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Overwatch Prepares for 'Retribution' and New Rialto Map Next Week

Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan took the stage at the Blizzard Arena tonight to offer some exciting news regarding the game's next seasonal event.

Ozzie Mejia

April 4, 2018 7:45 PM

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The Overwatch League has returned for Stage 3. But during tonight's action, Overwatch fans got to check out what's next for the game as a whole. Blizzard teased a return to Uprising last week. Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan took the stage during halftime of tonight's Los Angeles Valiant vs. Seoul Dynasty match to reveal the official trailer for Retribution.

Retribution takes place eight years before the events of Overwatch. Blackwatch, comprised of Genji, Moira, McCree, and Reyes (who would become Reaper), is charged with finding and capturing a high-value Talon target. As the video shows, the Blackwatch mission went horribly south and players will soon get to relive the events of this mission for themselves.

Over 60 new unlockables are being added to this year's lore-based mission. But there's also a little more that players should be on the lookout for, according to Kaplan.

"The team's been dying to do a map in Italy," Kaplan said. "So this was a great opportunity. What you're seeing here is Rialto at night, which is where the Retribution mission takes place. But I think one of the super awesome things about the Retribution event is that we will also be introducing Rialto during the day as a PvP map. So we need to go to the PTR with it first, it needs some testing."

Look for the Rialto payload map to hit the Overwatch PTR on April 10, with the rest of the Overwatch player base getting it soon after. Over 60 unlockables will also be available, with Kaplan confirming that one would be a Reaper skin that harkens back to his past as Soldier: 24, a.k.a. Gabriel Reyes.

Players will have to act fast if they want to earn all of these unlockables. The Overwatch: Retribution mission will only last from April 10 until April 30. Want a few more pieces of the story? The Overwatch Retribution comic released earlier on Wednesday and offers some more details on what happened that fateful night.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?