Deadlock, maybe the worst kept secret from Valve, is now quiet revealed as the latest game from the maker of Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal and Team Fortress 2.

Even before the official announcement, it managed to attract over 44,000 concurrent players during the secret (but not very secret) invite-only playtest. We know this thanks to public data from SteamDB, which tracks everything on Steam, and Deadlock itself was there for quite a while before its announcement.

Technically, Valve has not Really not announced yet. They’ve created a store page that’s incredibly light on details, a Twitch category, and they’ve posted on their official Discord that people can now talk about it publicly:

Since access is still by invitation only, you will need to find someone who has access.

Previously, the game would give a warning when you first loaded it up, specifically asking you not to reveal any details publicly. Some (hello The Verge) ignored this warning, but it has now been replaced with a simple reminder that it’s early in development and feedback is welcome.

So What is it? Well, that’s a bit complicated to answer. But I got pretty early access thanks to an invite, so my attempt at a simple explanation: It takes the lanes, towers, and AI creeps gameplay of Dota 2 and turns it into a third-person hero shooter with rails in the air that you can jump on to fast travel across the map. It’s definitely quirky, and much like Dota 2, it’s fairly easy to get into, but it really does take quite a while to get the hang of it.

In the two 6v6 teams, each team fights on set lanes of the map, which have guardians at specific points that you must destroy. With the help of your teammates and your AI creeps, you make your way through each lane. Little by little, you push the opposing team back by taking out different types of guardians to eventually get into the opposing base. In the opposing base, you take out their patron, which is like a multi-stage boss fight, while at the same time trying not to die because the opposing team is firing every single ability at you like crazy.

You aren’t forced into a specific lane though, you can run or rail across the map and go wherever you want. It’s a team game after all, but leaving a lane empty is obviously not a good idea. The rail system definitely adds a nice touch to the game as you can quickly zip across the map from your base. You can also use it to get a quick speed boost, but once you’ve used it, it goes on a cooldown. Additionally, the rails only work for you in your area, so once you pass an enemy guard, your team’s active rail length is extended.

It also has a pretty fun character movement system where you can run, double jump, jump over things, and slide as well, so it’s pretty fast paced, especially during player to player combat when you’re all jumping around trying to dodge everyone’s abilities.

There are already quite a few characters, all with their own abilities, similar to Dota 2 or the various hero shooters out there. So learning can be quite overwhelming at first, as you not only have to learn your skills, but also how to deal with the characters the opposing team chooses. Luckily, some of the characters are super easy to play.

It’s not just about the characters though, you also have to keep upgrading as a game progresses and learn what works best for each character. And here it’s like Dota 2 again. You have to earn a currency, souls, and then run to a shop to buy character upgrades. Luckily there is a recommended build system you can follow and anyone can create and publish one for you to follow.

Valve seems to be taking a clear lesson from the failure of Artifact here, building it up gradually with a growing community and constantly tweaking it based on player feedback. The secrecy around it, along with the invite system, has attracted a lot of attention and although it has been leaked constantThis is pretty good free advertising for Valve.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Valve fully releases it. Will it have the staying power of other popular Valve games? Will it end up beating the numbers of CS2, Dota 2, TF2, and others? Who knows. It’s a strange game, but it can be a lot of fun.

There is currently no native Linux version, but I can confirm that it works really well on desktop with Proton. I have yet to try it on Steam Deck, but will soon.

You can follow it on the Steam page.

Article from GamingOnLinux.com.