Blizzard has released the second episode of the Overwatch 2 Genesis anime series, titled Innocence. While the game itself doesn't have much in the way of story content, Blizzard has expanded on Overwatch's lore through animated shorts, comic books, and now an anime mini-series.
The first episode of the Overwatch 2 anime series dropped last week and explained the story of Omnica, a corporation that designed omnic robots to better the lives of humanity. Genius scientist Dr. Mina Liao found herself at Omnica, where she started work on an ambitious new kind of omnic - Aurora. Miraculously, Aurora achieved sentience, and that's where the previous episode of the anime series left off.
Episode 2 begins with Aurora being legally declared a person, setting a precedence for future omnics to follow in her footsteps. Aurora then sets off on a pilgrimage around the world. Meanwhile, Omnica shuts down and abandons its omnic factories. Behind the scenes, an AI god program known as Anubis, whose goal was ecological balance, started building machines of war to launch a full-scale invasion of every country on Earth to wipe out humanity. This marked the beginning of the Omnic Crisis, but also the beginning of the titular Overwatch group.
In the latest episode, fans can get a glimpse of some of the original Overwatch heroes teaming up to take out Omnics. This initial team includes Ana, Soldier: 76, Torbjorn, Reaper, and Reinhardt. The five put their unique skills to good use, winning important victories against the Omnics. Viewers also see Dr. Mina Liao working at what appears to be Watchpoint: Gibraltar and being brought into the fold as one of the original founders of the Overwatch group.
Like the previous episode, the second episode of the Overwatch 2 anime series ends on a cliffhanger, with the five heroes deployed to a city that has been completely overrun by Omnics. The episode ends before fans get to see what happens next, but they will likely find out with next week's episode, scheduled to premiere on Thursday, July 20 at 9am PT.
The episode also ends with a reminder that the Overwatch 2 Invasion update is scheduled to drop on August 10. That update will see the first story missions added to Overwatch 2 and will show what's happening in the present-day Overwatch universe. Overwatch 2 players can look forward to three story missions to start, though they are blocked behind a $15 paywall.
Overwatch 2 is available in early access for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
