This isn't an OW2 thing; this was a problem with OW1, hell it might have even been worse in 1.
ALL that happens in Overwatch 1 in terms of present-day story is that Winston presses a button and calls the old Overwatch agents. That's it!
Overwatch 2, they properly get back together, do three missions before the heavily rushed and constantly fucked over development staff get laid off and have to abandon the pve. And that's it. We've had some comics lately, adding maybe an extra 93 seconds to the story but besides that, nothing. Everything else Overwatch has ever done lore/story wise has been stuff in the past. Stuff that HAS happened. Not stuff that IS happening.
Think about that, think about how little has actually, presently happened since the beginning of Overwatch 1. A couple of dozen people went from not being in the same place... to being in the same place, and then went to some places and did about 3 things total.
Riveting.
I think the only genuine progress we got is the null sector attack from the pve missions, and then just a bunch of characters joining overwatch
And then they proceeded to wrap that up with a short narrated video…
"They attacked Buenos Aires and we killed them all"
"Bloody fantastic citizen"
the 343 approach to storytelling
I dont hate the books but boy do I wish they would put some of that story they give in the books into games.
yeah everyone just joins but nothing ever happens xD
i mean its a online shooter, i dont expect any lore. But its funny when pointed out
And even that stuff mostly happened in animated comics and text dumps, not the gorgeously produced cinematics that used to be the Overwatch claim to fame.
To be fair, the lore of Overwatch could be summed up as "Terminator vs. The Avengers." Either the heroes come out on top and beat back the murder-bots, or their war continues on in a stalemate with Null Sector showing up to throw down just to have their collective can kicked down the road. It's perfect for a formulaic story, kind of like the OG Transformers animated series: Decepticons attack, Autobots roll-out, Starscream orders a retreat, Megatron berates his cowardice, and Optimus Prime delivers a heroic monologue while Bumblebee caps it with humor or some cheesy one-liner.
Don’t forget that time Pharah revealed she was a Mercy simp!
Overwatch will be 10 years old in 2026 and the story is still at "Winton called all Overwatch agents to join him again because the world needs them :("
This. We are missing so much lore and Vendetta coming into the picture with the archives missions forever destroyed because of the upgrade doesnt make it any better
Ofc it's not a story driven game at all.
Neither is League of Legends but Arcane added so much to it
To be fair Blizzard was open to making an Overwatch show years ago but then Netflix ruined relations by poaching a Blizzard executive
Arcane is not the best exemple tbh, most people who enjoy League's lore loathe Arcane. But even then, League has constant lore updates, just this last few months, a playable character has died (only in the story, he is still playable), and we got a update in a ongoing plot-point about Noxus.
Then don’t tease a narrative. TF2 isn’t a story driven game yet has a good narrative throughout several animations and the comics
Marvel rivals has a consistent story being updated season by season, along with personal character stories
Apex has the same, a shifting narrative that focuses on different characters, even if they’re years old.
Overwatch doesn’t really have an excuse when we had multiple animations and story based PvE mission which were then just left behind. The game doesn’t need to shift genres, we just want to see the story and potential realised.
We saw this very thing with Arcane, a game with story as a B plot getting a full adaptation which is currently one of the best animated shows ever. So whats Blizzards excuse? One of the titans of the gaming industry and they can’t even handle a story in the background of one of their IPs?
Don't excuse mediocrity. Rainbow Six Siege has had 3 main threats and the outbreak event which was enough to create a whole new game on it's own in the same time (10 years). Apex in less time (released in 2019) has also had many different motivations for characters and the syndicate. None of those game are story games, they are competitive games
You are right.
Overwatch 2 was supposed to be.
Oh wait lol
The reason OW2 exists is literally because it was originally supposed to just be story driven PvE missions, with Overwatch “1” coexisting as the PvP game. They later merged the two games, and eventually they gave us 3 PvE missions total and called it a day.
Yeah, most of what would be explored was in the potential Story Missions, but those were received poorly because people were expecting more than just new Archives Missions. Story Missions were never meant to be the only PvE content, but after they cancelled the Hero Missions, it made the Story Missions look like crap to the community.
