The Complete Timeline of Overwatch Lore and Story So Far! (Up to Overwatch 2)

The Overwatch 2 lore, timeline and story has evolved and grown through so many media, it can be hard to keep track! Here's a complete Overwatch lore timeline up to the launch of Overwatch 2, encompassing 8 years of Overwatch interactions, voice-lines, environmental storytelling, Overwatch animated shorts, comics, short stories, novels, twitter teasers, interviews at Blizzcon, Comic Con panels and in written media, and so much more!

TIMECODES:

0:14 - Introduction
2:52 - The Near Future of Overwatch
4:46 - The Rise of Omnica Corporation
6:41 - The Omnic Crisis (First)
9:26 - The Founding of Overwatch - The First Strike Team
13:23 - The end of the Crisis
16:13 - Overwatch Expansion and Activity - The Golden Age
18:27 - The Post-Crisis World - Global Events
25:03 - Overwatch Overexpansion - Internal Problems
28:53 - Global Problems Arising
31:23 - Political Pressure on Overwatch
33:10 - Overwatch Retribution - The Venice Incident
37:47 - Gerard Lacroix Dies/Widowmaker
39:05 - Overwatch Uprising - The King's Row Uprising
42:29 - Storm Rising - Chasing Talon and Maximilien
46:14 - Overwwatch's End - The Swiss HQ Incident
49:00 - Post-Overwatch World - Disorder and Decay
51:34 - Talon Rising - Reyes/Reaper Joins (Code of Violence Short Story)
53:22 - Heroes and Villains Post Overwatch Events
57:49 - Morrison Lives (Hero Animated Short)
59:04 - Old Soldiers Comic
1:00:01 - The Recall and Second Omnic Crisis (Recall Animated Short)
1:02:27 - Tracer in London (London Calling Comic)
1:06:49 - Mei's Tragedy (Rise and Shine Animated Short)
1:08:05 - Reinhardt Returns (Honor and Glory Animated Short)
1:09:21 - Baptiste Resurfaces (What You Left Behind Story)
1:11:09 - Pharah, Cassidy and Junkers Antics (Mission Statement, Going Legit and Trainhopper Comics)
1:13:06 - The Museum
1:13:48 - The Last Bastion
1:14:42 - Genji and Hanzo Reunite (Dragons)
1:15:50 - Kiriko, Asa Yamagami and the Hashimoto
1:16:11 - Talon Attack Volskaya (Infiltration)
1:18:31 - D.va Defends Korea (Shooting Star)
1:19:54 - Mercy under Fire (Valkyrie Story)
1:20:52 - Heroes post-Recall (Reflections Comic)
1:23:18 - Doomfist Takes Talon (Masquerade)
1:24:34 - Efi and Orisa (The Hero of Numbani)
1:26:30 - Symmetra and Zenyatta (Stone By Stone)
1:27:57 - Echo Returns (Reunion Short)
1:29:39 - The New Blood Comics - McCree, Pharah, Baptiste, Zarya and D.va
1:36:33 - Null Sector Attack Paris (Zero Hour Short)
1:39:41 - Kiriko and The Yokai (Kiriko Short)

Some is interpretation off relative dates - I've tried to be as close as I think is reasonably possible, but there'll be some debatable bits. Feel free to do so, but be kind to each other - this is a take and interpretation that I hope entertains and helps people get into or dive deeper into Overwatch Lore. :)

Love to hear your thoughts in comments, and what you'd like to see made here next!

Hammeh

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All audio discussion and production of audio and this video arrangement (TM) Hammeh 2022

All gameplay and assets (tm) their respective owners - use of this content on YouTube or with the Adsense Program is permitted by Blizzard as part of their video or content creation policies.

All audio - Epidemic Sounds, YouTube Audio Library, Blizzard Entertainment.

#overwatch2 #overwatch #timeline #lore #story

[Hammeh]

Timecodes in Description! Comment with your favourite piece of Overwatch lore so far, and what you'd like to see in the timeline of Overwatch 2 lore and story! Like/Subscribe for more and if you enjoy (sorry it really helps :)) Hope this is a nice explainer for new Overwatch players and fun for existing Overwatch timeline fans to catch up!

Fixed some audio and added Kiriko Animated short to make it complete complete for now! Love to hear your thoughts in the comments. It's an interpretation, but trying to make it as complete and relatively accurate as possible.

