It’s Blizzard’s 10th BlizzCon this weekend, but that’s only one milestone, it’s also Blizzard Entertainment’s 25th anniversary this year… and they were mid-celebration when their stream got a little bit hacked by this mischievous woman.
I’ll admit, my internet not being that amazing, it actually had me a little bit fooled that the stream had gone haywire for me. It eventually turned out that this was Sombra getting her official announcement and reveal in a new animated short for Overwatch called Infiltration. It’s about time, seeing as she’s been teased for quite some time in a series of ARGs.
With a machine pistol in hand, she’s an offensive stealth character, able to hack enemies and stop them using their abilities, go invisible with themoptic camo, teleport to a throwable translocator beacon, and with an EMP that will neutralise everything and everyone nearby for a few moments.
Check out her character page, but from the video above, she really just wants to make some new friends.
Update: There’s a couple of new videos of Sombra, with her origin story:
And a bit of gameplay to check out as well:
There’s also new maps on the way, with a map called Oasis – a Control game mode map – due in on the public test realm in December and then hopefully for wider release in early 2017, and with a new Arcade area added in the game to host new game modes and maps, replacing the weekly brawl. The Arcade kicks off next week, starting with 1v1 and 3v3 arena game modes and a new Eco Point Antarctica map. It will be curated, changing over time.
You’ll get rewards from taking part, with loot boxes for winning a match in a new game mode the first time you play. A new weekly reward system is also added that lets you earn up to three loot boxes across the week, each one earned for winning three matches in the arcade.
The first new mode is called Mystery Duel, and it’s a 1v1 match. It’s played to best of 9 and each round randomly selects a hero which both you and your opponent play as. This is where the Eco Point Antarctica map – Mei’s home base! (Squeeee!) – comes in, which has been designed specifically for smaller fights and this 1v1 mode.
The 3v3 mode is Elimination, played to best of five. This can be played both with a team of friends of heading in solo and using matchmaking. Each round lets you pick your character, but each hero can only feature once in a team. Mercy will be powerful, able to resurrect teammates, but not if she’s the first one to die!
Other modes in the arcade include Mystery Heroes – it simply randomises heroes in standard play – a mode called No Limits which, in the wake of a single hero limit coming to Quick Play in the near future, lets the current status quo carry on for those that really want to play with six Torbjorns on the team.
Finally, All Brawls brings together all the previous Weekly Brawl modes and puts them on a cycle, so it might be Super Shimada Bros. one round, High Noon the next, We’re All Soldiers Now, Mobawatch, and so on. There’s a few new Brawls as well, one of which is just Lucio and Reinhardt, and another of which is only on the Ilios map, only around the well area of the map and only with Roadhogs and Lucios. Called ‘This Is Ilios’, you can imagine just how mad that one’s going to be!
Update: Fleshed out news about the Arcade and more from the dev session.
Source: BlizzCon, Overwatch
