A year ago, the Overwatch team introduced the player-base to a seasonal event that would come to be known as Overwatch Uprising. It was a massively popular PVE mission that delved into the lore of the game. Specifically, the mini-campaign centered around Tracer’s first mission as a part of Overwatch. A faction of rogue omnics called “Null Sector” had attacked King’s Row. Players took up the roles of Tracer, Mercy, Torbjorn, and Reinhardt to fight waves of omnic enemies. A year later, the Uprising is back, now under the banner of Overwatch Archives. This new angle on the event means that not only will this time slot be used to bring Uprising back, annually, but also more lore events. For the first new addition, Blizzard revealed Overwatch Retribution.
During the first day of stage 3 in the Overwatch League, Jeff Kaplan announced the new seasonal event. Blizzard teased things about it for several weeks. The hype around Brigitte was just dying down. So this was as good a time as any. Earlier, there was a Developer Update discussing the lore implications of the event. In it, Kaplan hinted at several details. One was that the “favorite Shimada brother” was getting a new skin. This later turned out to be referring to Hanzo. But he isn’t the only one. Since Retribution was announced, Blizzard has been revealing more new skins, connected to the event. These include skins for Moira, Doomfist, and Sombra.
The mission is another PVE event. This time it revolves around Blackwatch, taking on Overwatch’s main rival in the series, Talon. Players are dropped into the roles of Gabriel Reyes (pre-Reaper), Moira, Genji, and McCree as they take on a handful of unique Talon troopers. Said troops won’t simply be reskins of existing characters, either. And the AI has apparently been upgraded to make the play experience more enjoyable. The mission takes place on a new map – Rialto – which will be added to the main game during the event as a Payload map.
Retribution’s place in the timeline is also interesting. It’s been set up as a pivotal moment in the lore of Overwatch – the point where Blackwatch becomes public knowledge. This, of course, has majorly negative ramifications. Eventually, Overwatch shuts down as a result of this and public pressures. Furthermore, this is likely the moment that marks the shift in Gabriel Reyes. It could be this very mission that sends him down the path to becoming The Reaper. There’s plenty to speculate about, and a few more days until the event goes live. In that time, players can probably expect at least a couple more reveals. Overwatch Uprising returns and Overwatch Retribution makes its debut on April 10.
