What is Deadlock?
Deadlock is a third-person competitive shooter, where players form teams of six to battle online in a fantasy steampunk setting. The game is Valve’s attempt to get a slice of the huge action games market and to compete with games like Overwatch and Fortnite.
First leaks about Deadlock came from a tweet Gabe Follower, who is a reputable Valve insider and shared details about the game—including its name and gameplay premise. Invited players have confirmed that the playable characters include magicians, robots, and magical creatures.
Deadlock features large maze like maps, with rails, items, and other elements. The Valve insider described the game as having tower defense mechanics and floating rails similar to Bioshock Infinite.
In a follow-up tweet, Gabe Follower compared Deadlock to Valve’s previous games Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2—as well as other MOBAs, shooters, and tower defense games. Apparently, Valve is trying to jump on the action shooter hype train with Deadlock’s release.
Deadlock has not been officially announced by Valve, and does not have a store page on Steam. Despite that, people are currently playing the game in an early alpha stage. Deadlock even grew up until 10,000 concurrent players on Steam—quite the number for a game that doesn’t even exist yet.
How can you play Deadlock?
All you need in order to play is to receive an invite from an existing player—as long as you have each other on your Steam friend list. Threads on the game’s Reddit community feature people handing out invites to test the new game. You might also get invited to play test by joining the game’s Discord channel.
According to the charts on SteamDB, Deadlock has reached a peak of over 18,000 concurrent players, trending upwards. As more people gain access to the private alpha, the number of players is expected to climb further. Gabe Follower leaked in a recent tweet that over 200,000 Steam accounts have access to the game.
According to the insider, Valve has no plans to kick or ban players who have gained access to Deadlock as they value players’ feedback and impressions of the game in its early state.
Those with early alpha access are urged not to share any game footage or screenshots. A message pops up when players launch the game, requesting them to refrain from sharing any details.
It appears that Valve is not keen on revealing any details about Deadlock to the public at the moment, urging their players to keep as tight-lipped as possible.
Players in the Reddit community mostly seem to respect Valve’s wishes. At the very least, the Reddit mods are doing a good job removing posts that show the game.
For this exact reason, you won’t find vmany ideo clips on the game’s Reddit community, Steam forums, or any other platform that wants to stay on Valve’s good side. This of course has not stopped some independent players from posting gameplay footage elsewhere.
What is Deadlock’s gameplay like?
A few YouTube videos showcase the game’s playable characters and their abilities. We have learned that characters include a robot named Bebop with a hook reel and sticky bombs, an archer named Grey Talon who can transform into an eagle, and a cyborg named Paradox who has time-manipulation abilities.
In total, there seem to be 19 characters available in the game, each one with a distinct appearance and unique set of skills.
Players have described the game as having a comparable gameplay style to Valve’s Dota 2. The map has distinct lanes which are guarded by turrets and towers, where groups of small computer-controlled enemies travel through.
The player can kill the enemies to prevent them from interfering, which will additionally award them with a currency called “souls” that can be used to upgrade the characters. Additionally, players will be able to deposit earned souls into a “spirit urn” during a match in order to benefit all the players on the team. According to players, visuals resemble Overwatch, with distinct looks and personalities to indicate their gameplay role.
Initial impressions of the game appear to be mostly positive. There are several threads on the game’s Reddit community asking for others’ thoughts and opinions about the game. Most users say that they are having a good time with the game. Time to find some Steam friends who’ll send you an invite!
Officially, Deadlock does not exist
Deadlock is still subject to change as Valve continues to develop it, and Valve will surely want to use as much player feedback as possible to continue improving the game before its release. The game currently contains many placeholder graphics and placeholder text, indicating that the game is still in a very early stage in its development.
Currently, we have no information about the release date of the game, the duration of the private alpha testing, or even when Valve will confirm the existence of the game. Most experts expect some breaking news in the coming weeks.
It remains to be seen whether Valve has a hit on their hands, but the early player impressions do seem very promising.
