Valve’s upcoming shooter has enjoyed a period of being the worst kept secret on the internet – and seemingly has now been quietly soft-revealed with a Steam store presence and a Dev okaying people to actually talk about it.
Known as Deadlock, people often explain it as a “mixing pot of DotA 2 and Team Fortress 2 with a delightful Smite twist” to try and paint a picture of how it works.
In simple industry terms, it’s a third person hero-shooter with MOBA mechanics. For the cool people out there, it’s a spiritual successor to Super Monday Night Combat.
Valve's next game 'Deadlock' has officially been revealed.
— KAMI (@Okami13_) August 23, 2024
• 6v6, third person, hero shooter + MOBA
• Push through enemy lanes to reach their base
• Fight bots and other players to earn currency
• Buy upgrades mid-match
• Currently in Closed Playtest with invite code only pic.twitter.com/TJkmJi0Ivr
Valve announces completely new title Deadlock for the first time https://t.co/HXGmewUMei
— Wario64 (@Wario64) August 23, 2024
"Deadlock is still in early development stages with lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay." pic.twitter.com/5PhS4YgDo4
I discussed my findings in a previous post, and some of it bears repeating here:
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 Of course, you may ask a hard question – such as, if the game was so great, why is it no longer active on Steam?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.
After having played it, I can now quantifiably say that my thoughts were spot on. SMNC was a title that felt far beyond it’s time, and perished before it really hit a proper stride – and here we are in 2024, with a game that is really settling into the arse-crease it left on the gaming couch.
If you want to play Deadlock, right now the invite-only nature of it means you will need to approach someone and politely ask for an invite – made all the easier with communities like the DeadlockTheGame Subreddit popping up, with a thread dedicated to asking for an invite.
So if you are keen to see what Valve is cooking up, and somehow missed the plethora of leaked information before this soft-announcement – why not jump in and see for yourself?
Are you a future Deadlock pro? Are you picking up what Valve is putting down? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
