Did Blizzard actually manage to solve Overwatch's story problem?

When Overwatch was first revealed, I fell in love with the universe. When the game launched, I pored over every voice line, read every scrap of associated media, and theorized with other fans about whether the game’s rich lore could go. And then, in 2019, I rage quit the game and uninstalled after years of that lore going nowhere. I was exhausted with the constant teases of new heroes who could, one day, show up and influence the narrative. So, I bid adieu to Overwatch and moved on. 

I’ve remained aware of the game in a general sense, and when Blizzard announced that they were launching an ambitious new storyline in the Rise of Talon, I kept an eye on things. I was curious to see, after years of experimentation, whether Overwatch retained any of the juice from its original iteration. Would it be possible for Blizzard to tell a story that didn’t have me rending my garments and wailing to the skies in frustration? And to my great surprise, the answer is: yeah, kind of.

In the Overwatch universe, there’s the titular Overwatch who serve as a global peacekeeping force made up of a mix of scrappy young newcomers and hardened veterans. Overwatch has a whole gallery of villains to fight, which makes good fuel for various storylines, but the most prominent one is Talon. Talon is a terrorist organization led by Doomfist, a man who operates under the philosophy that conflict is necessary for humanity to reach its utmost potential.