The problem with doing any current content with what's happening right now, is that it wouldn't sync with voice lines and interactions in the game. You see some crazy event around one character, then see that character brush it off and be flippant about it in the game.
yeah, I think a big issue is trying to weave the lore with the actual game itself. Any big changes needs to be reflected through new dialouge, but that means older lines will have to be scrapped, and if it's frequent enough then that's a lot of stuff being rearranged.
Rivals at least has the multiverse excuse, so not only can they keep older voice lines in and act like it's a different timeline variant, but also actually theme seasons around their lore. Unfortunately Overwatch doesn't have that luxury since they're bound by a more grounded universe, but I feel like the practice of one season themed after a lore event is still worth it and long overdue.
I've been playing since year 1 and the only thing I know lore-wise is what the characters say to eachother in the lobbies lol
realistically though what can they do to add lore to a hero shooter? i love the backstory and character design but trying to progress the story in a game that essentially never changes just doesn't seem practical. maybe a new map with some lore elements?
Tbf they could drop more cinematics or just do what league did with arcane
I've always thought bliz would make bank if they committed to an overwatch animated series. I'm really surprised they haven't considering the success of Arcane and now with Nintendo making films. I feel the market is definitely there.
They say season 21 is gonna be insane. Im not expecting a lot but honestly i have hope that they will anounce an anime or something big lore related. It just makes sense for everyone
From what ive heard a few months back a bunch lf lore writers went on strike and demanded to re implement lore and to bring back cinnematics and theyre doing just that
They did, but Netflix had strange aspirations of also having a game studio, so they used the dealings as an opportunity to poach an executive from Blizzard when they were still under contract, which caused a lawsuit, and now Blizzard and Netflix are not on good terms.
Apex Legends advances the story each season, with character dialogues changing according to each event.
Marvel Rivals does something similar on a smaller scale.
I feel like there is always been lore
Short stories and comics have been part of Overwatch since 2016 - and I've gotten way more actual lore from them than from the cinematics anyway.
soldier and illari linked Overwatch HQ bombing and her accident with the help of sombra
Efi and Orisa help Sojourn in Toronto and later join Overwatch.
Symmetra and Lifeweaver help Zenyatta, giving her space to reflect and grow.
Hammond even went to China to confront the people behind his experimentation. And the latest story reveal he is responsible for Juno colony losing contact with earth
Just to name a few
And that isn't even 100% canon. Interaction voice lines are just half-canon as per the devs because it is what their conversation would be like IF they met each other. More details here.
One example I can think of is Mei in OW1 having interactions with other characters that she hasn't even met yet in the lore.
That's the vast majority of players.
I know Marvel Rivals comparisons are over done, but one thing Rivals has done that really helps with the story is giving each set of maps a clear story beat that keeps driving the game forward.
They also have a lore why they are mixed up together. But in the grand scheme of things I dont think its a big issue.
Are you referring to the dynamic/shifting maps? Would be cool for OW to implement something like that.
But if you mean tie the maps back into lore, I believe all the maps are previously featured in shorts/animations/stories. Off the top of my head, i know for sure: Lijang Tower (Ball’s short story), Eichenwalde (Rein cinematic), Route 66 (Echo cinematic)
Numbani was about stealing Doomfist's glove, King's Row was about setting off an EMP in the Omnic quarter of the city, R66 was about stealing Echo.
Lmao, how’d I forget Kings Row? I literally just watched the Widow/Tracer cinematic the other day! One of my favs!
Overwatch maps have character tie ins, but they don't really have a plot.
As an example:
In the Asgard maps, the plot is that the Attacking team is trying to free Asgard from Loki. In the escort map, you escort Stormbreaker to Yggdrasil, using Stormbreaker to sharter Loki's Chronovium siphon on the tree. (On defense, you are helping Loki stop them.) In the 2cp map, you capture three locations in the Asgardian palace as a distraction from the escort mission. This is a clear plot that ties into the game's overarching Chrono-Entanglement plotline.
