Overwatch 2: Genesis, the mini-series diving into the past of the Overwatch universe, kicked off its first episode last week with a look at the beauties and dangers of progress. While humanity consistently innovated upon its creations and pushed the boundaries of what was possible with robots, the dangers of going too far consistently loomed over the horizon. Yet still, much of the first episode was the build-up, laying the groundwork for future episodes. That has come to fruition with the release of Overwatch 2: Genesis – Innocence, the second of three planned episodes.
What Do We Consider A Living Being?
Episode 2 of Overwatch 2: Genesis kicks off right where we ended in the first episode, with the first fully-sentient Omnic being created by Dr. Liao and her team. This Omnic, given the name Aurora, would quickly pass just about every test available to prove that it was a sentient being, much to the research team’s equal apprehension and intrigue. This concern over what counts as a living being would spread out into the general public as well, with a court hearing that would see Dr. Liao torpedo her career by claiming that Aurora was alive. Through that testimony, the world would find her arguments compelling and the court deemed Aurora “alive”, with the same rights as humans given to her.
Aurora would then quickly step into a world filled with life similar to her, but a world she didn’t yet fully understand. She explored everywhere, met with many people, and saw both the best and worse in humanity throughout her travels. This led to the question of the nature of her existence, with that journey leading her to what would later be known as the Shambali Monastery, supposedly helping to find the peace and body that later both Zenyatta and Ramattra would come to know.
Related: Who is Ramattra in Overwatch 2? – Answered
Sentient Life Battling for its Survival
While things were fascinating in the world of Omnic sentience, much darker events would unfold across the world. Omnica Corp, the corporation which created the first Omnics and Aurora herself, saw its value quickly plummet until it would go bankrupt, and its facilities abandoned for years. While believed to be empty, much different things were occurring in these facilities.
One day, the world would see what was happening in these facilities as Omnics designed entirely for war would quickly attack many major cities, causing major casualties with the world’s militaries struggling to fight back. As for why this was happening, one of the god programs (AI) created to support Omnica Corp’s efforts, Anubis, had hijacked the dormant facilities and began mass-producing war bots for its grand plan, one that didn’t allow for humanity’s existence.
Not all hope was lost. Among the major losses across the world, the governments would come together to create a strike force made of the world’s best soldiers, scientists, and engineers, built to combat these forces. This strike team would come to be known as Overwatch, and for a while, they created hope. They were fighting back Anubis’ Omnic forces in key battles. Anubis may have been strong and never slept, but it could never inspire hope in its forces. Though many wondered if hope would be enough, given the drastically overwhelming forces they faced.
As I called in my article in Episode 1, that episode was the build-up to the much bigger events in the following episodes. While some of this was already known from previous lore drops across the years, being able to see it play out in the same great art from last week’s episode helped to make it far easier to imagine. The new details were great to see too, as many of us have been hungering for lore surrounding Zenyatta, a character that’s often neglected among the full roster for story. While there are some parts I wished to see more fleshed out, to condense this much in a matter of about six minutes is an achievement.
If you’ve watched the first and second episodes and enjoyed them, you can expect to see the final episode go live on July 20 at 9 AM PT. Given the events that have happened thus far, next week’s episode should provide us with yet another wide range of emotions. If you’d like to see our coverage of the first episode of Overwatch 2: Genesis, be sure to check it out!
