If you’ve been wondering what Valve’s been working on as their next game after Counter-Strike 2, the answer may be at hand. Details and screenshots for Deadlock, a third-person hero shooter with MOBA elements, have seemingly leaked out of a recent closed playtest, revealing a blend of Overwatch, Dota 2 and Valve’s own Team Fortress 2.
Deadlock is apparently the latest evolution of a project previously known as Neon Prime, which you may faintly recall Valve registering a vague trademark for a couple of years back. The game’s reappearance as Deadlock came via noted Valve leaker Gabe Follower, who described it as being a competitive hero shooter in the vein of Overwatch or Valorant – albeit in third-person – with the lane-based map design and even tower defence elements of MOBAs like Dota 2 or League of Legends.
Those maps will host matches between two teams of six players, who will control unique hero characters able to pop off different abilities and items. The maps themselves are said to be “huge”, with the inclusion of floating rails – a bit like BioShock Infinite – to help players zip around.
The game’s world also seems to draw at least a little from the likes of BioShock, with a mixture of steampunk and fantasy in a European-inspired city home to strange creatures, robots and magicians alike. (Gabe Follower notes that the game was originally more sci-fi-themed closer to Half-Life or Portal – which might explain the futuristic-sounding Neon Prime moniker – but shifted more to fantasy after “bad feedback” from testers.)
Screenshots supposedly verified by the leaker reveal at least one character, a bow-wielding ranger called Grey Talon with the ability to use traps alongside long-range precision. The character design does indeed look very Overwatch-y or Dota-y to my eye, with the teases of the map showing graffitied city streets and alleys.
YouTuber Tyler McVicker added to the swirling rumours by claiming that the now-leaky closed playtest already has hundreds of people giving Deadlock a go, with a proper announcement and reveal of Valve’s next “major” game due sometime soon – perhaps sooner than even the developers expected, given the information already finding its way out into the public eye.