Overwatch‘s first Latina character, Sombra, is here and even before her playable debut, she’d already won fans over with her abilities, personality, and, of course, boops.
The hero, voiced by Colombian actress Carolina Ravassa, is a Mexican-born hacker with abilities that sabotage opposing players. Blizzard officially announced Sombra at BlizzCon 2016 with her own animated short, Infiltration. In the six-minute video, she accompanies fellow baddies Reaper and Widowmaker on an assassination mission at Volkaya Industries – a location players are familiar with because it serves as one of the game’s maps. Sombra takes over the mission after her teammates come up short. Sombra’s colorful personality and design pop amid the industrial background. When she hacks something, it turns purple and instantly looks cooler.
Infiltration – the sixth animated short for the game – is enough to make you wish they’d just go ahead and make a feature-length animated film. Blizzard also released videos showcasing her in-game abilities and backstory. Sombra is super intelligent and capable, but she’s also a bit of a troll.
As of Monday, PC gamers can play as Sombra on the Public Test Region. These gamers have access to her alternate skins – available through loot boxes or purchased with in-game currency. There’s no official announcement as to when she will be available on Playstation 4 and Xbox One. ?
Overwatch is a team-based competitive multiplayer shooting game in which every hero possesses unique abilities and plays a specific role (offense, defense, tank, or support) in helping the group to victory. Sombra is an offense character. The game launched in May with a roster of 21 heroes. Blizzard has since supported it with free downloadable maps and heroes. Sombra is the second addition to the roster after Ana’s rollout in July. Fans spent months trying to decipher clues about Sombra and the hype paid off at Blizzcon.
Ravassa, who stars in and produces a web series called Hispanglo-Saxon based on her experiences as a light-skinned Latina, spoke about voicing the character, who casually drops Spanish words in her speech, during a panel for the voice actors at BlizzCon.
“We worked on finding a balance with the accent because I don’t speak with much of an accent right now, like she does,” she said. “I didn’t want to make a Sofía Vergara, I love Sofía, but lately that’s all Hollywood wants from us and we’re more nuanced, we’re all different, we all have different accents. I didn’t want this like stereotypical, and I like that she doesn’t look stereotypically Latina either, because I don’t. So it’s interesting that she’s got so many layers.”
Reaper, portrayed by Keith Ferguson, joins Sombra on her mission and is another Latino character. He’s not explicitly Mexican-American, but his name and his El Blanco and Mariachi skins more than hint at it. The underappreciated Brazilian healer/DJ Lúcio, voiced by Jonny Cruz, is the only other character from a Latin American country in the game.
Check out Infiltration below.