Overwatch

Overwatch is a multiplayer First Person Shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Unveiled at BlizzCon 2014, the game emphasizes cooperative gameplay using a cast of various "heroes," each with their own abilities and roles within a team. The game entered closed beta in North America and Europe in October 2015, with plans to bring the beta to Asia at a later date. The final closed beta weekend began in April 2016 and primarily served as a stress test for Overwatch's servers, lasting 36 hours. The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One worldwide in May 2016.


 * A.I. Is a Crapshoot: What sparked the "Omnic Crisis" and what still drives animosity between humans and Omnics.
 * All There in the Manual: At least for now, much of the plot, character backgrounds and overall backstory can be found in various media, including comics and animated trailers instead in the game itself.
 * And Now for Something Completely Different: A meta-example as this is Blizzard's first foray into the genre and a different beast from either World of Warcraft or Heroes of the Storm.
 * Awesome Anachronistic Apparel/Born in the Wrong Century: Some characters would look too out of place in another time period altogether and still look badass.
 * Reinhardt composes and even dresses himself like the knights of yore to the point of being a German version of Don Quixote.
 * McCree is very much a Spaghetti Western character thrown into the future. An alternate outfit however updates his look slightly to that of a 1930s pulp hero ala The Shadow.
 * Hanzo's appearance is based on feudal Japanese attire with some futuristic touches.
 * Animesque: In addition to Pixar's work, anime is another major influence.
 * Back From the Dead: Mercy's ultimate power is to revive nearby downed teammates, bringing them back into the fight instantly.
 * Badass Grandpa: Reinhardt and Soldier: 76 are old enough to be this, being among the original founding members of Overwatch.
 * Broken Hero: Soldier: 76, one of the original members of Overwatch went from being a Captain America-style paragon to becoming a jaded if still upright Anti-Hero following the organization's downfall.
 * Bulungi: Averted with Numbani, which is described as a First-World African country where humans and Omnics coexist relatively peacefully.
 * Captain Patriotic: Downplayed with Fahrah, who's fighting to protect her homeland of Egypt, and Soldier: 76, who was very much a Captain America Expy in his prime before becoming more like The Punisher.
 * Crap Saccharine World: While the future world shown in Overwatch is rather colorful, hopeful and Pixar-ish, it still takes place in the wake of a bloody Robot War and there's still a lot of murky seediness beneath the surface. Not to mention much of Australia being reduced to an irradiated mess and parts of Germany being lawless.
 * Death World: Australia, with the exception of major regions like Sydney, became even more of one, the Outback turning into an irradiated Mad Max-esque wasteland following an uprising.
 * Dueling Games: With both recent releases like Battleborn and established online mainstays like Team Fortress 2.
 * Eagle Land: The Hollywood and Route 66 maps are very blatant slices of Americana, the latter even having a futuristic semi-truck in red, white and blue.
 * Face Heel Turn: It's strongly implied that at least some members of the terrorist Talon organization were once part of the original Overwatch's covert-ops "Blackwatch" who went rogue.
 * Fantastic Racism: In addition to existing racism, there's the animosity between humans and Omnics, with countries responding to the issue in various ways. Some of the characters are also shown having some anti-Omnic sentiments for various reasons. It's also mentioned that there are terrorists and extremists of both the human and Omnic variety who actively want another full-blown Robot War just to wipe the other out.
 * Gamer Chick: D.Va was a professional gamer before becoming a Mini-Mecha pilot.
 * Generation Xerox: Fahrah is the daughter of one of the founding members of Overwatch.
 * Glorious Mother Russia: The Russians are shown to be proud of having faced down Omnic threats despite massive odds. Subsequently, the Volskaya Industries map is a celebration of all things Russian.
 * Godzilla Threshold: In order to combat the giant rogue Omnic that periodically tries to destroy South Korea, the authorities had to resort to filling up the Mini-Mecha ranks with professional gamers just to get some edge.
 * Great Offscreen War: The "Omnic Crisis" happened several years before the game takes place. But the aftermath continues to linger on.
 * Humongous Mecha: The Russian response to the "Omnic Crisis" was to mass-produce manned giant robots to fight the threat. Like South Korea's Mini-Mecha, they proved successful.
 * Lighter and Softer: Compared to Blizzard's other works.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: Fahrah's ultimate power is this.
 * Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: By and large, much of the universe and gameplay mechanics have a science fiction tinge to them. On the other hand, Genji and Hanzo can summon spirit dragons as their ultimate power.
 * Mean Brit: Averted with Tracer, who's one of the most upbeat and friendly among the cast.
 * Mecha-Mooks: Bastion's one that gained a conscience.
 * Mega Corp: Vishkar Corporation, an influential multinational firm based in southern India. It's also far murkier than its PR would have one believe.
 * Mini-Mecha: South Korea invested in having whole divisions of these due to recurrent attacks from a large Omnic. D.Va, who was recruited into such divisions by the government before joining Overwatch, pilots one of them.
 * Multinational Team: Overwatch, both in its original "peacekeeper" state and "current" form, is comprised of characters from various countries, along with a sentient ape and robots.
 * National Stereotypes: Subverted. The designs and personalities of the various characters show their cultural/national heritage, but in rather peculiar ways.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
 * The Omnic Zenyatta is a Buddhist-style robot monk.
 * Genji meanwhile is a cyborg ninja not unlike Raiden, though he actually is Japanese.
 * Noble Bigot: Some, like Torbjörn tend to view Omnics lowly, in part due to the Robot War decades earlier, even if they treat their Omnic peers with at least some respect.
 * Norse by Norsewest: Torbjörn, a very talented engineer responsible for a good deal of Overwatch's technology, is Swedish.
 * Poirot Speak: Various characters occasionally slide into their native languages.
 * Powered Armor: The German response to the "Omnic Crisis" involved creating highly advanced "Crusader armor" in the image of medieval knights, the same sort used by Reinhardt.
 * Retro Universe: The world of Overwatch is a blend of past, present and futuristic elements.
 * Reluctant Hero: McCree was originally this, being an outlaw who was "recruited" into Overwatch in exchange for avoiding prison. Before long however, he came to genuinely become heroic such that even after Overwatch's downfall he continued fighting the good fight.
 * Reluctant Warrior:
 * Mercy, who hails from Switzerland, is much more suited to healing people than killing them. On the other hand, she's not that afraid to take out enemies with a pistol if it means saving others.
 * Mei, from China, is far more interested in doing science and environmental work than going into combat.
 * Revolvers Are Just Better: McCree's weapon of choice would make the Man With No Name proud.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Soldier: 76 has been spending the years since Overwatch's downfall seeking vengeance for what brought the organization down.
 * Robot War: The "Omnic Crisis," when rogue sentient AI waged a bloody war against humanity. The game itself is set as a second one is brewing.
 * Russian Guy Suffers Most: Russia, where Zarya hails from, is mentioned as in the midst of another Omnic conflict; it doesn't help that according to the lore, the Russians were among the first to be attacked and largely forced to fight them alone. And the international community is hesitant to send aid, which is also what helps persuade Winston that Overwatch must be reactivated.
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right:
 * This is what ultimately spurs the informal reactivation of Overwatch, especially as the world finds itself in need of heroes once more.
 * Lucio, a Brazilian musician, used to work for the Vishkar Corporation before realizing what the Mega Corp intended to do with a favela, becoming a freedom-fighter in the process.
 * Space Base: Winston, a sentient gorilla, was raised in a Lunar research base by his human scientist father.
 * Spiritual Licensee: The game can be described as The Incredibles meets The Avengers, with a dash of Deus Ex in for good measure.
 * Super Smoke: Reaper's "wraith form".
 * Super Soldier: Soldier: 76 was part of an American program to make these in response to the "Omnic Crisis."
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: The game is set at some point in the not-too distant future, though enough time has passed that an A.I. uprising called the "Omnic Crisis" has already happened.
 * Unstuck in Time: Tracer. Thanks to an experimental test flight Gone Horribly Wrong, she suffers from "chronal disassociation," detaching her from the timestream. This would have made her a "living ghost" forever jumping through time if not for Winston creating a device that allows her to not only be anchored in the present, but also control her newfound abilities.
 * United Nations: Overwatch was originally established as an U.N. peacekeeping task force which quickly became associated with heroes before it was eventually disbanded.
 * We ARE Struggling Together: Infighting, complacency and simmering tensions within the "original" Overwatch were what helped doom it.
 * Yakuza: The Shimada Clan, an old ninja family, are also one of the more powerful Japanese crime syndicates.