Blizzard has gotten the entire Overwatch community in an uproar. Despite a hint from director Jeff Kaplan, thousands of fans are still struggling to decipher a series of puzzles and encrypted codes. The reward is hopefully more information about Sombra, a possible new character in the game. Here’s all that we have about the expected individual and the clues provided by Blizzard.
Firstly, the most burning question: Who is Sombra? Unfortunately, we do not as yet have a definite answer. It all began with the discovery of some clues in the Dorado map and spotting character name in the game’s files.
According to Wiki, Sombra is a stealth-based character who operates out of Dorado. Being Reaper’s associate, her skills include hacking and cryptography. The latter would explain the nature of this treasure hunt set in cyber-space. In addition to the files, her name appears in one of Reaper’s dialogues. When playing in Dorado, Reaper states the following line: “Where’s Sombra when you need her.”
Initially, it was thought Sombra would be Ana Amari, the sniper lady from the Overwatch posters, and mother of offence character Pharah. However, when Ana was revealed as a separate character, Sombra once again became the subject of discussion. Blizzard continued to leak information in what has now become an ongoing ARG (Alternate Reality Game), with a group called The Game Detectives stepping in to decode the puzzle.
In the Introducing Ana video update, the developer left a puzzle which translates into quite possibly a fourth wall-breaking message from Sombra herself. It reads: “Estuvo eso facilito? Ahora que tengo su atencion, dejenme se las pongo mas dificil” translating the Spanish into English reveals the following:
“Was that easy? Well, now that I have your attention, allow me to make things much more difficult.”
With the Summer Games underway, Blizzard is celebrating Olympics with limited-time cosmetic items and themed skins for the characters. The developer has also dropped additional clues regarding Sombra, and increased puzzle’s difficulty. Over 8,000 people are on the case, but none have managed to reach a concrete conclusion yet. As Kotaku mentioned “Sombra wasn’t kidding,” in her message (about making things more difficult), and we agree. The latest puzzle, observed in the Summer Games trailer, is a code nestled inside the blue trail left behind by the character Tracer. It can only be spotted if you see the video frame by frame.
The Tracer code was actually a Base64 cipher, and is translated into a “salted” code, which requires password to unlock. Additionally, there were some cardinal locations and arrows found in the video, which were arranged like a compass by experts, and referred as such.
When questioned about the compass, Jeff Kaplan dropped an indication: “The compass? That sounds like deep CIA level stuff. Way above our heads.” The last statement caused Detectives to start looking at the skies. Sure enough they discovered something. In the Dorado map, you can spot the not-yet-deciphered codes in the sky.
This is all that we have so far on the Sombra ARG, and the ongoing work by the amazing Game Detectives. Check out the official ARG page for full details on the codes, and the decryption efforts here. If you’re anything like us, the only pertinent question on your mind should be when will Sombra be released, and when can we play her?
Let us know what you think of Sombra, and what abilities you expect from this stealth-based character. For all your gaming news and updates, keep watching this space as we cover all the rumors, reveals, and leaks for Overwatch and beyond.
