After nearly two years of waiting, teasers, and cults of exclusivity built around its on-and-off closed betas, Activision Blizzard’s foray into the shooter genre, Overwatch, will finally release this coming Tuesday. Blizzard isn’t ready to let Overwatch’s hype plateau just yet, though, as evidenced by today’s release of the game’s final (for now, perhaps?) animated short: Hero.
Hero follows the tumultuous day of a girl living in the fictional city of Dorado, Mexico, where she becomes helplessly entwined with what seems to be a gun-running operation of a local gang dubbed Los Muertos. Without spoiling too much, we’ll say that one of Overwatch’s flagship characters, Soldier 76, makes an appearance and proves that what many deem to be a painfully generic gritty commando archetype might actually be quite the conflicted – and warmhearted – individual.
The result is heartwarming enough to elicit those throatlumps that you’d normally associate with a Pixar flick. Yes, we are aware of how much the Overwatch shorts look like Pixar’s works, in some ways.
You can watch Hero below:
You can also read more about Soldier 76’s tragic past here, if you’d like to put the trailer (and that stack of six Soldier 76s on the opposing team you fought in open beta) into more perspective.
Hero isn’t the only piece of media generating some last-minute hype for Overwatch, though. The Internet rumor mill is abuzz with talk of a mysterious character who may or may not make a playable appearance some time in the near future. Many players believe her name to be Sombra, and many predicted that she would make an appearance in the Hero short. She does not, but that hasn’t stopped various corners of the Internet from digging for more clues as to who this apparent new sniper character might be.
This thread on NeoGAF gives a concise rundown of the Sombra trail.
Overwatch releases May 24 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.