Summary
Valve’s invite only, in-development multiplayer shooterDeadlockhas received a massive update, adding new features like wall jumping while also tweaking gameplay. In what has been one of the worst kept industry secrets for quite some time, Valve’s upcoming multiplayer titleDeadlockwas officially announced last week, as the company also lifted player restrictions from discussing the title.
FollowingDeadlock’s official announcement from Valve, the game has seemingly taken off even more, even though it remains strictly invite only. It’s also worth noting thatDeadlockis still in early development with no release date in sight. In fact, Valve has even utilized assets from some of its other titles, likeLeft 4 DeadandHalf-Life,as a temporary workaround until official versions can be added. With the game now firmly in the public eye, Valve has also started to announce new features and updates including the latest patch which arrived on August 29 for players.
AsDeadlockquickly rises to be one of Steam’s top titleseven though it hasn’t been officially released, its popularity is likely only going to continue to rise, especially as more updates and content is added over time. The latest update is a massive one as it fixes bugs, balances many of the characters, while also adding new features like the ability for characters to pull off a wall jump. Valve has also added ropes to various buildings that allow players to climb or hang, which can also be used to fire from. Teleporters have changed locations while ones on the upper floors are now at street level.
This update also makes tons of changes to weapons and abilities, with numerous things getting buffed to some capacity. Most, if not all of theplayable heroes inDeadlockhave also been tweaked, with Viscous and Ivy seeing the most changes out of everyone. So far, Ivy seems to be one of the more popular characters to play thanks to a strong mix of control and support abilities, though this patch makes changes to the Air Drop ability. Specifically, the max move speed has been reduced, self cast time increased, and carried allies have thier damage reduced by 50%. However, a frustrating bug where Air Drop would accidentally Silence allies has also been fixed.
While there’s still a lot of information and details which are not known, leakers have attempted to fill in the knowledge gaps including one who was able tolinkDeadlockto theHalf-Lifeseries. It’s unknown if these games officially exist in the same universe or not, but it seems Deadlock was originally planned to take place duringHalf-Life’s seven-hour war, where the alien Combine forces took down Earth’s United Nations forces. As fans now know,Deadlockhas since spun off into its own thing, taking on aspects of MOBA-style games and mixing it with hero shooter elements for its own unique experience.
Deadlock
WHERE TO PLAY
Deadlock is an upcoming game from Valve which seemingly combines elements of the MOBA and hero shooter genres. As it is still in early development, gameplay and assets may be incomplete. Access is granted via friend invites.
