Accessing The Overwatch Archives

Once more Blizzard has launched its Seasonal Event in Overwatch. Relaunching one of the popular events from last year, Uprising but calling it Archives. Fans can reply the popular Uprising brawl mode that features Mercy, Reinhardt, Torbjorn, and Tracer on the Kings Row map as face off against waves of Omnic bots. But this year they put a slight spin on the event while continuing to build Overwatch lore.

Last year players learned more of Overwatch’s lore through the Uprising comic, the Brawl game mode, and the always looked forward to event skins. This event copies the exact formula from last year. First, we have the Retribution comic. Here we follow Reyes as he makes the decision to lead a team of Blackwatch members on a mission to get revenge. The comic helps establish the growing divide between Morrison and Reyes that will eventually lead to the fall of Overwatch. There’s also the appearance of Gerard Lacroix. The husband of Widowmaker before she joined Talon. The comic is a lead into the Brawl mode.

Next, we have the return of Brawl mode, Retribution. The event special has players choosing between Moria, McCree, Genji, and Reaper as they enact the mission that brought Blackwatch into the public light. The team has to battle through waves of Talon Troopers, Enforcers, Assassins (that are super annoying), Snipers, and Heavy Assault. The last three are special classes. The Assassin has movements similar to Genji, but if they attack you they will stun you and attack you till a teammate pulls their attention away. The Sniper is basically Windowmaker. Then the Heavy Assault is a tank that has a charge similar to Reinhardt. The game mode has you pressing your team’s assault through the map to get to the Landing Zone.  

Lastly, we have the unlocks in the seasonal loot boxes. While many have their opinion on the issue of microtransactions and loot boxes, I won’t way in on it in this article. This event’s boxes come with 18 skins (8 of which are new), 6 highlight intro (3 are new), and 3 emotes. The emotes are for Hanzo, Soldier 76, and Pharah. All three are from last years event. The repeat intros are Torbjorn, D.Va, and Zenyatta. The new emotes are for Orisa, Doomfist, and Zarya. But now we have the real reason for the loot box system, the skins. The repeats are Widowmaker’s Talon, McCree’s Blackwatch(this will be a theme), Torbjorn’s Ironclad and Chief Engineer Lindholm, Tracer’s Cadet Oxton, Mercy’s Combat Medic Ziegler, Genji’s Blackwatch, Reinhardt’s Lieutenant Wilhelm, and both Bastion and Orisa get their Null Sector skin. Now we look at the new skins for this event in more detail.

 

WINSTON

Staring off the brand new skins we have Winston’s “Specimen 28”. Like many that are featured in the Archives event, this skin has a prototype feel to it. Cables crossing his body as he wears a scientific study suit. His name written on the front of his chest with the number 28 beneath it. While he still wears his rectangular glasses, his cranium is now patched with strange plates with more wires connecting to the various parts. On his back are two jet engines with the turbines spinning.

LUCIO

Then we have everyone’s favorite DJ with his “Equalizer”. His look makes me feel that he’s the prolific DJ of Brazil. The dreadlocks are longer than some of his other skins. The headphones are a lot thicker in their appearance. He is also shirtless to show off that he has some tattoos. His roller blades are hot orange with a mix of retro and futuristic in their feel. But the real eye-catcher is his pants. Starting with the fist belt buckle that is supporting the weighty shorts. On each thigh is a speaker that always keeps the tunes pumping. On the hem of the legs are what look like LED lights that mimic the motions of the levels of the music he’s pumping.

MEI

Mei’s new skin “Pajamei” is one of the two new ones that stand out from the rest. It essentially is her outfit from her animated short Rise and Shine(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tjcm_kI0n0). Warning to those that haven’t watched it make sure you have a tissue nearby as Blizzard really drives home the feels in this video. She’s wearing yeti slippers on her feet. Blue pajama pants with polar bears printed on them. She’s also wearing an oversized Summer Games shirt long sleeve shirt with a blue tank top under it. To keep her hands warm as she uses her weapon, which continues the prototype theme, she’s wearing some heavy duty snow glove. With no hood or hat, her hair has a disheveled look to say she just awoke from her sleep.

MOIRA

Moria’s “Blackwatch” skin, is her first seasonal skin. Her new skin cements herself as the evil Mercy. She wears a black and silver full combat armor from feet to her neck. A small strip of red fabric extends from her abdomen down to her knees. She keeps her gauntlets look of a glove to heal on her left hand and claws to kill on her right glove. Red armor accents her biceps as a pair or bicep guards extends out for further protection. She wears an early version of her healing/damaging technology on her back. Her face does not have the plate from her classic skin, but rather a beret with the Blackwatch emblem on it.

DOOMFIST

Doomfist’s Talon skin is simple but effective. The color scheme consists of black, white, and red. His legs and left arm are protected by black armor. The armor extends across his chest to his namesake arm. The oversized limb now has white armor plates on most of it with red accents around it. On the black of his hand, a white plate covers it with 3 small blades coming off the knuckle. The first big change though it that he has hair on his head along with some rather striking red face paint.

SOMBRA

Sombra’s “Talon” skin felt a little underwhelming. Maintaining the black, white, and red of Doomfist’s “Talon” skin, her look also has the skin tight armor look of Moira’s. Her feet and shins are covered by white armored boots, each foot has 2 small claws coming off it. She has a unique black skirt that flares off her hips with red hexagon pattern on it. Her torso and arms are shielded but an armor scheme similar to Doomfist. But for some reason, for me at least, her hair seems lazy.

HANZO

Hazo is gifted with a rather dapper skin, “Scion”. I would haphazard to say this might be a popular cosplay outfit for future cons. A pair of pinstriped pants draw the eyes in. The front of his vest continues the pinstripe look and the sides have a blue pattern that connects to the back. His undershirt is mostly white aside from the left arm has a blue kanji on it and his right sleeve is all black. He’s also wearing a pair of gloves with a classy watch on his left wrist. The sleeves are rolled halfway up the forearm to reveal his left arm has a tattoo sleeve on it. A matching blue tie brings the whole look together. I feel that this skin has a Yakuza theme to it and matches more with Hanzo’s history.

REAPER

Reaper’s new skin is, to me, the highlight of the event. Entitled “Soldier: 24” we get a glimpse at his looks after undergoing the Soldier Enhancement Program. The boots look like a simple redesign of the original skin. Then we see his pants and shirt are a gray UCP style of camouflage. His torso is armored, a sleeveless trench coat mask most of his backside, but he has these bicep guards that stand out from his arms. The left one is matching the camo pattern, while the right has an American flag with a unit patch (most likely for the Enhancement Program) with the number 24 under it. This is something solely unique to Reaper. Soldier 76 doesn’t have this patch on any of his skins. His shotguns have a prototype feel to their aesthetics. All in all, this is a great skin for any Reaper fans that still want to keep the cannon idea in the back of their minds.

 

All in all this event is a great time to get back into Overwatch. The event lasts until the end of April and costs nothing if you already own the game on any platform. More than likely the next seasonal event will be over the summer. With the World Cup happening, I would guess the Lucio Ball will make its return along with some Football/Soccer themes. What did you think of the event? Are you happy with the skins and exclusives for the event? Or are you like me and just want Blizzard to make a movie on Overwatch already? Let us know what you think in the comments.