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First-person shooter made by Blizzard Entertainment and released in 2016 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The game takes place in a Bad Future Crapsack World that is the result of something known as the "Omnic Crisis", which essentially happened when a bunch of robots Turned Against Their Masters. Almost all of the playable characters in the game were members of an organization known as "Overwatch" at some point. As the group was created by the United Nations, it consists of people from around the world (which some cynics have charged was an attempt by the game makers to pander to social justice warriors...).
In the actual game, two teams of six players each compete to achieve a goal that varies by stage, such as escorting/stopping a payload or capturing an objective. Each character has multiple weapons at their disposal that are unique to them, including a Limit Break/Final Smash-esque attack known as their "Ultimate". The characters are broken into Damage (attack), Tank (defense), and Support (healer) classes, and the game emphasizes the importance of creating a balanced team.
At the end of each match, the "Play of the Game" is shown, and all team members that didn't leave early receive experience as well as money, which can be used to gain upgrades and "loot boxes" filled with alternate costumes, victory poses, and more.
But you probably don't care about any of that, do you? Much like Touhou, Overwatch gets most of its fame and notoriety from its fanbase and the Fountain of Memes created therein. The voice actors of the characters are probably more well-known than the characters themselves (not really helping matters much is the actors' tendencies to refer to each other by their character names), although the characters are Large Hams in and of themselves owing to their characterization.
There's even an honest-to-God Overwatch League that plays the game like a real sports league, with (currently) ten teams with such creative names as the Boston Uprising, Shanghai Dragons, Dallas Fuel, Houston Outlaws, and San Francisco Shock (given the kind of place San Francisco is, the "shock" could be anything...).
Cheers, love! These tropes are here![]
- Ace Pilot: While she isn't explicitly billed as this, Pharah makes an unusually large amount of aviation-related puns.
- Acrofatic: Roadhog.
- Americans Are Cowboys: McCree and Ashe.
- Ambiguously Brown: Inverted...of all the characters who would have an olive skin tone in real life, Sombra, Pharah, Ana, and Symmetra are black, while D.Va and Mei are white.
- Asian Airhead: D.Va. Most notably, one of her "Play of the Game" sequences has her blowing bubbles with bubble gum.
- Asian and Nerdy: Symmetra.
- Baby Got Back: Tracer's ass is arguably more well-known than Tracer herself.
- Beauty Is Bad: Despite what the fat acceptance movement might tell you, this is averted with Mei, who hasn't been seen outside of her huge-ass coat in any official media and arguably only LOOKS fat because of it.
- Bollywood Nerd: Symmetra.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Widowmaker.
- Butch Lesbian: Tracer has hints of this. Zarya is probably a more blatant example.
- Cool Old Guy: Torbjörn.
- Crapsack World: What this game takes place in.
- Dragons Up the Yin-Yang: Hanzo's Ultimate.
- Emotionless Girl: Widowmaker.
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: A likely reason for Widowmaker's existence.
- Fair Cop: One of D.Va's alternate outfits is this.
- Gamer Chick: D.Va.
- Germanic Depressives: Reinhardt.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Widowmaker has an inexplicable blue skin tone.
- Herr Doktor: Mercy.
- Hollywood Hacking: What Sombra does.
- Humongous Mecha: D.Va rides around in a robot named MEKA.
- Idol Singer: D.Va.
- Informed Deformity: Did you know that Symmetra is autistic? You certainly wouldn't from playing the game, only by reading staff tweets!
- Japanese Politeness: "Sorry, sorry, I'm sorrysorrysorry..." This is arguably a Subverted Trope since Mei is Chinese.
- Japanese Tourist: One of D.Va's "Play of the Game" poses has her flashing a V-sign and taking a selfie while her robot explodes behind her. Again, subverted, as D.Va is Korean...or maybe it's NOT a subversion.
- Jive Turkey: Lúcio.
- Land Down Under: Junkrat.
- Large Ham: The entire cast.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Zarya.
- Oireland: Moira.
- Olympic Games: Early in the game's life, there was a "Summer Games" event that clearly referenced the 2016 Summer Olympics without explicitly using that term.
- One of Us: Anjali Bhimani (voice of Symmetra), Carolina Ravassa (voice of Sombra), and Elise Zhang (voice of Mei). And possibly others.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Mercy, a German, has pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes.
- Moira, an Irish woman, has red hair.
- Professional Killer: Widowmaker.
- Quote Mine: This game's characters are ridiculously quotable.
- Qurac: Played straight with Ana, but not her daughter, Pharah.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: While most characters from non-English-speaking countries do say a few phrases in their native tongue, not all of them do, often due to the voice actor being unable to speak that language. The most notable offender is Pharah and her lack of Arabic.
- Rule 34: So much so that Wikipedia thought it notable enough to have an article!
- Series Mascot: Tracer.
- Shrinking Violet: Mei comes off as this sometimes.
- Spicy Latina: Sombra.
- Spiders Are Scary: Widowmaker makes numerous references to spiders.
- Stiff Upper Lip: Tracer shows hints of this.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: Many people are shocked that an actual British woman voices Tracer and an actual French woman voices Widowmaker.
- The Fifties: D.Va's Cruiser skin, which is a rockabilly-type ensemble with a knotted plaid shirt.
- Totally Radical: "Game on!" "Extra life!" "Nerf THIS!!!" "GG." "D.Va 1, bad guys 0!" "I play to win!" "Is this easy mode!?!" Not to mention the cringey 1950's slang she uses in her Cruiser skin and her love of Mountain Dew and Doritos...yeah, D.Va loves this trope.
- Turned Against Their Masters: The cause of the Omnic Crisis, and thus what set this game's events into motion.
- War Is Hell: Soldier 76.