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Thousands are playing Valve’s unrevealed shooter Deadlock, a blend of Team Fortress 2 and Dota with Bioshocky skyrailsAnd do I detect a minty dusting of Dishonored?
And do I detect a minty dusting of Dishonored?
Image credit:Tim Eulitz
Image credit:Tim Eulitz
Valve’s third-person heroshooterDeadlockhasn’t been officially revealed yet, butthousands of you unscrupulous devils have been playing it thanks to stolen development builds. Speculation abounds that these “leaks”, coupled withValve’s obstinate silence about it, are a calculated publisher psyop. Are they deliberately letting people play the game early so as to temper the marketing rollout in some way? Perhaps handle any initial player criticism under cover of non-announcement? It seems unlikely, but as other writers have pointed out, this is Valve, unaccountable elder god of PC gaming. I guess we should be thankful it isn’t anotherHalf-Lifetease.
The short version is that this is sort ofOverwatchandTeam Fortress 2with more of a MOBA-style, lanes-and-creeps component, and a steampunk setting that reminds me ofDishonored’s Dunwall (also, a microtransaction store, but you were expecting that). It’s a 6v6 affair, and each team gets a retinue of NPC Troopers who spawn continually at your base and attempt to conquer a series of enemy positions. Smash through every opposing fortification, and you’ll reach their base and fight their Patron - a huge, flying orb with arms. The game’s heroes (there are 20 in the leaked development build) get light and heavy attacks plus a parry.
You can also trade resources from slain enemies for special abilities as the match goes on - for example: lifesteal, energy barriers, some kind of electro-grapple - but you can only do so back at base. Which is where the game’s skyrails come in: these Bioshock Infinitesimal fixtures allow for rapid travel up and down each map lane. According to Hollister, the skyrails are laid out away from the map’s major firing lines, so you can’t just relentlessly use them to assault from the air.
Fingers crossed Valve announce this soon, so we can write about it without glancing over our shoulders in fear of backstabbing. In the meantime,how about that Project White Sands, eh?
