People Keep Leaking Valve’s New 6v6 Third-Person Shooter

Throughout the internet there has been whispers of Valve working on a new, original title. Something that is a bit off-centre for them, given that Valve often produces games that safely tie in to their existing portfolio of well-established titles (like Half-Life, DoTA, you know the ones) – but this time around, it’s a whole new IP.

Those whispers became a bit more audible recently, with a handful of people not only sharing screenshots of this game – but one mad unit actually showed off actual gameplay from a beta client.

The game? Deadlock, apparently a 6v6, four lane third-person shooter MOBA.

LEAK:
Gameplay of Valve’s upcoming 6v6 4-Lane 3rd-Person Shooter MOBA—

“Deadlock,” formerly “Neon Prime.”

19+ heroes are currently playable in the Closed BETA. pic.twitter.com/GKG8FCUZVU

— PlayerIGN (@PlayerIGN) May 22, 2024

Now, it’s hard to judge a game from leaks – particularly if it is an unfinished game. The footage above shows a curious playstyle – scooting around on rails to reach parts of the map – with the player character sporting a firearm and activated abilities. It’s clearly from sandbox or training mode – you can even see the learning objectives in the UI – so any real idea on how the game plays when you are in the thick of it is still a mystery.

Then, others have managed to share a few other screenshotty tidbits – showing the roster of characters and some other perspectives.

Since testers started sharing Deadlock screenshots all over the place, here's ones I can verify, featuring one of the heroes called Grey Talon. pic.twitter.com/KdZSRxObSz

— ‎Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) May 17, 2024

Some will cry out names like Battleborn, or Gigantic or even just common titles like Overwatch. But, there was another title that did the third-person MOBA style gameplay – and while viewing that footage above, I can’t stop thinking about it.

And that game was Super Monday Night Combat. And you know what? It was a great time. Of course, you may ask a hard question – such as, if the game was so great, why is it no longer active on Steam?

A good question, but a hard one to answer. Too many reasons, too many issues – but I can say with a hefty degree of confidence that the games identity as a shooter SLASH MOBA wasn’t the main reason. That space within the gaming landscape is still largely untapped, at least by the larger names. A unique blend of PvPvE, born from very familiar experiences found in other games. Heck it’s 2024– I think every gamer with a pulse has dabbled with at least one MOBA offering by now, and the mere existence of Fortnite means everyone understands how a third person shooter works.

By any metric, I am deeply invested to see where this thing goes – so you can rest assured I willed be sharing information as it crops up. Maybe Valve themselves can weigh in to answer some questions – please? GabeN?

What do you think of Deadlock? Do any of the ingredients making up its unique broth appeal to you? Let us know in the comments or on social media.