Blizzard Entertainment showcased several games during their “Reveal Ceremony” at Gamescom 2017. The developer featured games like “Heroes of the Storm”, “Hearthstone”, “World of Warcraft”, and “Overwatch”. Prior to the event, fans presumed that the company had already revealed their Animated Short called “Junkertown”, which featured both Roadhog and Junkrat. However, it was discovered that the short video clip was just a preview of the new map called Junkertown. Meanwhile, on Thursday, the animated short, “Rise and Shine” was showed the Chinese climatologist, Mei.

Mei’s past illustrated in ‘Rise and Shine’

After a long hiatus since Season 1 ended with “The Last Bastion”, Blizzard Entertainment returns with their top-notch animation quality often compared to Pixar. In “Rise and Shine” fans can experience Mei’s backstory, which showcases a mix of emotional and heroic instances during her past. Longtime “Overwatch” players should be aware of her origin story, where she woke up from an unfortunately extended deep sleep. It was revealed that among her companions, only her life-support pod remained active. It seems that their research base had experienced a power malfunction and was cut off from outside communication.

Courage and determination against all odds

Despite Mei’s timid demeanor, the animated short highlights her strength and determination. After coming to grips with her group’s fate, she gathers the courage to find out what happened. Additionally, she also benefits from the help of their resident drone “Snowball”. At the start of the video, Mei was recording a video log of their base’s current situation.

She mentioned that there was an ongoing ice storm that caused them to miss their resupply window, which resulted in their low resources. It was also revealed that their leader, Captain Opara, scheduled the team to “hibernate” in the “Cryo Chamber” while they wait out the storm.

It seems that the aforementioned ice storm caused more damage than expected, which caused the other pods to malfunction and left Mei as the only survivor.

Snowball reveals that the team was asleep for 9 years, which is way beyond their intended schedule. What follows next showcases Mei’s will to survive and get the research information to the “Overwatch” team.

Gamescom 2017 updates

Blizzard Entertainment appears to have delivered their promised animated short with Mei’s “Rise and Shine”. Gamers should also look forward to more gameplay updates from the “Overwatch” team. Several changes are being planned for some of the game’s characters and are currently featured in the Public Test Region (PTR). Gamers can still enjoy the Summer Games 2017 special event, which is currently in its last week. This would be the last chance for players to grab those limited event-only skins for several heroes.
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