Yesterday, Overwatch
received a large update, bringing with it loads of new content. Arcade Mode was
introduced, being a new home for Brawls, as well as a new map that houses 1v1
and 3v3 matches. The UI was also much more streamlined, characters were altered
in various ways, and oh yeah, we got a new hero in the form of the long-awaited
Sombra.
Let’s address the elephant in the room
right off the bat: Sombra herself. She’s an Offense hero, but plays more like a
Support, manipulating the battle from the shadows and mainly getting kills via
assists or finishing off a character with an already depleted health meter. Her
passive ability allows her to see enemies with low health through walls
(similar to seeing people through Widowmaker’s ultimate). Her trademark
ability, Hack, is an extremely versatile tool that can dramatically change the
flow of a battle. Unlike Ana’s Biotic Grenade, you can’t ignore Sombra’s Hack.
It temporarily disables all your abilities, including your ultimate. I was
actually able to use it once to stop a Hanzo just before he fired off his
Dragonstrike. It’s most useful against characters that rely on their abilities
for survival, like Tracer, Roadhog, or Zenyatta.
The hack can also be used on health
kits, capturing one for your team. For a certain amount of time, the enemy
cannot use it, it gives anyone on your team double the amount of health it
normally would, and recharges significantly faster. She can also hack Torbjorn’s
turrets, temporarily disabling them and allowing them to be easily destroyed. Basically,
the Hack is something you really don’t
want to be on the receiving end of.
Considering Sombra’s low health, it’s
recommended you keep away from the fight and allow your more powerful allies to
take on the opposition while you hack them from the shadows. Because of this,
she has a few defensive abilities, the most useful of these being her Thermoptic
Camo. This allows Sombra to go completely invisible for a short amount of time,
increasing her speed. She cannot use any abilities until she uncloaks, so this
is mostly used to maneuver through the map undetected. She also has her
Translocator, a small beacon she can leave behind and teleport back to at any
time, provided it’s within 15 seconds after she leaves it. While the
Translocator is useful (especially when you’re cornered and need a quick
escape), it’s very easy to forget to use it. That’s just probably how unskilled
I am, though.
Sombra’s ultimate is the deadly EMP,
casting an enormous field around her that hacks all enemies and destroys any
shields caught in the blast. It tears through any and all barriers, including
Reinhardt’s shield, Winston’s protector, and any shields that may be on your
health bar, making this ultimate a true terror for characters like Zarya and
Zenyatta.
As of this writing, if you know how to
play Sombra she can be ridiculously overpowered, and it’s not unthinkable that
she’ll be nerfed in some way in the near future. However, the hardest part of
Sombra at the moment is getting to play as her. Quick Play character selection
has been adjusted to Ranked rules, that being that only one of each hero is
allowed on each team. While this prevents the teams of 6 people all playing Ana
happening all over again, you need to be extremely quick to select Sombra
before somebody else snatches her up. To ensure a game where you play as
Sombra, you’ll need to play in the new No Limits mode, which operates exactly
the same was as Quick Play used to.
No Limits mode can be found in the
all-new Arcade, the new home of the Brawl mode as well as other wacky
gamemodes. At the moment, it looks like no new Brawls are being made, with all
the old ones being thrown into a playlist for your amusement. The ever-popular
Mystery Heroes brawl has become a permanent mode of its own, so if you’re like
me and love playing that, it’s nice. As of this writing, however, I was unable
to get into a game of Mystery Heroes, so I’m not sure if it’s up and running
just yet. The holiday-exclusive brawls Lucioball and Junkenstien’s Revenge are
absent, and if/when a Christmas event happens I assume that the brawl created
for that will be included here as well.
The real highlight of the Arcade is
the all new Ecopoint: Antarctica Map, home to 1v1 and 3v3 duels. Antarctica is
a smaller map made to accommodate up to 6 players at once, themed after the
base where Mei was cryogenically frozen.
1v1 and 3v3 are built on Deathmatch
rules, with everyone getting one life and one life only. 1v1 gives both players
the same random hero, and the first to 5 wins. 3v3 allows you to choose your
hero after each match, and the first team to reach 3 wins claims victory. In
all honesty, these modes are a quick and easy way to realize that you’re not
very good at Overwatch. Because of the one-life-only rule, I often got killed
quickly and easily and spectated the rest of the match. It’s fun for the first
few times, but if you aren’t the type of person who’s the best at PvP combat,
it wears thin kind of fast.
Perhaps the best part of the Arcade is
the new method of earning loot boxes. Each week, 3 loot boxes are offered, and
you receive 1 for every 3 wins you get in the arcade. I’ve been critical of
Overwatch’s random box method of receiving loot before, and this new method
seems to be a really good compromise. While the loot boxes are still
randomized, allowing players to get more of them by playing the game increases
the chances of getting what you want.
The new update to Overwatch has
basically done nothing but continue to improve an already fantastic game, by
adding a hero that’s sure to change the metagame, several new gamemodes for
more variety, and even putting in a fix for the long brewing loot box problem.
If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say next for Overwatch will be a Christmas
event sometime next month, hopefully giving us a holiday themed skin for
characters that haven’t gotten any new skins yet (Winston, Mei, Sombra). I’m
also guessing that once the initial fervor has ended, Sombra will become easier
to access in Quick and Ranked play, and as players stop expecting her to be a
constant on every team her hacking abilities will become even more of a
surprise. I look forward until then!
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