It’s Springtime in the world of Overwatch and that means only one thing, the Archives event. Mark your calendars because it’s coming up in a couple of days from April 16th to May 6th.
If this is your first Archives mission, you may be wondering what they’re about. Well, they’re original story-driven missions based on previous events that happened in Overwatch history. For a team based shooter Overwatch has a ton of lore hidden in these events. Let’s recap.
The previous events were Uprising and Retribution. This year’s Archive is entitled – Storm Rising.
Uprising 2017
Uprising is all about the Omnic Uprising. The fight for equal treatment between human and Omnics. At this point in time, Omnics were being treated like slaves. Forced to work in hard labour conditions, they were openly discriminated against and denied citizenship. A group of Omnics came together to form
As part of the Uprising, Null Sector launched a surprise attack on King’s taking the city and killing hundreds in the process. They were eventually stopped by Tracer, Mercy, Torbjörn and Reinhardt. Uprising also featured Tracer as her first mission out of field combat training.
Retribution 2018
Retribution tells us the story of Blackwatch and what happened between Reyes (that’s Reaper to you) and Morrison. Following attacks in Oslo and Rialto, Reyes began pressing Morrison on taking action against their primary suspect, Antonio Bartalotti. Despite insisting they do things by the book, Morrison reluctantly authorized Reyes to unofficially arrest and interrogate Bartalotti on the condition that it must be contained.
Together Reyes, McCree, Genji and Moira, under the covert operations arm of Overwatch – Blackwatch, sneak into the compound to apprehend Bartalotti. As this was not a sanctioned arrest Bartalotti mocked the group’s effort, boasting that Talon would recover him whatever they did. Unfortunately for him mocking the Reaper earns you a shotgun to the face. Resulting in his highly publicised death and the eventual emergence of Blackwatch in the public eye.
Storm Rising 2019
This year’s Archive is entitled Storm Rising and it involves the hunt for Doomfist by taking down his… accountant. A fairly classy Omnic accountant named Maximillien. “Follow the money and you’ll find the dirt you need.”
Maximilien has never appeared in-game, but he has several appearances in extended lore around Overwatch. He plays a prominent part in the comic Doomfist: Masquerade, and is a member of the Talon council in the current day.
For this mission, Sojourn has located Maximillien in his hideout in Havana, Cuba. It turns out he’s been buying local businesses and converting them into massive moneymaking operations staffed with private guards. It’s up to Tracer, Genji, Winston and Mercy to capture him.
This year’s Archives event is home to more than 160 cosmetic in-game rewards. But so far Blizzard has only released two – Baptise‘s Talon Skin.
And a creepy looking clown skin for Junkrat (that has in no way anything to do with this event).