In comparison, Eichenwalde's story is you are reclaiming Balderich's armor for Reinhardt. There is no further explanation of why the defense team is trying to stop you from doing this, or frankly why you even need to escort a rocket-powered Siege Weapon to achieve this goal. The armor never comes up again and has no further bearing on the story. It's a provides a snapshot of the lore and helps establish Reinhardt's character, but it doesn't have an actual plot, nor does it enhance the overall plot of the game.
And pretty much all the maps are exactly that. Overwatch has developed a very interesting setting with very little actual plot. All the events happen in the past. All the maps are defined not by current events but their connection to the Omnic Crisis and Overwatch.
So, what I mean is, imagine if they gave each map a simple story that ties to a current, active storyline. It doesn't have to be anything huge. Just something to move us forward.
Thanks for the thorough explanation. That makes sense, and I agree fully!
i'm still convinced they could help the lore so, so much if they just got someone to voice a second announcer. get maximilien to do it. one team has athena the other has max. add like 2-3 announcer lines that are less general and are based on each map and it would do wonders to make things feel more alive
Kinda comes with the territory of being a game with no actual playable story mode
For that matter I question the way handle "world building."
I love Illari but it feels really weird that Blizzard was just like AND ALSO THERE WAS THIS HUGE ORGANIZATION OF SUN-POWERED SUPER WARRIORS THAT ESPLODED WHILE EVERYTHING ELSE WAS HAPPENING.
That feels like it's the setup for an entire plot arc- but no, it's just kind of there and no one seems to care, and I can't blame them because it's not like it had any impact on the world besides Illari's personality.
Illari teamed up with solider they found out that her explosion is tied to overwatch HQ bombing
Things are going to start to happen now with Vendetta vs Doomfist and Freja finding Emre
cope tbh
not really
We have had nearly a decade of "things are going to start to happen now that characters x and y have interacted in a comic/cinematic". Until something actually happens, there's zero reason to believe this will be any different.
literally entirely different things have been happening this time, including explicit claims for lore coming back, new lore developments increasing in quality, frequency, and consistency from before, and the ending of a long-standing storyline. they wouldn't do all this for nothing 🤷 there's plenty of reason to believe things might be different, because for starters, they ARE. actively. currently.
This would be so much easier to believe if they didn't have nearly a decade of history of lore buildup leading to nothing.
You say things are different now, but all I see are exactly the kind of things OP places in that 99% bar that we've been getting drip-fed for years. And in comparison to OW1 it's objectively even less, since at least that actually tied into the game via Archives. Let me know when something happens in-game. Until then, I'm not holding my breath on the impactful lore department.
“They wouldn’t do all this for nothing”
The humble 5 years of development for PvE that never happened.
Waiting for Doom to prove that conflict is how he evolves I’d love a comeback arc for him regaining power
It's a pvp game where the same heroes kill each other multiple times a match. They kill themselves, even, mirror matches included.
The core game just will never make sense if you try to tie it up with lore
It’s sad, in every other shooter, with imo worse lore than ow, they have a progeessive story, take marvel rivals and Alex for example
Alex? Marvel destroys them for lore so it's not even close, shouldn't even be a comparison
I guess I’m in a the minority here. I love how Overwatch’s lore is handled.
It’s just all set up for the game we are playing. I’m
OW is the biggest Nothing Ever Happens game universe I’ve ever played and it’s so frustrating because of all the goddamn backstory.
I know I’m in the minority but I love the fact that there is no “current story”
The backstory is the story. The stories already completed, we are just hearing about it in “flash backs”
Potential man ahh story
It's r/Overwatch if there is a place you can say ass is here
I find “ahh” funnier tbh, sounds stupid
Understandable carry on
ahh is slang
slang that has been around decades before tiktok was a thing might I add, I literally grew up hearing this (early to mid 2000s.) the amount of ppl who thinks it’s brainrot censorship created by tiktok is astounding lol.
it is very silly how many redditors want to constantly correct others with "um actually you can say ass on reddit". the answer is one google search away
No, you’d get your account reported and banned
I know you're probably underage but this isn't tiktok or whatever shithole app you came from.
