Overwatch Gets a New Animated Short! Discover Winston’s Backstory in “Recall”!

Blizzard Entertainment and Xbox have released the first animated short for the upcoming online multiplayer first-person shooter, Overwatch. The first short, “Recall,” featuring the backstory for the super-intelligent Overwatch member, Winston, is available in the player below.

Winston is a scientist, but also a hero. Unfortunately, it looks like he’s been grounded. The new short gives new insight to the backstory of the Overwatch universe as a government act has caused Overwatch to disband. But that doesn’t keep Winston from nearly launching an Overwatch initiative on instinct when he sees bad things going on in the news. Winston is a gorilla who longs for the old days, an age of heroes. Winston then flashes back to his youth as a child. It looks like he was raised on a science research base on the moon by a kind and gentle scientist named Dr. Harold Winston, who we can assume is Winston’s adoptive father.

The animation for this short looks fantastic. Hopefully, Blizzard will have a lot more of these in store to flesh out the Overwatch universe ahead of the game’s release in May. Since the game will not have a traditional story mode, this is how players will get a sense of the story and setting for the universe of Overwatch. There’s also a hint of an ongoing story as the villains are trying to hack into the Overwatch database and hunt down the remaining agents. So this essentially sets the stage for the game, as the heroes of Overwatch have been re-activated by Winston to fight this threat. This premise is rife with possibilities.

Overwatch the game arrives on May 24. The game will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC. Playes will have access to the free open beta for the game on May 5-9.