Home Gaming So what’s the story behind Overwatch’s Sombra?

So what’s the story behind Overwatch’s Sombra?

3 min read
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After what feels like years of teases and ARGs, Blizzard finally unveiled their mysterious new Overwatch character, Sombra. At last, we know what the hacker officially looks like, and what exactly she’s capable of.

That’s all good and well, and I’m happy she has finally debuted, but what I’m more interested in to be honest, is where and how Sombra fits into the overall Overwatch lore. Where did she come from, and why is she working for Talon?

Let’s take a look at her origin story, or at least, a quick summary of it, as seen on her official Overwatch page. If you’re not a huge fan of words, you can watch the video below instead – it tells pretty much an identical tale (but with pictures!):

Long before she took up the alias “Sombra,” ?????? was among the thousands of children who were left orphaned in the aftermath of the Omnic Crisis. With much of her country’s infrastructure destroyed, she survived by utilizing her natural gifts with hacking and computers.

After ?????? was taken in by Mexico’s Los Muertos gang, she aided it in its self-styled revolution against the government. Los Muertos believed that the rebuilding of Mexico had primarily benefited the rich and the influential, leaving behind those who were most in need of assistance.

Following her many conquests, ?????? was supremely confident in her skills, but she was caught unprepared when she stumbled into the web of a global conspiracy—one that had also noticed her. With her security irreparably compromised, ?????? was forced to delete all traces of her identity and went into hiding.

She later reemerged as Sombra, upgraded and determined to find out the truth behind the conspiracy she had uncovered. Sombra launched an even more audacious string of hacks, and her exploits earned her no shortage of admirers, including Talon. She joined the organization’s ranks and is believed to have contributed to its massive cyberattacks against corporations with strong ties to their governments. These efforts incited a popular revolution in Mexico against LumériCo and breached the security of Volskaya Industries, the manufacturing arm of Russia’s anti-omnic defense.

So Sombra (whose actual name we still don’t know) was snapped up by Talon thanks to, surprise, her amazing hacking skills. She seems to have worked for them for quite some time too, based on her playful interactions with Reaper and Widowmaker during their mission to assassinate the CEO of Volskaya Industries.

There’s something fishy going on though. At the end of the animated short, Sombra strikes up a deal with Katya Volskaya, and later tells Reaper and Widowmaker that the CEO slipped away before she could be killed.

Why did Sombra do that? Is she on her own mission to hold all the information, and thus, all the power? Or is she working for the greater good?

In her origin story, she stumbles onto some global conspiracy, and somebody notices her. Is she not maybe now working to bring them down, or at least, stop their plans, whatever they are, from taking place? I’m not entirely sure. There’s more to this character than meets the eye, that’s for sure.

On the surface, Sombra seems bad (she’s working for Talon after all, and she was part of Mexican gang prior). Her actions at Volskaya however, lead me to believe that she’s a little more grey – not good, not evil. I’d love to know what exactly her intentions are!

At the very least, we have a new Overwatch character to look forward to playing. Sombra took forever to debut, but I think she may have been worth the wait.

Last Updated: November 7, 2016

8 Comments

  1. I know she’s new and all but it’s probably time she was nerfed

    Reply

  2. HairyEwok

    November 7, 2016 at 14:31

    Sombra vs Marcus Holloway, who would win the hacker game.

    Reply

  3. Andre Fourie

    November 7, 2016 at 14:45

    Hot purple chick…

    Reply

  4. RinceThis

    November 7, 2016 at 15:04

    Overrated…

    Reply

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