New Overwatch short film unveils Sombra

[WindKnight]

New overwatch short time ^_^

This time focussing on Sombra, and tying into the ARG that's been going on for the last few months.

Spoiler: origin video and abilities

[
youtube=bcrPuSRYA4U]

Spoiler

some ghost in the shell going stuff going on with her hacker abilities (the fact her cloak is called thermoptic camouflage seems a direct nod). The video seems to imply she's using Talon for her own ends (chasing down a global conspiracy that I wouldn't be surprised to find out was in control of Talon) makes it muddy as to whether she's hero, villain or anti-hero. looking forward to her ingame banter with Zarya as the ending implies she's being sent after Sombra.

Also, it's always fun to ses Reaper lose. he's just that kind of villain (even if I do like how he plays ingame)

 

[Hawki]

It's not the best animated short (that prize goes to The Last Bastion per its visual storytelling), but it's still a damn solid one. General thoughts:

-I love that the short shows how brutal Talon operatives can be, as they indiscriminately kill the guards. Overwatch has gotten some flak for those who prefer "dark and gritty" Blizzard, but while I'm not one of them, I think the short (and Alive) do a good job of injecting some darkness.

-Sombra says boop. I demand Bastion say beep.

-So, is Katya secretly propogating a war with the omnics, or just getting tech from those not afiliated with the Siberian omnium?

-Those mechs are cool. I want singleplayer where we fight/control those mechs.

-So, is Zarya really an assassin-type character? Assuming that Katya wants her to deal with Sombra, I'm not sure if Zarya is the "go to" person. She's a soldier first and foremost.

-Is Sombra using Talon for her own ends? Eh, maybe, but I get the sense that Sombra is just following her personal agenda rather than focusing on Talon specifically. There's also a theory that Liao is in charge of Talon, for what it's worth.

Anyway, solid work.

 

[WindKnight]

-So, is Katya secretly propogating a war with the omnics, or just getting tech from those not afiliated with the Siberian omnium?

Leaning towards the latter myself. whatever sparked both omnic crisis is certainly not universal this time.

-Those mechs are cool. I want singleplayer where we fight/control those mechs.

The game NEEDS some kind of full-time horde mode going forward, and it needs to have every character available in it. The limited roster ruined Junkensteins revenge for me.

 

[saluraropicrusa]

Spoiler

Also, it's always fun to ses Reaper lose. he's just that kind of villain (even if I do like how he plays ingame)

Spoiler

legit, i almost laughed when he got smacked by the mech arm. i won't say i dislike reaper, but he's a pretty boring villain to me, and i do like seeing him get shut down.

sombra seems like a cool character (i do tend to like the hacker archetype), but i am so not thrilled about having another character with a "stun" type ability. mei and mccree are my least favorite characters to play against (especially mei, i hate fighting her)... i know the game is kinda balanced around having characters with abilities like these, but i really can't stand being suddenly put in a situation (ults notwithstanding) where i'm completely helpless or where control is removed from me. it's never fun, and rarely feels fair (it might technically be fair, but it never feels that way).

it's possible that she won't be that bad, or it won't leave the player totally helpless, and it's possible she'll be tweaked to feel better to play against if it's too egregious... but man am i not excited for another character like this.

 

[Aeshi]

-Those mechs are cool. I want singleplayer where we fight/control those mechs.

I was actually going to comment "Any chance we can get D.Va one of those?" at first, but in retrospect I'm not so sure. Those things seem even more prone to being headshot than the MEKA is, and that's saying something.

 

[WindKnight]

sombra seems like a cool character (i do tend to like the hacker archetype), but i am so not thrilled about having another character with a "stun" type ability. mei and mccree are my least favorite characters to play against (especially mei, i hate fighting her)... i know the game is kinda balanced around having characters with abilities like these, but i really can't stand being suddenly put in a situation (ults notwithstanding) where i'm completely helpless or where control is removed from me. it's never fun, and rarely feels fair (it might technically be fair, but it never feels that way).

it's possible that she won't be that bad, or it won't leave the player totally helpless, and it's possible she'll be tweaked to feel better to play against if it's too egregious... but man am i not excited for another character like this.

its not actually a stun as such, it just disables abilities (even ults) and turrets, with her ult taking out barriers too.

this could be interesting Support wise, as I think Mercy and Ana's primary healing are weapon based, While Lucio's and Zenyatta's are abilities (Lucio's is a passive, but I think it counts). On the other hand, knocking out guardian angel and depending on how this affects her regen (or the regen buff doesn't materialise on the game servers), this could really make Mercy's life so much harder.

 

[RedDeadFred]

She may say the word, but Lucio is still the best booper.