Hope you enjoy and thanks for all the support over the years, you all made this possible :)

Hammeh

[deijix]

I love that Bastions backstory is “what if we gave a sweet robot PTSD? OH, and an emotional support bird!”

[deijix]

What happened to Emile Lacroix is so heartbreaking. She was simply a ballerina. She wasn’t even part of Overwatch or any of the other organizations, she was simply married to someone who was. Then she was tortured, brainwashed into being unable to feel human emotion, and then ordered to kill the love of her life. And it seems on some level, she still remembers Gerard and her past life and even allows herself to mourn and long for them sometimes when she is alone. You can tell the original Emile is still in there somewhere, trapped in a void of non-emotion, unable to truly process the death of her beloved and that it was by her hand. Makes me wonder if she was smart enough to fake being completely brainwashed so that she could retain some of her original self, even if that meant she knew she had to kill him…

[happilyisolated]

This is so cool! I had no idea that a majority of characters weren't even technically Overwatch operatives at first. This has given me a greater appreciation of the entire cast. Thanks for posting this video this has been a great watch.

[Mramazing-mvix]

It's actually so impressive how they link the entire world together in a way that makes sense, theres: Japan, Korea, Russia, Australia, India, Egypt, Nigeria (aka Numbani), the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the North and South US, Mexico, Brazil, and even the Moon from Winston and Hammond's backstory

[bitnintendoguy]

Absolutely phenomenal work!! This is easily the best comprehensive breakdown of every piece of lore-related media we've been given. Can't see what else is to come!

[Rattman_]

I wish Blizzard told us more about what happened in Switzerland base and between Morrison and Reyes.
Basically what we know now are those facts:
Gabe was original leader of the very first strike team. Althrough Jack was charismatic, he had some special way to reach for every other member of the team and bring best of them. Later he became formal leader. Jeff Kaplan at some point told that this actually wasn't the reason why their friendship cracked. Gabe wasn't jealous. Rather opposite infact, Gabe gladly stepped into the shadow, because he wasn't responsible for hard decissions anymore. Jack was forced to cover up for Gabe and Blackwatch. And, well, as we know from retribution comic and archive, Gabe believed that he can't do anything good for the world playing by the rules. So, Gabe did his own thing all the time:
1) He recruited Cassidy, Moira and Genji to Blackwatch. All of them are questinable candidates: one is a bandit, one is controversal scientist and one is member of mafia family.
2) Sent Cassidy in London during Uprising, ignoring the rules, basically.
3) Killed Antonio, instead of kidnapping him (which was already illegal)
From code of violence we know that Doomfist carefully played on this idea, which Gabe already had: that you can't change the world for the better, if you are the part of the rotten system, if you obey the rules, which tie you up.
Was it enough for Jack and Gabe to became enemies? Nope, I don't think so.
Something both internal and external happened in Switzerland at the same time, as Jack says in his origin story. Funny thing is, noone knows, why exactly it blowed up in explosion.
In code of violence, according to Reaper:

"It had been almost a year since an explosion had torn the Overwatch Swiss headquarters to shrapnel. The last things he remembered were the flash of ignition, a terrible moment of searing heat, and Jack’s eyes, wide with horror. Then... impenetrable darkness."

At first, it doesn't tell us much. But, we can figure out, that Reyes actually wasn't the one responsible for explosion. If he was responsible, why wouldn't he escape in time? He was rescued later by Moira, who was part of Talon by the time. That's convinient, isn't it? What's more convenient is that Moira's therapy damages Gabe on emotional level. He's obsessed with rage cause of it and tricked by Doomfist now.
Well, I'm an optimist. Widowmaker slowly snapping out from damage Talon did to her. We saw her visiting Gerard's grave in Reflections. Maybe if she regaining emotions, it's not too late for Gabe.

Then, according to Jack from Valkyrie:

“I’m getting closer to finding the ones responsible. I’m getting closer to the truth.” The fervor that crept into his voice sounded like obsession.
“The truth, ” I said flatly.
“The truth about what happened to Overwatch. About Talon. Switzerland. About everything. That’s my new mission.”
“It doesn’t seem that new. Other than the masks.”
“What would you have me do, then?” Jack snapped. “Fly to Gibraltar and join up with Winston? You think the same people who brought down Overwatch won’t take him down, too?”

