After months of poking, prodding and teasing through social media, Sombra has finally been officially revealed during the BlizzCon 2016 opening ceremony! Giving us a look at what to expect thanks to a surprise animated short featuring her, Widowmaker and Reaper, the plot surrounding the countless King of the Hill matches is starting to really heat up. But is she friend, foe, or only in it for herself?
As the latest offensive hero to be revealed for the team based shooter, she looks to bring a completely different type of skill set to the game. If you’ve been following the leaks, it seems like they were spot on, but for those who managed to stay in the dark, you’re in for a surprise. Courtesy of the Overwatch website, here’s what we can expect when Sombra arrives in our games.
Stealth and debilitating attacks make Sombra a powerful infiltrator. Her hacking can disrupt her enemies, ensuring they’re easier to take out, while her EMP provides the upper hand against multiple foes at once. Sombra’s ability to Translocate and camouflage herself makes her a hard target to pin down.
ABILITIES
Sombra’s fully-automatic machine pistol fires in a short-range spread.
Sombra hacks enemies to temporarily stop them from using their abilities, or hacks first aid kits to make them useless to her opponents.
Sombra becomes invisible for a short period of time, during which her speed is boosted considerably. Attacking, using offensive abilities, or taking damage disables her camouflage.
Sombra tosses out a translocator beacon. She can instantly return to the beacon’s location while it is active (including when it’s in mid-flight).
Sombra discharges electromagnetic energy in a wide radius, destroying enemy barriers and shields and hacking all opponents caught in the blast.
On paper, Sombra sounds like a game changer. Being able to teleport at a much faster speed than Reaper helps her mobility, while her stealth makes it easy for her to flank opposing teams. If that wasn’t enough, her Hack ability completely disables opponents and their ability to heal through packs, and that EMP ultimate can set up major comebacks when defensive teams are completely walling you off. Then again, reading about it and its actual application in game are two different things, so we’ll be keeping our eyes on the floor impressions, since she’s available to try at the convention.
Aside from the new character, Blizzard promised new modes and maps, including what they called The Arcade. Revealing Eco Point Antarctica, Mei’s home stage where she was frozen for years, this map was the first one mentioned for The Arcade, which will offer 1 vs 1 and 3 vs 3 matches. The Oasis will be the next standard map, a type of high tech utopia built in the Arabian desert. The new content was said to arrive on the PTR in December, so it’ll be a little longer before we’ll be able to check it out for ourselves.
Watch Sombra’s reveal animation below, then let us know if you think she’s living up to the hype! And keep checking back with us for all the news coming out of BlizzCon, including more details on the new modes from the Overwatch panel later today.