We've played with Sombra, and Reinhardt better 'Overwatch' his back

Sombra has finally been revealed.

After months of breathless speculation, along with clues from Reddit and art leaks, we finally got a solid glimpse of the new hero Sombra. More than that, we actually played with the new Overwatch hero at BlizzCon 2016.

She's fun.

Sombra fits into the Offense category of heroes even though none of her abilities actually deal direct damage. Her machine pistol is a medium-range bullet hose, but Sombra's real utility comes from the way she disrupts the enemy team's momentum with her shutdown tools.

She's a flanker, but with a different focus than a Reaper or Tracer.

Sombra has the ability hack a health pack so only her team can use it, and she can also hack any opponent to turn off their abilities for several seconds. It's a lot like Ana's ability to temporarily shut down an enemy's ability to heal.

This can have hero-specific effects. Hacking a Bastion doesn't just freeze his abilities; it also takes him out of his pesky turret configuration. One of Sombra's most useful hacks is a powerful Reinhardt counter, instantly taking his shield down. This is most deadly on payload maps where Reinhardt is a top tier pick.

Sombra's Translocator is a little device that she can toss on the ground and teleport back to inside a 15-second window. It's not unlike Tracer's Recall ability, but you wouldn't want to use it like that.

My strategy -- which game director Jeff Kaplan signed off on (#humblebrag) -- was to hack a health pack, throw the Translocator on it, wreak havoc for 15 seconds with Sombra's machine pistol and quickly teleport back.

Sombra's Thermoptic Camo is key to her role as a flanker. The ability allows her to turn invisible and move with increased speed.

While this is great for sneaking behind or around the other team, you have to be careful. Taking damage while the camo is active knocks Sombra out of her invisible state.

Finally, Sombra's Ultimate is an EMP. Dropping it applies her hacking effect to everyone around her. It also knocks out any active shields.

Sombra's speed and fast-firing handgun have the feel of Tracer, but it would be a huge mistake to play her like one. Most of Sombra's abilities are preemptive; Translocator is your premeditated escape hatch, but Hack sets the table for dealing damage and Camo is more of an opening gambit. You use them ahead of time to get the drop on your enemies.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

It's surprising to see Sombra lumped in with the Offense heroes. Her Ultimate isn't damage-focused like others, and it exists more to set up the rest of her squad for a team kill.

She feels fast like a Tracer but her DPS is lower. That shortcoming is balanced by her machine pistol's larger clip size, which helps keep her in the fight a little longer.

It's early days to make definitive conclusions on this, but Junkrat, Winston and Mei all feel like effective Sombra counters. As for Sombra herself, she's extra deadly against Reinhardt, Bastion, and Widowmaker.

We'll see how she changes the competitive meta in the future as players get a handle on this new type of Overwatch hero.