In Praise of the Overwatch Expanded Universe

If you read the title of this post and thought to yourself, "Overwatch? What's that?", then you clearly haven't spoken to me much during the last few months. Those who have enjoyed such a privilege have already been subject to many a monologue from me about Overwatch, my current obsession. For the uninitiated, Overwatch is a video game - specifically a multiplayer, team-based, first-person shooter. After several years of distant fascination with the game, I finally purchased the PC edition last month. I have been obsessed ever since, playing almost every day and spending a good chunk of my time outside of the game by talking about it and reading up on its lore. It was this last aspect of the game, its lore, which first got me interested in Overwatch, and I'd like to use this post to talk about it a little more.

I am a big advocate for video games as storytelling mediums, and there are few things I love more than a story-rich, character-driven game. Most games I'd put into this category put the narrative directly in the game, connecting it to the actions of the player in a way that would make it almost impossible to complete the game without being exposed to the storyline as well. Unlike those games, Overwatch does things a bit differently.

One of the things which makes Overwatch unique is that there is technically little-to-no in-game story. It is, after all, a player-vs-player shooter, which is not exactly the game style most conducive to storytelling. While we are given a little information about the characters you can choose to play, as well as some hints to the game's backstory through said characters' interactions with each other, there isn't really enough detail given in-game to figure out the full narrative.

Yet the creators of the game must have been committed to expanding on the game's basic premise somehow, because they decided to explore the story in a new way that went beyond the game itself. The result of this is what is sometimes referred to as the Overwatch Expanded Universe, in a similar vein to the expanded universe of bigger franchises like Star Wars. Essentially, what Blizzard (Overwatch's parent company) has done is created a series of comics, fiction, and animated shorts that expand on the basic storyline introduced in the Overwatch game. These are connected to the base game to varying degrees: the short film "Are You With Us?" serves as an introduction, even playing the first time you boot up the game; the short story "What You Left Behind", in contrast, tells us more about the backstory of one specific character who wasn't even added until three years after Overwatch's initial release.

The experience of exploring these expanded universe stories reminds me a lot of reading Marvel comics (although I have no doubt it's similar to exploring the universes of DC, Star Wars, and others as well). Each film, comic, or story stands on its own, but it is also a part of a greater whole. There's no set "reading order" for them, but it's as you watch/read more of them that the pieces start to fit together. Reading "Old Soldiers" meant more once I had watched the animated short introducing Ana. Watching "Alive" took on a new meaning after reading "Stone by Stone". I love being able to watch two characters interact, then go back and learn about the backstories which led them to behave in the way that they did - or vice versa. 

While I would probably love the expanded universe even if I didn't play Overwatch, I find exploring these stories gives the game greater depth for me too. When the game loads up a Quick Play match on the Nepal map and Genji mentions how his "soul feels at peace" there, I feel silently pleased at knowing why he said that (he stayed in Nepal with the robot monk Zenyatta in order to spiritually accept his cyborg body, in case you were wondering). It gives the little interactions, voice lines, and even the skins of the characters an extra layer of meaning that makes the game all that more enjoyable.

It also helps that the Overwatch expanded universe is simply very good. The CGI animated shorts in particular stand out, seeing as they wouldn't look out of place playing before a Pixar movie in terms of their graphics and emotional impact, but the short fiction and comics (as well as the 2D animated films and various pieces of writing on the Blizzard website) are excellent as well. Not only are they technically very well done, but they deal with surprisingly heavy topics in a way that is meaningful and optimistic. Overwatch's stories take place in a world devastated by a global crisis caused by artificial intelligence, where humans and robots (called Omnics in the Overwatch universe) struggle to find ways to coexist. They look at issues of life and sentience, the morality of violence (even in self defence), and whether it is worth holding onto hope even if you've been let down every time. Not to give spoilers, but one thing I love about these stories is that they do always come back to themes of hope, redemption, and the importance of trying to make the world a better place. I never would have expected a multiplayer shooter to carry such emotional and philosophical weight in its narrative, but here we are. 

While I would recommend the Overwatch game itself, like I said, it's also possible to enjoy the expanded universe without playing it. If you are interested, I would recommend starting with the short teaser "Are You With Us?" and going from there. Most likely you will start to become interested in different characters or elements in the Overwatch universe after that, from which point you can search for stories involving that particular aspect and go from there. You can find almost all of the expanded universe media on Blizzard's website. The Overwatch wiki is also a great source, especially if you see mention of a certain place or person and need to quickly find out what on earth they're on about.

Overwatch 2 is meant to be coming out sometime soon, although it seems to be indefinitely delayed due to COVID. Apparently it will be released with a new story mode, which I am somewhat ambivalent about. On one hand, I am excited that Blizzard is making the story such a prominent part of the game, and this new mode will no doubt mean lots of exciting new developments in the narrative. On the other hand, I really am fond of the multimedia, expanded universe approach that's currently being used to tell Overwatch's story. I hope that even with the new story mode available, Blizzard will continue to work on the expanded universe. If we get both, that would be an Overwatch story-lover's dream come true.