I think one thing everybody knows about me is that I'm a gamer. I compete in Counter-Strike extensively, and I play other games like Valorant to a pretty high-level too. However, what I could never get into was MOBAs. Titles like League of Legends and Dota could never grasp me in the same way that a good FPS could, and even games like Overwatch or the recently released Marvel Rivals I've discovered are simply not for me. However, one game that has captured me to a degree no game has in a long time is Valve's Deadlock.

Deadlock is a six versus six MOBA, combining elements of Dota and hero shooters like Overwatch into one package. It previously went by previous internal titles at Valve like Citadel and Neon Prime, once upon a time stylized more like Half-Life before taking on the name Neon Prime and being set in what looked like a Spider-Man 2099 Nueva York. Eventually, it became the occult-style Deadlock, basing itself in the 1900s. It kept to its Neon Prime roots and stayed in New York, but it's a very, very different game stylistically.

Deadlock is a game that could revolutionize a lot of online gaming. Peeking at 170,000 concurrent players and still not officially announced, it's clear that Valve has a winner on its hands, and the company is doing everything in its power to make it the next blockbuster esport.

Valve's first great choice was to set Deadlock in the United States

Great for a market that Valve has struggled with when it comes to esports

Before getting into why I love Deadlock, I first want to talk about the clever choice of setting that Valve made. Valve has created some of the biggest esports titles in the world, most notably Dota and Counter-Strike. However, the company has struggled with U.S. market penetration, with both games fielding the vast majority of high-level competition in Europe and Asia.

Basing Deadlock in New York is a clever move to try and garner American attention, especially given that Valve's control of esports tends to be a more hands-off one in nature. The company typically interferes very little with tournament organizers and teams, instead operating on the basis of giving control over to the community and only stepping in when it's needed.

Basing the game in an interesting New York setting creates an instant level of relatability to new players who may be playing from the United States, and may play a small factor in encouraging players from those regions to start in a new game. As well, many Overwatch players are currently trying out Deadlock, with many top teams being based in the United States, too.

Deadlock has incredibly unique gameplay

It's one of the most interesting games I've played

Deadlock leans in on a few core mechanics relating to both MOBAs and shooters. The game starts off in a lane phase, where both teams fight for control of four separate lanes that go through the entire map. The two center lanes are each played by two people, and the outermost lanes are played by solo players. Just like in League or Dota, there are minions that spawn from each side that make their way up the lane, and in Deadlock, you can farm "Souls" by killing these minions while also dodging attacks from your opponent. You also gain souls from completing objectives, like destroying an enemy's Guardian or Walker, or even killing an opponent.

Souls are the game's currency, and if you're familiar with those aforementioned MOBAs, then you'd know Gold is the in-game currency used to buy items and power-ups, and that's what Souls are. From there, you can build your character in a way that you want. My main Hero that I play is McGinnis, and the build that I use gives me a lot of turrets that I can place down to shoot at my opponents and gives me my ultimate ability roughly every 40 seconds. Every build has some kind of counter, where enemies at higher levels of play are more likely to try and build their heroes to counter you, and you can find community builds inside the game that others have created and uploaded for you.

Each lane has a Guardian and a Walker for each team, and your initial goal is to try and destroy the enemy's Guardian and then the Walker. Eventually, the game leaves what's known as the "laning" phase, and you're expected to become more mobile around the map. The ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy's Patron in their base, which you can attack after you destroy both of the enemy's Shrines. The Patron is the equivalent to the Nexus in League, and the Guardians and Walkers are essentially Towers.

As you can clearly see, the game is very much a MOBA at heart. However, the character-building with power-ups means that the game can play quite similarly to Overwatch when it comes to team fights. The game has a lot of movement options and abilities, with an incredibly high skill ceiling where superior movement alone can win games in the right conditions. Plus, the game's denial mechanism (where you can shoot a soul that comes out of a minion that the enemy killed, stealing the Souls they would have received), adds another skill to learn and master.

Of course, this is merely scratching the surface of Deadlock and how games play out. I've never played anything quite like it, and the tactical depth that the game can potentially offer has me hooked. It's a game that seems to thrive on power creep. Where some games will try to nerf characters if they become too overpowered, Deadlock feels like a game built as a race to become overpowered, meaning that each match can quickly become a hectic brawl where a lot can be going on at once. For me, that's a lot of fun.

Deadlock is still in alpha

It's not even released yet

The biggest takeaway from Deadlock that you should make is that the game is still in alpha. Valve hasn't even announced it yet, and the only official communication on the game comes from the developers in the Discord and the Steam store page which has now been publicly listed. You still need to be invited to play, but anyone with the game can invite anyone else to play. It's also pretty well optimized and runs on basically anything so far.

Player numbers have fallen since the game's initial flurry, but that's to be expected. It still has teething issues, there are still characters that are being worked out and honed, and in-game mechanisms like delivering the Urn (which offers your team multiple benefits) are still being tweaked and changed. The game will very likely be in a different place when it's officially unveiled and announced, but right now, it's a lot of fun to play, and I can't wait to see where it goes.