwatch hits the ground running, and unleashes terror on the omnics. Within a little time the battle ends. Overwatch defeats the omnics, and only one bastion unit manages to run away.

After the huge success of ending the omnic crisis, the world retains Overwatch as a team of international peacekeepers. They start recruiting and get many people onboard including Winston, pilot, Lena “Tracer” Oxton, and medic, Angela “Mercy” Zeiglar. Overwatch also creates bases in different parts of the world where they handle heroic activities like emergency rescue, counterterrorism, scientific advancement and disaster recovery.

The Fall of Overwatch

With time, Jack Morrison becomes increasingly popular as the head of Overwatch, making it seem like Gabriel Reyes is just his sidekick. Meanwhile, Overwatch has created a secret branch Blackwatch, which Reyes oversees. Since Overwatch has gained the pristine image of being a “Peacekeeper,” Blackwatch is designed to handle some issues that “peace” cannot really solve.

Aiming to make his team formidable, Reyes recruits a few willing fighters including cybernetically enhanced ninja, Geniji Shimada, cowboy, Jesse McCree, and Moira O’Deorain, who used to be a renowned geneticist.

 

As if to justify the formation of the Blackwatch, a terrorist organisation called Talon sprang up and started working towards causing another Omnic Crisis and killing civilians. While Overwatch maintains its pristine image of being a peacekeeper, Blackwatch does the bloody dirty jobs underground including assassination, kidnapping and torture, all of which are against the governing laws upon which the government set up Overwatch.

In truth, Blackwatch is the most critical unit of Overwatch, but despite being the leader of this powerful team, Reyes still feels inferior to Morrison. He hates that the whole world sees Morrison as the leader, and gives him all the accolades.

Talon continues fighting and targeting Overwatch’s high ranking agents. They kidnap and initiate Amelie, the wife of Agent Gerard Lecroix. Amelie gets home and kills her husband, and later becomes fully radicalized into a sniper called Widowmaker. She becomes a vicious killer.

A series of other catastrophic events begin to happen to Overwatch including a disastrous polar storm that destroys the communication channel between Overwatch’s Antarctic Watch point base and the rest of the organization. This makes the scientists go into cryostasis to avoid death.

Another Omnic terrorist organization called Null Sector attacks London. Overwatch tries to swing into action, but the United Nations and the UK government orders them to stand down. Jack Morrison refuses and sends his team to foil the attack. The already bad situation becomes bloodier when Gabriel Reyes kills a Talon leader, thus blowing the Blackwatch’s cover.

The public starts asking questions; the United Nations start investigating and a huge argument ensues between Morrison and Reyes at the Overwatch Headquarters in Switzerland that results in a massive explosion. The facility goes down to rubble, and it is presumed that both Morrison and Reyes died in the explosion, and were buried inside the rubbles.

After this disaster, the government disbands Overwatch, and all the heroes go their separate ways, scattered in different parts of the world.

Some months later, some mysterious persons sneak into Overwatch facilities to steal weapons and other equipment. They take a prototype pulse rifle and other lethal weapons. Morrison will later be revealed as the leader of the heist. He has now renamed himself Soldier 76, and his mission is to eliminate the enemies of Overwatch.

Reyes also resurfaces later, but this time, he undergoes Moira O’Deorian’s genetic modification to boost his strengths and abilities. His cells decay and regenerate rapidly giving him the ability to become incorporeal whenever he wishes. He renames himself Reaper and takes his loyalists along to join the Talon. His aim? To eliminate all his former colleagues at Overwatch, and get the revenge he so desperately needs.

Far away in Nepal, some remaining omnics start a kind of Eastern religion. Zenyatta, who’s one of their monks, starts teaching the innocent about the past and latest happenings, enlightening them and protecting them from harm’s way.

The Return of Overwatch

Later, a second omnic crisis sparks up in Russia. Terrorists start having a field day spilling blood in Europe and America. Climate change becomes erratic and gang violence becomes uncontrollable. The world is at the brink of collapsing again, and everyone starts wishing the Overwatch situation had been handled better. Now they need the heroes more than ever.

While all other members of Overwatch are missing in action, Winston still remains at the outpost in Gibraltar watching over the place until the Reaper attacks the facility to steal a list that contains the name of Overwatch agents. Winston challenges and fights him off, and then he sends words to all the Overwatch heroes scattered around the world. McCree, Mercy, Genji, Torbjorn, Tracer and Reinhardt respond almost immediately. Climatologist Mei-Ling Zhou, who happens to be the only survivor among those that went into cryostasis in the Antarctica region also returns to base.

Later, Reaper and Widowmaker try to break into a museum to steal a gauntlet that belongs to Doomfist, one of the Talon leaders. But Winston and Tracer confront and stop them from completing the mission. Unbeknownst to them, a CCTV camera records the fight, and when the video gets out to the outside world, everyone realizes that the Overwatch heroes are still out there! Now the world starts calling on them to come out and help save humanity again.

The resurfacing of the Overwatch heroes marks a beginning of a new dispensation of heroes and villains. There’s a lot of battle to be fought both with the Talons and other enemy groups terrorizing the world. The missions are almost unending, and both Overwatch and the Talon, and indeed every other combatant group has to regroup, strategize, recruit and ready themselves for the fierce battle ahead.

So, yeah, that’s the abridged version of the history and lore of Overwatch. Now the next time you play this game, when you come across these heroes and villains, you should be able to have a backstory in mind that makes them more relatable and allows you to feel connected to them on a somewhat personal level.

Every single hero or villain in Overwatch has their own backstory, and while we cannot tell the entire story in this single article, we will keep you updated as much as we can as the different seasons unfold.

 

(Header image via PlayOverwatch)