Its a joke based off the fact you can actually get banned for saying ass in the actual game
Basically since before New Blood OverWatch has just been getting back together again, and all of the issues that have popped up have taken care of themselves.
I think it sucks that we'll probably never get answers for 80% of the OverWatch 1 story and lore. I feel like they're also hesitant to write for the current cast and future lore because they don't want to commit to things.
Okay so going by your arbitrary selection of what is present and what is past, all that has happened after Winston presses a button would be present, no?
It's funny you say there's nothing concurrent happening with the story when in reality it has been moving forward all along, if nothing had happened, we would still be just waiting on whatever the hell happened at the end of Ironclad, yet there's several different pieces of media that tell of things that have happened after that, one after another even.
I get it's hard to get invested unless it's a self telling moving picture, but if you put a little bit of effort and actually go read through the novels, short stories and comics, you'll find out the story has been moving forward.
They have also made a bunch of stuff that happens in the past, true, but at the very least be faithfull with your arguments. Is it arguments? Or just complaints, hmm.
You shouldn't have to dig through hours on google to create a Pepe Silvia board to get a crumb of understanding of the story. This stuff should be in the game, not hidden in a .pdf file you have to download on a website.
At the end of the day they can only really have lore through worldbuilding in the PVP matches themselves. Any other lore must either be in PVE missions or in seperate media (comics, short stories and animations), where the creators can actually control what happens. I feel like it's hard to claim about the lack of lore when you don't spend time with the parts of the IP that actually convery the lore. It's like claiming that the relationship between Hanzo and Genji is never explained, but also not having watched the Dragons animated short.
TBF maybe only a minority of players are interested in the deep lore of OW. Having a backstory for each character is enough for the majority.
If lore was heavily wanted you would see less player with how lacking it is.
Hey, at least it's better than Destiny.
🥱
I'm confident on the fact that even if they added it in game (which they are doing to some extent), the likes of you wouldn't have the capcity to sit through a 15 pages story with no drawings. If you have issues looking it up on the official website, you'kl have issues reading it too.
Pepe Silvia, give me a fucking break.
Just take the L mate.
Oh my god six downvotes, whatever shall I do.
It’s cool and all but all this stuff has happened, and now we’re waiting for the reveal of what happens next, but instead we’re shown new characters with randome ties to the lore.
Compare it with Apex where the story naturally progresses through the season instead of each season just being a way to offload skins and bloody weapon charms
You're arguing a completely different point. Are you dense, or did you conveniently choose to ignore the part were OP is saying that "nothing" has happened since Recall.
Y'all have to choose, you either whine about stuff "not happening" (objectively false), or you complain about stuff that has indeed happened (and the complain would be the pacing? That you don't find it interesting?)
On top of that you're throwing your disdain for cosmetics into the conversation for absolutely no reason at all. Well maybe there's a reason, the fact you needed to give your "argument" some heft.
I mean most of this is just "A new character is introduced" or "These two characters have an interaction", but it doesn't really lead anywhere.
But that's fine IMO, it's not like this game can have plot arcs like a book or a tv show can. They can't kill off characters, or change their essential relationship to each other in any substantial way.
They're all just stuck in a perpetual "now" pushing around the same payloads forever. I think building out the depth and breadth of the backstories makes more sense than trying to move any plot forward (similar to how tabletop games tend to do their worldbuilding).
All of this is just dialogues, minor events or setups that haven't lead anywhere. And characters teaming up and inconsequential skirmishes aren't story. The OW story so far is just a nothing burger, the only thing that changed is OW has been partially rebuilt. Even the invasion storyline's resolution has been offscreened and is still a setup for something else.
You don't get to choose what is a minor event or not :)
You don't get to say what story is or not.
I'm sorry you're part of the bunch that can't get into anything unless it's a self-telling moving picture.
Hopefully, eventually, you'll be capable of actually focusing on what's being offered.
You're right I don't, it's just that something that has absolutely no consequence and doesn't lead anywhere can't be anything but a minor event. The story hasn't moved outside of Invasion and that's a fact.
