Overwatch Storm Rising PvE Event Starts Next Week

Not long after first teasing some kind of new event for Overwatch, Blizzard has confirmed and provided further details regarding Storm Rising. As expected, this story segment will be the latest rotation of the Overwatch Archives seasonal event, starring a few fan-favorite characters in their younger days for a four-player co-op PvE mission.

You'll play as Tracer, Genji, Winston, or Mercy as they go after a Talon operative, the Omnic Maximilien. Max is hiding out in Cuba while a storm presses down on the island, and the four heroes need to track him down before he can using the cover of bad weather to escape yet again. Storm Rising will be playable alongside the two returning Archives missions, Uprising and Retribution.

Of course it's not an Overwatch event without additional cosmetics, and you'll be able to earn more than 160 spiffy new ones during the event. That'll presumably include a slate of new skins, though we haven't seen any of these just yet.

Storm Rising will run from April 16-May 6, so between now and launch, we're likely to see some of them teased given how Blizzard usually approaches events like this. You can check out a Storm Rising trailer above to get a look at the map and your target.

The previous teasers already suggested the four-player team would be going after Maximilien, a well-known member of Doomfist's organization. Today's announcement doesn't shed any further light on Sojourn, the mysterious figure who chewed out Commander Morrison (Soldier 76) and authorized the Storm Rising mission. Blizzard appears to be setting up another important story character who may become playable someday, or otherwise factor into the story.

Blizzard has been known to drop hints well in advance of actually introducing new characters, though. Maximilien has already been known in the lore, and Doomfist was mentioned in the very first teaser-trailer for Overwatch, years before he was added to the game. The trailer that accompanied the announcement of Ashe also introduced another upcoming character, Echo. Blizzard says it already has six characters planned out which amounts to "years" of releases. One of those was the recently released Baptiste, so counting Echo that leaves four others still a mystery.