Sombra officially announced at Blizzcon

Hey, It’s me: Sombra.

After much waiting and stress over the Alternate Reality Game: decoding clues into the identity of Overwatch’s hinted character in the web, Blizzard has officially confirmed and released Sombra as a playable character this afternoon at Blizzcon. Sombra has been a heated talking point for fans of Overwatch for the last few months. The knowledge that was being released was carefully controlled and manipulated via a series of “hacks” in which sombra was “making herself known” to the public, and leading fans on a digital goose chase. While some believe that this lead on took far too long and wasn’t worth the wait, I found myself enjoying learning new tidbits of information, and being really impressed at the hive-mind’s ability to problem solve in very short periods of time.

Blizzard has released a new animated short embedded below titled “infiltration”, giving fans a glimpse at Sombra’s powers and mindset within the world of Overwatch heroes and villains.

[youtube link=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu-Y8hSYQcA” width=”590″ height=”315″]

Sombra as a character:
Character Bio From Playoverwatch.com:
There is little that is currently known about Sombra’s allegiances with Talon or with Overwatch crew. It appears that she is the first unaffiliated character who manipulates those in her way to get what she wants. In the video we see her collaborating with Talon, but for her own ends. This places her at odds with all of the other heroes who have very clearly chosen sides from what we know about them so far and from in-game chatter. Although her character bio indicates she works for Talon, it remains to be seen just what those allegiances look like in future updates.

Abilities:

Sombra is primarily an offensive class, toting a single machine pistol that is incredibly effective at short range, similar to tracer’s automatic pistols.

A “Hack” ability allows Sombra to stun and temporarily disable her enemies abilities for a short time. She is also capable of disabling med-kit spawners for the enemy team. Based on the short clip of in-game demo that is attached to Sombra’s main page, the hack ability appears to be her secondary attack, and operates similarly to Mei’s frost cannon. Sustained contact with the target will result in a frozen player/turret in a stunned state until the effect wears off. It remains to be seen how long of a range this attack has, and what if anything can counter the effects.

Sombra is also equipped with a “Thermoptic Camo” which enables temporary invisibility. When cloaked, her speed is increased substantially for quick getaways. Shooting, using abilities or taking damage ends the effect.

She also has a droppable teleporter beacon, which can enable a rapid escape route, or sneaky backdoor into enemy point zones for rapid capping. Similar to the triggered spider smoke grenade fired by widomaker, the beacon plants itself until activated by the player.

Finally, Sombra’s ultimate is a large EMP blast that disables enemy shields and abilities if they are unlucky enough to be within the blast zone. The effect range will likely be similar to D.Va’s self-destruct, with the added bonus of temporarily stunning all affected players and heavily reducing their protective layers.


Sombra enters the PTR patch this weekend, and will roll to users soon after on the main platform for all systems. As a second update, a new desert map called “Oasis” will soon follow in the PTR, and be released for public play closer to December.

I for one, cannot wait. For more information, visit the overwatch heroes page here.

Will Russell
Will Russell
Freelance Writer, Editor, PR specialist, Games collector and Tech Junkie

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