Valve is cooking.
Valve seems ready to return to the hero shooter genre for the first time since Team Fortress 2 by releasing Deadlock.
Everything we know about Deadlock thus far is based on leaks that surfaced on the internet on May 16 and were verified by the reputable CS2 and Valve data miner Gabe Follower. Here's what you need to know about Deadlock, which is Valve's new game that could compete against the likes of Overwatch 2 and Marvel Rivals.
What is Valve's hero shooter Deadlock?
Gabe Follower describes Deadlock as a "competitive third-person hero-based shooter" featuring six-versus-six PvP combat on large maps with four lanes. Valve initially named Deadlock as Neon Prime and Citadel, drawing heavy sci-fi inspiration from Half-Life and Portal. However, they later decided to incorporate more fantasy elements from Dota 2 instead and change the game's name to Deadlock, according to Gabe Follower.
"[What is included in Deadlock] is usable abilities and items, tower defense mechanics, fantasy setting mixed with Steampunk," Gabe Follower wrote. "Magicians, weird creatures and robots. Fast travel using floating rails, similar to Bioshock Infinite. Basically, fast-paced interesting ADHD gameplay. Combination of Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, Valorant, Smite, Orcs Must Die. Hero design pretty much inspired by Dota's universe."
One of Deadlock's characters has also been leaked, and Gabe Follower verified the content is real. Should Valve not make changes, Grey Talon will be a "cunning predator."
This is big news, especially for everyone who grew up playing Team Fortress 2. The game and the hero shooter genre, consequently, has been pretty much left aside by Valve over the last years as the company shifted its focus on updating Dota 2 and CS:GO or CS2. All that Team Fortress 2 fans get nowadays are a few updates per year.
With Deadlock content leaking all over the internet, we expect Valve to officially address the game in the coming weeks. We will update this article whenever we get new details.
