Overwatch 2 animated short introduces Kiriko, one of the sequel's new heroes

There being no actively updated Overwatch game has meant there's been no Overwatch animated shorts in recent years. Now Overwatch 2 is live, there's a new nine-minute, fully-animated short introducing the hero Kiriko, one of the free-to-play sequel new characters. You can watch it below.

I always thought the Overwatch animated shorts paled in comparison to Team Fortress 2's equivalents, particularly in their writing, but the above is pretty good. I enjoyed the righteous beatdown when it happened, and the rest is inoffensively sweet.

Kiriko is one of Overwatch 2's new heroes and as such you'll have to unlock her via its new battle pass system. You might want to do that, too, since Kiriko is currently at the top of the game's meta. She's versatile, she works as both a healer and a DPS class, and for that reason Ollie has ranked her as S-tier in our Overwatch 2 tier list.

Since Kiriko is part of the battle pass, that means you either need to reach level 55 or spend money to unlock the "premium" battle pass. Reaching level 55 will likely take you 3-4 weeks, if you do absolutely everything possible while grinding each day - and likely longer, if you have things to do other than grind in Overwatch 2. We've got guides on how to unlock heroes in Overwatch 2 and on how to level up fast, if you're so inclined.

Does this talk of spending money and grinding somewhat spoil the fun and cute story of inter-generational cooperation in the animated short above? Yes. Yes, it does, but Overwatch 2 is a free-to-play game and so characters are things you buy now, one way or another.