Tbf I dont think the Null Sector war story was ever going to be all that interesting, it was always intended to just be a backdrop to PvE, without it, a war story where no important characters can die just isnt very engaging.
Meet potential story
I would argue that was its biggest strength, at least back when it was first out. You were presented with all these characters that suffered through the backstory, so learning about it after the fact was satisfying. I remember how hype it was when we saw what Blackwatch looked like, and how Bastion broke his programming. I also remember how impactful the Mei short was when I first watched it, since it felt like a cinematic universe was unfolding. And fuck, I'll say it. Dragons is still a tearjerker sometimes.
But in the year 2025, yeah I 100% agree. It seems like nothing is happening, and all these new characters are just popping in to say hi rather than adding any substance to the Overwatch lore. Ana was impactful because she was Pharah's estranged mother. Moira was impactful because she facilitated Reaper's transformation. Doomfist was impactful because he was the first ever mystery in the entire game. But now we're getting people that, while cool as characters, make it feel like the storytelling of Overwatch is long dead.
Overwatch had lore?!? What does overwatch need lore for?
I feel like there is always been exciting lore
Short stories and comics have been part of Overwatch since 2016 - and I've gotten way more actual lore from them than from the cinematics anyway.
soldier and illari linked Overwatch HQ bombing and her accident with the help of sombra
Efi and Orisa help Sojourn in Toronto and later join Overwatch.
Symmetra and Lifeweaver help Zenyatta, giving her space to reflect and grow.
Hammond even went to China to confront the people behind his experimentation. And the latest story reveal he is responsible for Juno colony losing contact with earth
Just to name a few
Most games without a story/campaign mode from the get-go's lore focuses a lot on the past and little on the present
Desperately hoping this fundamentally changes in 2026. The game is (mechanically) in such a great place. The biggest thing they could do now is tell a story with each season. Other games in and out of this genre do it. Overwatch should do it too.
Honestly comparing ow to the first 14-ish seasons of apex (I stopped playing around conduit release) it’s actually wild how different their approach is. I kinda respect apex being able to attempt storytelling in a live service online game. At least things happen in apex and characters dynamics change.
I think the lore today is that the omnic problem is solved somehow and now both the heroes and enemies that used to try to kill each other are one big happy family and compete in stadium tournaments tv shows.
And if you don’t want to pay for your content in a FTP game that replaced the game you actually paid for, well then no lore or extra content for you lol.
I am a writer, I enjoy military dramas, I sincerely hope I could work with Overwatch lore one day. Here's hoping, until then they are just imagination.
My cope hopium is that we get a animated series/movie of the cancelled PVE story
*copium
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Actually, this IS because of overwatch 2. They stopped making stuff set in the present because it was gonna be in a PVE mode (that became OW2). So they worked on backstories and setup.
Blizzard doesn't put in enough effort in the lore for me to care about it tbh.
Lord of the Rings has a higher story : lore ratio and it has its own fantasy Bible
Ow stopped being about lore towards the end of OW1's life cycle.
While both are hero shooters, Apex Legends clearly outperforms Overwatch in this aspect. When a new character appears, it doesn't leave players wondering, "Uh...who is that?"
There was a graphic novel cooked and ready "OW: First Strike" when OW1 was fresh launch, the novel explained everything about the past so we could focus the present & future. But Jeff & Michael decided to cancel the novel, so they had to redo the past arc so the new era characters got severely delayed.
What's worse, Michael cared more about pushing Genji x Mercy forward instead of giving us something more relevant like Zenyatta lore.
I really don’t understand how they can let the game go on for so long and just tease a story. It’s insane lol. First live service game with unlimited lore but no lore
It's cause there's no story, per se. Overwatch lore is basically a mosaic of lore events. We started to see traction during PvE, but the only "story" we get these days are character backstories for the new heroes.
Once upon a time, I dreamt that that Overwatch Netflix rumour actually took off and became a massively successful show built on the back of those awesome CGI trailers of yesteryear. Now, with Overwatch 2 pooping the bed and Netflix adaptations being a sign of famine and woe, I sigh and droop my head downcast... ... ...but not for very long because Arcane: League of Legends fills that void and then some.
