Blizzard just rolled out the second animated short for its upcoming game Overwatch which introduces two characters from the game, Widowmaker, the deadly sniper and Tracer, the time jumping adventurer.
Titled ‘Alive,’ this animated short has a lot of action then the last one which was about an attack on the scientist chimp Winston called ‘Recall’ that was released fortnight ago. This takes place in a world where robots and humans are living in a peaceful environment and ending things with the robot diplomat Tekhartha Mondatta assassinated and the bubbly heroine Tracer defeated and left on her own at the rooftop.
The trailer starts with a backstory of Widowmaker and her array of rifles and gadgets of assassination which include her sniper rifle, grappling hook, vision enhancing glasses and Venom mines. She is on the rooftop to shoot down Mondatta when Tracer surprises her and then the cat and mouse chase begins, that eventually ends with Widowmaker successfully killing Mondatta.
The animation style is a lot like Pixar’s characters with all the action and facial expressions but Blizzard puts in a lot more action to the characters than Pixar and that is solely to let the audience have a taste of the characters before the game releases in May. Also, this is not the first time that Tracer and Widowmaker had a head to head on the big screen, as they were featured in the first Overwatch cinematic trailer revealed at BlizzCon 2014 as well.
Overwatch won’t contain story missions or a single-player campaign but Blizzard plans to further develop the Overwatch via digital comics and a graphic novel called Overwatch: First Strike. Animated shorts too are in the same effort narrating the story arc of Overwatch and this is the second of the four episodes Blizzard is set to release. Two more animated shorts are yet to be released, but that is a sad news as this small animated shorts have been well appreciated and the narration gives you a good look at each character’s origins and Overwatch’s Avenger-ish meetup.
Blizzard Entertainment, game director and VP, Jeff Kaplan explains Tracer’s role in the game, “Tracer can blink around the battlefield so quickly that even the most experienced Widowmaker will struggle to line up a shot in time to stop her from jumping in, dropping a devastating explosive charge at your feet, and then warping backwards in time and away from the blast.”
Tracer will also feature on the next big patch update on Blizzard brawler arena game Heroes of Storm. Her debut will mark the first introduction of characters from Overwatch in the game which has heroes from all the Blizzard games. She will be the first hero in the game that can move and shoot simultaneously making her one of the dangerous heroes.
Overwatch is confirmed to officially release on the PC, PS4 and Xbox One on 24 May, a little earlier than it’s initially date of 21 June. The beta for the same will open from 5 to 9 May, and people who have preordered the game will have access to the early beta on 3 May.
