Deadlock. It’s Valve’s next big bet on a competitive multiplayer online game, it’s being played right now, screenshots and footage are online… and it hasn’t even been announced yet.
In what’s been a pretty odd series of leaks with seemingly very little consequence, folks online have been sharing materials from the game allegedly taken from an ongoing closed test, with some images appearing over the weekend and now full-on video footage on social media.
Judging by what’s out there, the game looks to be yet another go at the competitive first-person “hero shooter” genre, similar to games like Overwatch, Paladins, Valorant and even Valve’s own Team Fortress 2. It’s a crowded market, for sure, but Deadlock seems to be trying to capture a wide number of elements from different games and genres with inspirations from MOBA and tower defence games and even a bit of Bioshock Infinite-esque skyrailing.
You can see some of the earlier leaked screens below:
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
Reports from longtime Valve creators like Tyler McVicker suggest that a public announcement is impending (perhaps as part of the Summer Game Fest fun next month?) and that there are currently many, many people playing the game in a close alpha playtest. There’s been word of the game in various forms for a while now, with development potentially starting as far back as 2018 and the project taking a few different forms and aesthetics before settling on the Steampunk-esque vibe you can see in the leaks.
If development has been as long as rumours suggest, it maybe explains why Valve would be attempting to introduce yet another competitive online “hero” style game when there’s very little room for more in the current landscape. Reactions online have been mixed as well, although given the footage is from a game in “alpha” stages and not ready for the public it’d be unfair to make any major calls just yet.
The below footage (while it remains live) shows a player going through Hero Training with tutorials on basic movement, but there also looks to be a separate “Lane Training” option to guide players with the actual flow of a game and reiterating those MOBA roots. The menus shown off feature 19 different characters with names like Haze, Ivy, Infernus, Kelvin, Vindicta, Warden, Wraith and Yamato.
The roster certainly seems to be stacked with the usual suspects, though obviously without actually playing it’s hard to say whether Valve is cooking with GaaS or not:
LEAK:
Gameplay Footage of Valve’s Upcoming Game- Deadlock https://t.co/HmVSFUR07c
— 404 LEAK (@404LEAK) May 22, 2024
