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malaysianpeanut · 2 years

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The Reaper Short Story (Code of Violence) Review + Rant about Overwatch

I know, Overwatch is kinda dead, even with the release of OW2 coming never probably. I still like visiting it every now and again and reliving whatever is left of my passion for it. And since new lore content on one of my favorite characters EVER (not just within the game) dropped yesterday, I decide maybe I should just do a review of it.

Spoilers if you haven't read it, though I understand if you didn't. I think I've read most of the short stories and they're not really written that well. The comics are okay, since the art styles are still pretty cool to look at and I think with this type of story, it presents itself much better as a visual + audio piece with their short animations and even the voicelines, but now, there is a lack of any intention for going back to that at the moment, for some reason on Blizzard's part. Okay so here it goes.

I do like that there is more insight to Gabriel's past life before he was in Overwatch. It was confirmed a while ago that he had a family, only we didn't know the details. Do I like what they presented? I don't know yet. All we know is that he does have a son and a significant other. We don't know much about HOW his relationship with them was actually like and what happened to them (Is he estranged? Did they die? Did his wife divorce him? We know we probably might have saw the son in the Christmas comic, etc.) I feel like this kind of content should have been dropped probably a few years ago when a lot of people still cared.

And I like that it ties in with the Sigma story and the introduction video we had of him, where he was apparently broken out of some sort of holding facility. It was already speculated that Reaper and Widowmaker was there with the sound effects playing in the background, but it's nice to see the details of the incident actually happening. Again, should have been revealed not too long after Sigma was released in the game as a character.

Other than that, I really... really... didn't like how the story was written. When I read the Sombra dialogue and she slipped in the Spanish words here and there, it really did feel like it was just forced into it. Which is why I stressed heavily that this game had an advantage in being an audio medium, with a lot of talented voice actors at your disposal. Maybe it would have saved the dialogue to hear it actually being spoken out loud, but reading it was... a bit awkward. But I digress, since Spanish is not my language and maybe others can weigh in.

And Gabriel's characterization, I get why a lot of people had a problem with it. Me personally, I saw Gabriel as someone who was teetering on both sides, as he probably had many disagreements with how Overwatch was operating but he also wanted to accomplish the mission of protecting the world.

But here's the thing I don't get is that in the Retribution event, we clearly saw him at his angriest when he went and straight up killed Antonio, someone heavily associated with Talon, because he caused the death of many Overwatch agents. And none of it was brought up here in the story when Reaper is recruited into Talon, the very organization that he presumably must have loathed. So many missed opportunities to delve into his intentions and motivations that started from there. As the cowboy guy stated before in the Retribution ending cutscenes (sorry, I just don't know how to address his name anymore), the Retribution event was the point where it all started to go wrong. And this short story sort of simplified him to being someone with less depth, tbh.

About him being a policeman, I didn't even catch it at first lmaoooo. But it's... an interesting take? I don't really understand the timeline of it . I would have prefer if he was trained as a military his whole life, or was doing something else before joining the Super Soldier program. Maybe sports related, since he liked basketball and all. I don't know. Being a cop feels a bit random, especially since none of it was insinuated ever in any of the medium (animation, voice lines, comic) and you would think it would have played an integral part in his life in some ways that it would have been brought up at some point.

I also found it interesting that Gerard Lacroix is supposedly his good friend, and yet when he meets his wife, Amelie/Widowmaker here, there is nothing to be addressed. I mean, sure, maybe in dialogue they're silent, but you have the advantage of it being told in his thoughts and perspective in detail. I mean, has he never met Gerard's wife before the whole event? So, there's a lack of that but whatever, that's one of my minor complaints. Maybe they had met before. That would have been more interesting to read about, just him seeing Amelie again and knowing the backstory of Gerard's death. I'm just rambling now.

Honestly, overall review, I liked the fan theories before about him being a double, triple agent, trying to take Talon from inside and having to do many heinous things to play his part, like killing off former Overwatch agents to keep up appearance. Just simply put, someone who was willing to play the bad guy to do good things. Because I felt that it made more sense for him as a character rather than just being easily persuaded by Akande to join Talon for the bigger better cause.

So I was excited to read this when I saw the announcement of it on Twitter, and I didn't come out of it hating the short story, in fact, I welcome more of it, whether being about the Overwatch organization or other characters in fact.

I only wished that it had been done when fan engagement was at an all time high and Blizzard still had somewhat of a good appearance in the public's eyes. Now with those workplace harassments cases, lack of any GOOD, exciting content like the short animations we had before and fanbase moving on as we speak, I think Overwatch as a game and a story is sadly going to fizzle away (or already has, depending on your interest level).

I read most of the comments on Twitter and most of them were in a way, making fun of Overwatch lack of fanbase, demanding OW2's release or just straight up criticizing the story. There's even a funny comment like "I hope the 3 Reaper fans enjoyed this short story" that I couldn't help but laugh at (because I guess I'm one of them haha). Even DJ Zedd weighed in on the whole issue, which I find is hilarious.

I still like seeing any new lore content because I haven't properly touched the game in one or two years, so lore is the only thing keeping me interested, and probably it is the same for many other people. And right now, I'm afraid even any lore content they release is just kind of lackluster. I've read the new comics and I'm glad they're somewhat continuing the story but yeah, the timing is terribly delayed on their part.

I loved Overwatch with all my heart, but not a lot is going to make me like it as much as before. If anything, they have to make their return in a big way, which is most unlikely. But who knows.

Anyway, I'm surprised I wrote this much lmao. Don't worry, I'll be going back to my writing cave soon and I will go back to doing art. Cheers.

#overwatch #reaper #gabriel reyes #short story #code of violence #rant #no hate please #this is just my honest review #blizzard #video game

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