Overwatch‘s spring event has a new name. In a developer update, the game’s lead designer Jeff Kaplan revealed that Uprising, the cooperative arcade brawl, will be known as Overwatch Archives when it returns April 10.
Archives visits a consequential moment in Overwatch history, seven years prior to the start of the game. Archives showcases Tracer’s first mission at King’s Row in London, where she teamed up with other agents to fight off a group called the Null Sector Omnics. The King’s Row showdown occurred shortly before the Overwatch team disbanded. After the mission, all of the pertinent details were marked as classified and placed in the Overwatch archives (hence the name change).
Although Overwatch is steeped with lore, Uprising was the closest thing to a tangible story within the game when it debuted last year. Uprising gave us backstory on not just Tracer, but Torbjörn, Mercy, Reinhardt, and other heroes. It’s unclear if this year’s Uprising event will be a regurgitation of the stories we already know, or if there will be new nuggets of story for some of our favorite heroes.
In addition to Uprising, the event will also include a new mission, “Retribution.” It takes place during “the critical Blackwatch mission that changed the future of Overwatch,” according to Blizzard, and places you in the shoes of McCree, Moira, Genji, and Reyes, who would later become Reaper. The story content will take place in Venice on the new Rialto map and will task the Blackwatch agents with defeating the evil Talon forces.
In Archives, players join up in teams of four to take on hordes of computer-controlled enemies. Four difficulty settings were available last year — normal, hard, expert, and legendary. The default heroes for the story mission will still be Tracer, Torbjörn, Reinhardt, and Mercy. All Heroes mode comes back as well, allowing users choose a hero of their choosing.
Along with the arcade game mode, more than 160 loot box items will be up for grabs. It’s unclear how many new items we’ll see, but Kaplan teased a new skin for your “favorite Shimada brother.” This appears to be Genji, whose skin looks a bit like Jago from Killer Instinct.
Overwatch Archives kicks off on April 10 and will run through April 30 on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Updated on April 5: Added information on Retribution.
