A big part of Blizzard’s marketing efforts as they get ready to launch their online shooter “Overwatch” in May will involve a series of computer-animated short films that profile each of the characters that players can control.
Monday they released the first, dubbed “Recall,” which tells the story of the genetically engineered gorilla named Winston.
The seven-minute short flashes between the present day, as Winston fights off enemies who are trying to hack his computer network, and his childhood growing up on a space station under the care of a human scientist.
Blizzard has long been known for its high-quality CGI ads, which have become a high-enough priority to the company that it started up its own animation division in-house.
We can expect more of these films as we approach the video game’s May 24 release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. “Overwatch” itself is a competitive game without a major story component, and so the animated shorts will serve to set the stage for the battles and, Blizzard hopes, help the playable characters feel deeper and more memorable than your standard avatar in this kind of game.