Overwatch Archives: Storm Rising is coming and we have a few clues on what to expect

Overwatch’s next Archives event will be called Storm Rising and will go live in the game next week.

The event will feature a unique PVE mission that takes place in the game’s past, giving us new story tidbits. Like Uprising and Retribution before it, it will likely let a group of four players fight against computer-controlled enemies at various difficulties.

And we already have some of those story tidbits. With the event announcement came a radio clip between Soldier: 76 and mysterious new character Sojourn which lines up with the news report we got earlier this week. The story, which is available in full on the Overwatch site, details a Havana, Cuba rum distillery that was suspiciously burned down. The area is now expecting a hurricane to sweep through, which seems to be when the playable mission will be set. Sojourn tells Soldier: 76 that to go after Doomfist, they need to go after his accountant Maximilien — whom we saw in the Doomfist: Masquerade comic. You can listen to the full conversation below.

> Accessing archived file…

Decryption status: IN PROGRESS
Target: Located pic.twitter.com/AUmV8LlUJc

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) April 8, 2019

“I’m putting Tracer in charge, with Mercy, Winston, and Genji in support,” Sojourn commands. So, we can expect to play those four heroes in the main version of the mode, and maybe even get new skins for all of them. There’s also usually an alternative version where you can play a larger assortment of heroes.

It’s largely unclear what Maximilien is doing, other than possibly using the rum company as a front for something else involved with Talon. We also don’t know how we’ll go about capturing him and why he is clearly free again in more current events, like the comic. As usual with these missions, we learn something pretty important about the past that ties into what’s currently happening in the game’s fiction.

The best part is that we get a PVE mode and access to all of the previous PVE modes to play around in. They’re always a nice break from the other competitive modes and they’re a fantastic way to earn Arcade loot boxes to get some new skins. The social media accounts will no doubt spend the next week teasing upcoming skins. It feels like it’s been a bit since we’ve had a good, juicy event in Overwatch. I’m ready.

The Storm Rising event will run from April 16 to May 6.