BlizzCon 2016: 'Overwatch' Sombra Hands-On Impressions, Hacking Has Never Been This Fun

“Everything can be hacked, even people.”

-Sombra

I honestly believed Sombra didn’t exist. After months of Blizzard’s ARG event, waiting for countdowns to finish, I was convinced that Sombra wasn’t actually Overwatch’s next hero. She was merely a distraction, something to keep the fans busy while Jeff Kaplan and his band of developers scrambled to create some new content for their highly successful shooter.

I can now say that Sombra is real. She has abilities, a backstory and awesome purple hair. At BlizzCon, I got a chance to try the hacker out and really figure out what you can do with her. Sombra is an assassin/DPS who incapacitates her foes before killing them. She’s really fast, does a ton of damage, but if she gets caught, she’s as good as dead.

The 11 other people in the demo playing with me also picked her, so I really got to see her perform in a variety of situations. Her Machine Pistol, her basic weapon, is like a stronger version of D.VA’s handgun when she’s outside her mech. It can easily burst down squishy heroes like Reaper or Tracer in a single clip. The gun has an extremely fast reload time, on par with Tracer’s handguns.

Sombra has a few unique mechanics that qualify her as one of Overwatch’ s most unique heroes (or villains.) Thermoptic Camo allows her to camouflage herself, increasing her movement speed for a few seconds. This ability can be used to speed out of the spawn zone, catch a pesky runaway enemy or get out of some serious trouble.

If Sombra places a Thermolocator on the ground, she can teleport back to it. She doesn’t have to be stealthed, so good Sombra players can pull off some truly spectacular moves. I am not a good Sombra player; I threw my Thermolocator off a clip and teleported to my death. I thought you couldn’t teleport until it had landed. I was wrong.

The coolest part of Sombra’s kit is her ability to hack. Clicking right button makes the hacker throw up her hand, targeting any enemy or health pack in her vision. If she can stay near her target for a few seconds she “hacks” them. “Hacked” enemies can’t use their abilities and “hacked” health packs won’t work on enemies. A Tracer is really easy to kill when she can’t blink around her map.

Like every Overwatch hero, Sombra has a game-changing ultimate, E.M.P. She releases a wave of energy that “hacks” all enemies around her and breaking all their shields. Imagine your an enemy team trying one last push to reach the payload. Reinhardt is in front, blocking all the Junkrat grenades and Pharrah rockets that are coming their way. Your team starts to freak, fearing that the game is lost. Sombra steps in, shoots purple energy out of her chest and turns the enemy into sitting ducks. GG.

I really like Sombra. She’s stupidly fun and super powerful. Even so, she has obvious weaknesses, which keep her from being overpowered; catch her with a Roadhog hook or a Tracer bomb and she’s mincemeat.

Everyone else who isn’t at BlizzCon can play her next week, when she drops on the PTR.