''Deadlock'' is an upcoming

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developed and published by Valve. It combines elements of the hero shooter and MOBA genres. ''Deadlock'' has been in playtesting since 2023, and players with access can invite their friends using

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's playtesting functionality. As of August 2024, it had reached a concurrent player count of just above 100,000. Since May 2024, numerous leaks have occurred, and a journalist was banned from the matchmaking service after writing a preview for the technology site '' The Verge''. Valve officially unveiled the game in August 2024.

Gameplay

''Deadlock'' is a 6v6 MOBA third person shooter. It will be Valve's first true third-person shooter, save for the top-down ''

Alien Swarm ''Alien Swarm'' is a multiplayer top-down shooter video game developed by Valve. It is a remake of a mod for ''Unreal Tournament 2004'', and it was developed by the original team, who were hired by Valve during the course of the development pro ...

'', which was begun by an outside team. Players control powerful hero characters and escort NPCs down several "lanes" in order to destroy the enemy team's stationary defenses. This makes the moment-to-moment gameplay highly similar to MOBAs. If the enemy's defenses are destroyed, it reveals their "Patron", a tremendous magically animated golem that must be defeated to win the match. Players can unlock various skills and abilities for their hero, as well as use ziplines to navigate the arena. The game currently has 21 different heroes, though it is unclear what, if any, lore or backstory about them exists beyond their names and descriptions. The game takes place in an alternate version of New York City called the Cursed Apple, which mixes elements of 1930s Prohibition era storytelling and the

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Development

In October 2022, Valve filed a trademark for the name ''Neon Prime''. ''Neon Prime'' was reportedly helmed by IceFrog (the lead designer of '' Dota''), and would have been a MOBA with a sci-fi aesthetic. Further details were reported in 2023, indicating that it would have been a team-based "third-person 'MOBA-lite'", in which players need to defeat a boss enemy at the opposing team's base. A private playtest for ''Neon Prime'' reportedly started in 2023. In May 2024, footage of ''Deadlock'' was leaked. It was presumed to be the project formerly known as ''Neon Prime'' for its similar gameplay elements. A closed playtest on

, which allowed participants to invite others, started by August 2024. Players also have access to a private forum and Discord server to discuss the game, read patch notes and provide feedback to the developers. The game's aesthetic, mixing elements of fantasy with an early 1900s aesthetic, has been compared to '' Bioshock Infinite''. Valve formally announced ''Deadlock'' on August 23, 2024. Access to the game currently continues to be "friend invite only".

Reception

Responding to leaks in May 2024, ''

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...

'''s Kevin Purdy wrote that ''Deadlock'' looked like "a pressed sandwich of every game around", wondering whether it would be as genre-defining as Valve's other games. On August 12, Sean Hollister of ''The Verge'' published a full preview. Hollister noted that since he had not signed nor verbally consented to any legally binding

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, he was free to write about it; despite being shown a dialog box telling him not to share any information about the game with others. After the preview was published, Hollister was banned from the game's matchmaking. The article's publication was controversial within the gaming community. Riley MacLeod of '' Aftermath'' defended Hollister's reporting, saying that although ignoring Valve's request may have been impolite, Hollister was not legally nor professionally obligated to keep the details secret and had not violated journalistic ethics. Megan Farokhmanesh of '' Wired'' speculated that the secretive release strategy was a deliberate publicity stunt by Valve to tempt players to leak the game, building hype around it. Ted Litchfield of '' PC Gamer'' wrote that it was "hard not to be excited" for a new Valve game, saying he was "ready to jump in" on day one.

References

{{Valve Corporation Hero shooters Multiplayer online battle arena games Third-person shooters Science fantasy video games Retrofuturistic video games Upcoming video games Valve Corporation games Windows games Video games developed in the United States