Overwatch: A Story Guide to Winston
Blizzard’s Overwatch is home to some of the best crafted characters the first-person shooter genre has ever seen.
From time-traveling British sweethearts to Egyptian human mechs, Overwatch’s cast is impressive, to say the least.
Perhaps the most interesting of these characters is Winston.
Winston is the academically genius gorilla who was genetically engineered as part of the Horizon Lunar Colony.
Winston was raised in the colony by Dr. Harold Winston, who took him under his wing and enlisted him as a lab assistant. Seeing Winston’s potential, he set out to teach the young gorilla everything he knew.
This all changed when the gorillas of the colony led an uprising (a story for another time) and slaughtered all of its human inhabitants.
Appalled by this, Winston built a makeshift rocket out of an escape pod and shot himself down to earth.
He landed at Watchpoint: Gibraltar and was taken in by the Overwatch organization.
While a member of Overwatch, Winston looked up to Ana quite heavily, although his presence in the group was detested by the head of Blackwatch, Reaper.
Winston was also the one to develop Tracer’s chronal accelerator, the device which solved her chronal disassociation. He also oversaw the young girl’s training.
Winston proved to be a vital component during the series of operations designed to imprison Talon leader Doomfist.
Winston took part in Operation Havana alongside Mercy, Tracer, Sojourn, and Genji. The operation was designed to apprehend Doomfist’s accountant, Maximilien. The operation was a success, and in exchange for legal leniency, the omnic money launderer agreed to sell out Doomfist.
Taking advantage of Maximilien’s intel, Genji, Tracer, and Winston tracked Doomfist down in Singapore.
Genji and Tracer fell to the power of Doomfist, remaining too injured to fight. Seeing his teammates incapacitated, Winston flew at the terrorist leader and engaged him in hand to hand combat.
Winston won the exchange, and Doomfist was imprisoned. The gorilla was deemed a hero and celebrated in newspapers the world over.
After Overwatch fell, Winston returned to a life of recluse, awaiting the day he could return to heroism.
Remaining in his lab at Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Winston set to work on the barrier project. During this research, his facility came under attack by a Talon platoon, lead by Reaper.
Reaper attempted to install Winston’s computer with a virus that would reveal to him the location of every inactive Overwatch agent on record.
Being the hero once again, Winston bested Reaper and the Talon operatives before deciding to issue a recall order to the Overwatch team, inspired by the battle that had just taken place.
Winston made the reformation of Overwatch his primary objective. To that end, he delivered a speech designed to spark a flame within the old operatives. He spoke of the blunt truth that the world now viewed them as villains but that they needed them.
He got in contact with Tracer and brought Mei out of cryostasis shortly after. Following this, he and Tracer attempted to stop Widowmaker and Reaper from stealing Doomfist’s gauntlet from a museum exhibition. They failed.
Winston, back at Gibraltar, decided the best course of action was to reestablish Overwatch’s communications network. He successfully launched a satellite drone from the base, bringing the system back online.
That’s the story so far for the loveable gorilla. He looks to be taking on the role as the new commander of Overwatch, and I am looking forward to seeing where he goes in Overwatch 2.