So, Jack also suspects that Switzerland and Talon are connected. From Retribution comic we can see that Talon operative blow up Rome HQ with hidden bomb, maybe something similar happened there. But it's probably bigger than we think. We know that Symm's boss also part of the Talon's council. And we also know that Sombra is looking into corporations, she tries to find out who are the ones who trully control the world. Something is coming.

We have some missing pieces. Something happened after Doomfist arrest and before events in Switzerland HQ. Timeframe is big enough. I wish Blizzard told us more. How exactly Morrison survived and why he didn't save Gabe? Was he sure he died? How and why the HQ exploded, who was responsible? Was there really a fight between Gabe and Jack? What others operatives were doing at the moment? Sadly, Blizzard seems focused on the present lore.

[rainoftime]

The lore in this franchise is so fascinating, thank you for putting this video together!

[kordiark]

I abandoned Overwatch a while ago due to the controversies... but kudos to those who kept the story of overwatch intact and beautiful. I shouldn't have stopped caring for Overwatch's art and stories.

[endless_del]

ball and winston actually have an interaction in overwatch 2 that suggests some tension on hammond's part and that maybe there's more to the story than we really know! it's impossible to find in a regular game because there's only 1 tank, but here it is transcribed:

winston: hammond, we were friends on horizon. where did we go wrong?

wrecking ball: perhaps it was when you stole his rocket design.

winston: oh, no! i found that in the system! it was an accident!

wrecking ball: was it also an accident when you left for earth without him?


and ball also has new kill lines for winston that are just pure savage. "you had it coming" and "archnemesis defeated"

[pohmot]

You know this is fictional because the UN actually does something.

[zackmultimedia]

I congratulate you personally, until now I had not seen an explanation of the Lore as well worked out as it is, the dedication and effort behind this is quite noticeable, much higher than the average, I will follow your work closely

[Moonshine]

This really needs a TV Series, a Movie, and many Novels!

[Kyle-hnqs]

I remember really enjoying your overwatch 1 lore vides back in the day (feels strange revering to overwatch 1 in past tense) so I’m glad your going into ow2 doing the same hopefully this video gets lots of attention 👍

[starry_marz]

as a new player, I appreciate this video, it's given me a full understanding of all of these complex characters that I was looking for

[GreenCatDragon]

Hammeh,
I don't know how to thank you.
I've followed you since day 1 when the ow lore was a barren wasteland full of uncharted territory.
I feel like we went through this journey together, all of us who stuck it out or came back to ow.
I got extremely emotional watching this masterpiece.
This game has been such a huge part of my life for 6 years now and it's been hard for all of us. I'm a pvp player but i know ow is full of people who love ow for so many different reasons and this video really encapsulates why.
I couldn't help to notice how ow's lore/plot reflects ow team's irl struggles with the franchise.
I really feel like this pvp 5v5 update was like a "recall" for so many ppl and it makes me very emotional that my game is thriving for the first time in years and i can talk about it to ppl irl about it without feeling ashamed or embarrassed that i was following a "dead/struggling" game. I never felt like ow really died but i understood what ppl meant.
I played everyday to keep my mechanics and gamesense sharp hoping that it would pay off one day and it finally is. I'm only Diamond5 after two weeks of grinding rank but I'm truly falling in love with the game all over again and watching this presentation that was created from your heart, idk why but it gave me this feeling of fullness that i haven't felt about the game in a long time and i feel it now more than ever.
Overwatch is so good. Everything about it is so rich and the storylines hit so hard.
I relate to these "old soldiers" ana, jack, and gabriel while also feeling like a kid in a new generation with the new heroes that were inspired from ow's past.
Thank you Hammeh, 💜

[cezzzzz]

I’m not even an overwatch fan or player but I love game lore. I’m stunned by the amount of work you have put into this video. Thanks for all u do! I was able to follow even tho I know nothing about the game ❤

[hysteria_]

Overwatch has some of my favourite lore/story out there! I’ve been following Overwatch since it was first announced and watching it grow has been amazing. I was very young when it came out, so I can only imagine how in awe a younger me would be at all of this. Overwatch has been my longest running hyperfixation! I’m sure little me would be so excited to learn I’m still loving this game.

Thank you so much for this timeline video! It’s an amazing watch :)

[SoleScrewdriver]

Hammeh, I haven't really watched much you've made for a while, but it's incredibly nostalgic for me to come back to this channel for the first time since the early days of OW and see you still doing this. You're awsome.

[theraaaa]

That has honestly been the best recap video I've ever seen, i dont even want to think about how much time this must have taken. Thank you!