King’s Row EMP
Overwatch perhaps has one of the most fascinating casts of characters of any video game released this year, yet we still know so little about the world. This is primarily due to Blizzard relegating most of their actual lore to dialogue snippets, visual cues, and the odd animated short. There are a lot of interesting characters and stories that have yet to be fully discussed, especially those that revolve around the various characters. We aren’t going to focus too heavily on the back stories of characters since Blizzard will probably release a short for each one. Instead, these are 5 lesser known Overwatch stories that still need some more explaining.
Most payload maps have a fairly straightforward narrative that can be easily discovered with a bit of sleuthing or exploration. However, King’s Row is a unique example because we are actually escorting a massive EMP bomb throughout the city, which seems both incredibly dangerous and stupid if you are a Zenyatta main. We know this because of the way it flairs up at the end of the round if you are successful, but we also have a very minimal idea as to why we are doing.
Thanks to this line from explosives expert Junkrat (“So we are delivering a bomb to scrap some bots and I’m getting paid for it.”) we have a general idea as to why you’re bringing a bomb into the city. It turns out that this EMP is going to be used to wipe out an entire omnic population that is living in a slum below the final payload point. However, we still have no idea who exactly is paying us to bring this bomb or what their purposes are.
Now the easy guess would be Talon, Overwatch’s antagonist and terrorist organization, as they are no stranger to inciting violence in this town. After all, it was Widowmaker who shot what is essentially robot Gandhi (Tekhartha Mondatta) in front of a massive crowd of people. Yet, we have no idea what they would gain from demolishing an entire populace of omnics, so perhaps it’s someone else hiring your crew of 6.
Given that omnic/human tensions are at a boiling point in England, this could very well be a military operation or a mission from some anti-robot fanatics. The mystery of who and why is what makes King’s Row such a fascinating map to explore, so hopefully we will get some answers down the line.
Austrailia and the Junkers
It’s wildly known that both Junkrat (Jamison Fawkes) and Roadhog (Mako Rutledge) are both from Austrailia, however the backstory for their home is something that absolutely needs more exploration. Of all the places during the all out war known as the Omnic Crisis, Austrailia arguably got the worst end of it by the time everything was settled. After the war ended the world governments decided to allow omnics to build large population centers/factories in the Outback, which displaced a lot of people who were living there. Angry at the omnics, for obvious reasons, these people formed the Austrailia Liberation Front and begin to attack the robots.
However, this all escalated when they bombed an omnium factory’s fusion core and effectively turned the Outback into an irradiated wasteland. Now only those who live among the robotic debris have survived and are known amongst the world as “Junkers” which is where Roadhog and Junkrat are from. There’s no denying the obvious Mad Max inspirations behind this story, but we as players should actually get to see this world.
It’s clearly unlike anything else in Overwatch and perhaps one of the darkest tales in the entire series’ lore. Now exploring a destroyed Outback could make a fantastic map for players to explore and gather more tidbits of lore to deepen this area’s tragic tale. We don’t usually see the horrors of war or the Omnic Crisis in Overwatch, so opening this area up to the players should be something Blizzard considers down the road.
The Shambali
Omnics in Overwatch have had an interesting story as their artificial intelligence has granted them incredible comprehension of the world around them. After the Omnic Crisis, a small group of robots moved to an abandoned monastery (which can be seen during the Nepal map) after experiencing a “spiritual awaking.” Essentially, the omnic monks had come to believe that they possessed souls and were not just driven by their A.I. They were lead by Mondatta and attempted to create harmony among the human populace and omnics after the war.
Now it’s pretty obvious that Zenyatta is a part of this collective, but the entire idea of these robots believing they possessed a soul could be a movie unto itself. It’s a fascinating idea and makes one question where does humanity end and where does it begin, which could be an interesting topic to explore for Blizzard. While we expect some showcase of this if Zenyatta ever gets an animated short, this tale could also be told via a novel or comic book series.
There’s clearly a lot more to this group and with the death of their leader it would be interesting to see what happens. It’s pretty clear on the map Nepal that no omnics are around, so it makes one wonder what has happened to them. Are they in hiding or did Mondatta’s death drive them away? Hopefully, we can get some answers to our spiritualistic robots down the road as they are one of Overwatch’s most interesting collectives.
Hollywood’s Omnic Director
Have you ever been playing on the Hollywood map and wondered who the hell is yelling so much in the limo? Well, the person inside is actually an omnic named Hal-Fred Glitchbot, who’s a director for a variety of famous films such as They Came Beyond the Moon which has posters plastered across the map. Apparently, he has been targeted by an anti-omnic force that is threatening his life. However, where this story gets curious is to why’s he so important that 6 members of the illustrious Overwatch need to actually protect him?
Surely one director doesn’t warrant the likes of Winston, Tracer, and Soldier 76 as bodyguards, so is there something more than just the comic relief he offers. This is one of those stories we probably won’t actually ever get an answer too, but the idea of an omnic director is interesting from a cultural standpoint. We’ve already established tensions between both humans and omnics are high, so what do they make of his work and messages? We know from a movie poster that D.Va has actually appeared in a major film, so there could be a possible connection between her and Glitchbot.
This could also explain why Overwatch is protecting him because of a possible relationship between this Overwatch heroine and the omnic director. Even though we will probably never get answers to these questions the least Blizzard could do is show us one of Glitchbot’s movies. Don’t act like those movie posters aren’t awesome, you’d totally stop fighting to watch one, admit it.
Ilios’s Artifacts
Ilios has always struck us as an odd choice for an Overwatch map because at face value it appears to have offered nothing special or relevant to the story. Yes, from a design standpoint alone it’s gorgeous and a fresh change of pace, however in terms of actual lore there was very little to go on. After doing a bit of digging we found a quote from the Overwatch Visual Source Book that was posted on overwatch.blizzplanet.com stating there “…where many artifacts and relics of the ancient world have been recently unearthed.”
If you actually walk up to the console after the match begins Athena, Overwatch’s master computer system, will state that “Talon activity has been detected in the area” and that “…this isn’t a holiday.” From this we can gather that Talon is here to possibly steal some ancient artifacts and it’s your duty to stop them.
However, there has to be more to this story than meets the eye because stealing artifacts seems incredibly out of character for Talon. Up until now they have infiltrated Winston’s home for classified data, assassinated a massive political/spiritual figure, and steal an incredibly powerful weapon from a museum. Why would Talon need to take a few artifacts when historically their objectives have been far grander and more destructive.
Our best guess is that they are using them to finance operations, but it’s a subject worth exploring. Blizzard isn’t exactly known for skimping on details, so there has to be more to this objective than what we know. It’d be great if we had more depth and explanation for many of the maps, but Ilios probably deserves it above all others. It’s perhaps the most out of place of the entire group, so getting some more backstory would be a very welcomed addition.