Jeff left and the lore left. They focused on the second game and focused HARD on microtransactions and paid skins.
Then just mostly Kiri and Mercy skins.
Then some more Kiri skins.
Oh and a Mercy skin.
Mostly this is because their focusing on adding new characters. If they ever do a new PVE event we’re get more forward motion.
I'm pretty sure the only two story beats to actually occur in game are Cass changing his name and the Numbani airport getting cleaned up.
When the focus is on cranking out new hero’s, most of the new content will focus around them and inevitably it will be their backstory / the past. Making new stuff about old hero’s doesn’t move the bank balance which is why there is no focus on it. If the game went into a 1 year+ pause on releasing new hero’s I think you’d see far more current world development focus. Can’t ever see that happening though because new hero’s boost the bank account.
Well yeah there's that and the fact that if they stopped releasing heroes for a year the whole fanbase would be protesting
There coulda been a movie or tv show with the amount of quality and storytelling they packed into those first few years of cinematic shorts
Continued wasted potential
The best thing ever was Null Sector with Ramattra!! That was so much fun
Lowkey this is also how FromSoft games lore feels to me
Okay maybe but that's kind of the whole point of fromsoft games. You're late to the party and trying to put the pieces together. It's interesting to get these fragments of the story and then put them together. And also the thing you do as a player is actually significant. Hell you can end the world in some games in a sense.
But that works because the games are still fairly linear at a large scale and there is a lot of control on the developer side. I feel like it is hard to add a lot of story to a pvp match in overwatch, unless you want the same story to repeat for each game on the same map. Besides, the story is going to have to be completely seperate from the characters, because what heroes will be played won't be known in advance. Which seems like a problem when the heroes are the driving force of the ow lore. The only real solution imo is PVE.
Well because mostly ever since the beginning it's super generic and the stuff they tried to do has been done many times already by other IPs
The only way for the lore to genuinely progress is to make an animated series. Why don't have an anime already? Overwatch is being pretty popular in Japan. C'mon Blizzard, if Cyberpunk didn't give you the hint, what else will give?
They are not going to continue the story for free. Microsoft needs to make profit from their investment.
It's actually pretty funny when you think about it (and kinda unique to my knowledge?) that the main gameplay loop of Overwatch, ie the PVP matches we all know and love(?), is by definition not canon to the setting, at the very least because you can have anyone in your team, facing anyone in the other team, no matter their factions, or even themselves.
Don't worry guys it'll all become better in that cinematic they promised us
/cope
It’s a pvp game. The story is just an excuse to have crazy different characters fight each other. It’s not that deep
@grok How to continue Zarya from Overwatch’s story about a big explosive mech battle and institutional corruption in Russia without offending anyone
You hire Hideaki Anno and turn Zarya into a Shinji-Asuka with a Russian accent.
Just do an anime series already.
Underwhealming
the lore means nothing since there isn’t a meaningful pve mode. may as well be fanfic
It’s not consistent
underwhealming
long term consequences of deleting the pve mode🥀
Did everyone decide to collectively forget the fact that they literally scammed us and cancelled the PvE mode they promised that was meant to further the story
Yea it spend a lot of time establishing how characters came to be
Sometimes it really feels like me trying to write a story, then instead of moving forward the plot, I keep ideating new characters and justifying them through a backstory or two lol
This will NEVER change. The higher ups realized that printing out skin recolors and collabs is more lucrative than hiring developers to continuously work on a PvE mode. Because Blizzard (higher ups) is trash and doesn't care about the fan base at all anymore. You're just wallets to them.
I like how you are saying "you're" like you are somehow different that every other ow player, despite being in this subreddit.
I am. I don't play the game anymore and I've never spent any money in it except for buying the first game when it came out. So I am not a wallet. I'm not saying this somehow makes me any better, or that it makes anyone worse, I'm just trying to say that this is all that the players are to the big company owning the game. Just wallets.