Her EMP seems ridiculously powerful if used correctly. It can easily win your team the fight if you time it right and your allies know to coordinate. However, if you use it at an inopportune moment or someone baits it from you, it'll be fairly useless. At the same time, hack is also quite strong. Her mobility skill is also one of the most flexible in the game. And then there's stealth which while very useful, does not seem OP like a lot of people thought it would. In a game where everyone has infinite ammo, I don't see this as being too oppressive.

As for the short itself, it was good, but it's probably my least favourite.

 

[Benpasko]

sombra seems like a cool character (i do tend to like the hacker archetype), but i am so not thrilled about having another character with a "stun" type ability. mei and mccree are my least favorite characters to play against (especially mei, i hate fighting her)... i know the game is kinda balanced around having characters with abilities like these, but i really can't stand being suddenly put in a situation (ults notwithstanding) where i'm completely helpless or where control is removed from me. it's never fun, and rarely feels fair (it might technically be fair, but it never feels that way).

it's possible that she won't be that bad, or it won't leave the player totally helpless, and it's possible she'll be tweaked to feel better to play against if it's too egregious... but man am i not excited for another character like this.

We need another disabler though, the "stack a bunch of ults and win" meta isn't the most fun. Sombra will be able to shut down those nano-boosted genji / reinhardts, or reapers, or whoever is steamrolling with a 'press q for teamwipe' style ult combo. I'm also looking forward to hacking a tracer and stopping her from blinking and recalling.

When her design was linked before, I thought it looked pretty lame, but I love all the glowy bits. Way more impressed than I expected.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

That doesn't look like the dark ruler of the Crystal empire to me...

 

[McElroy]

Tony Stark hacking and this stupid hacker chick type pumped up to 11. Colour me impressed. I mean colour my walls with my vomit.

 

[The Madman]

I thought the trailer was pretty weak, which is pretty surprisingly given I've enjoyed all the other Overwatch shorts, but the character herself looks both fun to play and infuriating to play against. I'll look forward to giving her a try, plus the new modes announced for Overwatch also sound entertaining as well.

Just what I needed to get me back into playing the game.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Really amazing trailer but I can see her being the bane of my existence and replacing mei in a lot of people's eyes as the most hated character. That hacking ability just seems broken as hell now

 

[Glongpre]

Yay more content!

Hacking is a really good skill. Don't know if I would call it OP yet though. Her other skills are fairly tame.
That ult is very good. AOE silence plus destroys shield (including rein barrier, and I imagine zarya barriers) is going to be essential. She is just a great counter to zarya in general, which should shake up comp line ups.

Interesting that they put her in the offense category, she seems very defensive. Although she has tracers smg it seems. Good to see they try and keep characters fairly unique, with an offense character who doesn't have an ult that is for damage.

Winston might be a good counter, but idk, hacking could really hurt winston, but then again I doubt he would be the best use of the ability. Mccree can do his shit still b/c he is all left clicks.

edit: omg just realized, she will be a solid counter to mei!!! wunderbar

 

[RaikuFA]

Need to play her to see how she is but dear God I hate that hairstyle.

 

[Saetha]

Need to play her to see how she is but dear God I hate that hairstyle.

Same. She seems like a fairly interesting character, but ye gods, Blizzard took that ridiculous sidecut thing and somehow made it look ever stupider.

In the concept art she had different hairstyles or a hood. I dearly wish they'd gone with one of those because christ, she looks like an edgelord clown.

 

[Kae]

As a Mexican myself I can say...

Her accent is terrible I can't stand it, and she kind off annoys me in general, I would love killing her.

 

[Zhukov]

Good wholesome fun.

Starting to feel like I'm the only person on the planet who has a soft spot for that hairstyle. Granted, it tends to work better on an illustrated character than on a flesh-and-blood person, but don't they all?

 

[IceForce]

I'm also looking forward to hacking a tracer and stopping her from blinking and recalling.

Yeah, seems like Sombra is pretty much a hard-counter to Tracer, who (a lot more than most other heroes) is 100% reliant on her abilities to survive.

A good Tracer can run rings around the opposition, and the existing Tracer 'counters' are not exactly reliable. And I say all this as a Tracer main.

Looks like Sombra will be a decent counter to Mei and Zarya too, who also don't really have any reliable counters at the moment. So I suppose they're trying to balance the game up a bit.

But the question is; what counters Sombra?

 

[IceForce]

Good wholesome fun.

Starting to feel like I'm the only person on the planet who has a soft spot for that hairstyle. Granted, it tends to work better on an illustrated character than on a flesh-and-blood person, but don't they all?

I don't really get why so many people are triggered by that hairdo. To me, it just looks like a raider from a Fallout game.

 

[Zhukov]

As a Mexican myself I can say...

Her accent is terrible I can't stand it, and she kind off annoys me in general, I would love killing her.

Hey, if I have to cope with Junkrat "G'day cobber"ing all over the place and the Poms get Tracer being 120% British then it's only fair that Mexico shoulder their fair share of the burden.