Early look at Valve’s new hero shooter Deadlock leaks

polygon.com:

A new multiplayer hero shooter reportedly in development at Valve leaked Thursday in the form of gameplay details and early screenshots of the project, known as Deadlock. The new game is described as a blend of Valve’s own Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2, as well as competing multiplayer games like Overwatch, Valorant, Smite, and Orcs Must Die.

Longtime Valve researcher and dataminer Tyler McVicker published the in-game screenshots on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. McVicker said the images were shared by Deadlock playtesters, and show Dota 2-style heroes battling on “steampunk European city” maps. One of those maps has fast-travel lanes; players can ride quickly across the maps using “floating rails, similar to BioShock Infinite,” McVicker said.

McVicker said that Deadlock is Valve’s next game, and that it was in development under previous names Neon Prime and Citadel. He describes it as a competitive, third-person, hero-based shooter, with two teams of six heroes — a mix of “magicians, weird creatures, and robots” — battling each other. Deadlock also reportedly features tower defense game mechanics.

Since testers started sharing Deadlock screenshots all over the place, here's ones I can verify, featuring one of the heroes called Grey Talon. pic.twitter.com/KdZSRxObSz

Screenshots of Deadlock hint at MOBA-inspired elements like bases and guardians that heroes would attack, and collectible orbs that may offer power-ups to abilities. All of that is, of course, subject to change, as Deadlock has not been officially announced.

McVicker reported that Deadlock was initially styled as a sci-fi game “inspired by Half-Life and Portal,” but feedback to the game’s aesthetic pushed Valve to “focus on fantasy.” He also published artwork and a character description of a hero from the game, also apparently named Deadlock. Valve has reportedly been working on Deadlock since 2018.

Polygon has reached out to Valve to confirm details on Deadlock and will update when