Blizzard has released a new animated short for Overwatch, this time featuring everyone's favorite climatologist Mei and her trusty drone sidekick Snowball.
Compared to the comedic The Plan, another recently released Overwatch animated short that featured Junkrat and Roadhog, Rise and Shine reveals the tragic backstory of Mei as she wakes up from artificial hibernation.
Overwatch Rise And Shine Animated Short: Right In The Feels
The nearly 10-minute Rise and Shine opened with Mei and her fellow scientists at EcoPoint Antarctica going into cryogenic sleep to weather an incoming storm. However, when Mei wakes up, she realizes that the technology malfunctioned and that she was out cold for nine years.
Her colleagues all passed away over that time, but fortunately, Mei still has Snowball by her side. Finding a silver lining in a dreary situation, Mei realizes that with nine years' worth of collected data, she can save millions of lives. Mei decided that she needed to get the data out, but the station's satellite required repairs.
The video went on to show the origins of Mei's weapon in Overwatch, the sacrifice that Snowball made for Mei, and the transformation of Mei from a meek climatologist to an Overwatch agent who wants to help save the world.
Overwatch, as a multiplayer shooter, does not have a single-player mode. However, Blizzard has successfully been able to craft the Overwatch lore through supplemental material such as animated shorts, comics, and other content. Rise and Shine is the seventh animated short released for the game.
Reactions To The 'Overwatch' Mei Video
Whether or not you play Overwatch, spending several minutes to watch Rise and Shine is time well spent. The animation is simply amazing, arguably even rivaling the work done by full-fledged animation studios such as Dreamworks or Pixar.
Reactions to Rise and Shine are mostly positive in the official Overwatch sub-Reddit, with many praises for the high quality of the video's graphics and the both tragic and heartwarming backstory of Mei. Manly tears were shed when Snowball made his sacrifice, and again at the end of the video when everything turned out fine for Mei and her sidekick as she accepted Winston's call.
Another important thing regarding the video for Mei fans, however, is the confirmation that Mei has an hourglass figure, or in more casual terms, THICC. Gamers are now clamoring for a pajama skin for Mei after the outfit was previously featured in her spray that was released for the Overwatch Uprising event.
