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The Verge: We played Valve’s secret new shooter: Deadlock

This game will thrive or die based on their community tools. If they treat the custom side like TF2 or CS then they will be fine.

Based on this footage I can already picture the surfing servers.
 

e0n

Member
Anyone have an invite? This is much more original than Concord, and it already has more than 20k for a closed pre-alpha.

Edit: Received an invite after this post. Looks like they are sending out another wave.
 
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nial

Member
The fact that motherfucking Valve's next developed game can get "revealed" and people proceed to make comparisons with Firewalk's (literally WHO?) mega flop, Concord, is completely fucked up.
The Alyx sequel is our only hope at this point.
 
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Fabieter

Member
Let's check Valve's history with character designs by looking at Dota 2 characters.

windrunner.png

queenofpain.png

luna.png

marci.png

lina.png

crystal_maiden.png

Most dota 2 designs are based on warcraft 3. You know the game dots was made of.

It's funny that all of the sudden hero shooters aint that bad anymore once the favourite platformholder is doing it. 🤣🤣
 

Sorcerer

Member
The fact that motherfucking Valve's next developed game can get "revealed" and people proceed to make comparisons with Firewalk's (literally WHO?) mega flop, Concord, is completely fucked up.
The Alyx sequel is our only hope at this point.
I think the big difference is Sony is charging $40 for concord. You're gambling away forty bucks on something that may not be good.
Deadlock will probably be free or super cheap (Valve of course making money back on the microtransactions).
I think more people will at least try Deadlock.
While Sony charging $40 for a game with an already tainted rep is not going to do it any favors.
 
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nial

Member
I think the big difference is Sony is charging $40 for concord. You're gambling away forty bucks on something that may not be good.
Deadlock will probably be free (Valve of course making money back on the microtransactions).
I think more people will at least try Deadlock.
While Sony charging $40 for a game with an already tainted rep is not going to do it any favors.
I'm not really asking which one is better, I'm just saying that Valve's next developed game being compared with something like Concord feels fucked up. That shouldn't happen considering their rich legacy as game developer.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Another friend of mine randomly got an invite, he was confused, lol. Pretty surprised I haven't gotten one, here's to hoping!
 

Sorcerer

Member
I'm not really asking which one is better, I'm just saying that Valve's next developed game being compared with something like Concord feels fucked up. That shouldn't happen considering their rich legacy as game developer.
They may be a little out of touch. Steam is the cash cow. Other people's games. Like I said previously it seems Valve will only greenlight an internal developed game if it can promote new hardware, or it can stick around and make money year after year. With those paramaters in mind I don't expect Valve to truly make an artistic decision to make a truly great game for the sake of making a great game. It's unfortunately all business. It's not good enough for a game to be profitable and end there, the game has to be a money generator. I think everybody wants a piece of the Grand Theft Auto pie.
 
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Fabieter

Member
They may be a little out of touch. Steam is the cash cow. Other people's games. Like I said previously it seems Valve will only greenlight an internal developed game if it can promote new hardware, or it can stick around and make money year after year. With those paramaters in mind I don't expect Valve to truly make an artistic decision to make a truly great game for the sake of making a great game. It's unfortunately all business. It's not good enough for a game to be profitable and end there, the game has to be a money generator. I think everybody wants a piece of the Grand Theft Auto pie.

Valve is a private company with infinite income. If they can't make a great game for the sake of it without being a gaas factory than the gaming industry is truly fucked.
 

Sorcerer

Member
Valve is a private company with infinite income. If they can't make a great game for the sake of it without being a gaas factory than the gaming industry is truly fucked.
It's pretty much already fucked. I don't see things getting better, because it seems impossible to go backwards to a more rational approach at this point.
The idea of a single player game must be laughable to Valve. I mean everybody on PC is on Steam, they have a 30% cut of 50,000 games on the service. Single player is such small potatoes to them.
I find it kind of mind boggling that CyberPunk probably sold more on Steam than GOG. It's kind of like GOG is working for Valve just by putting Cyberpunk on Steam.
Under this lens it's easy to see why a single player game means virtually nothing to Valve. The profit it would make would be a mere pittance to them.
 
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april6e

Member
That TTK looks horrendous

Yeah, that's immediately what stuck out to me as being worrisome. Hopefully it was at the beginning of the match where heros are weak and you become way more powerful later in the match like in League of Legends.

Also, I'm depressed this won't be on console.
 

Fabieter

Member
Yeah, that's immediately what stuck out to me as being worrisome. Hopefully it was at the beginning of the match where heros are weak and you become way more powerful later in the match like in League of Legends.

Also, I'm depressed this won't be on console.

Why wouldnt it? Besides Valve gatekeeping it there is no reason for it to not doing a console port. They can make it like Valorant with a separate version and crossplay between switch 2, ps5 and series x/s.
 

Guilty_AI

Gold Member
Why wouldnt it? Besides Valve gatekeeping it there is no reason for it to not doing a console port. They can make it like Valorant with a separate version and crossplay between switch 2, ps5 and series x/s.
None of their GAAS games are on console, but i guess there's nothing stopping them from start porting them if this is super successful. Pretty sure sony/MS would welcome the extra revenue and make it easier for valve.
 

Fabieter

Member
None of their GAAS games are on console, but i guess there's nothing stopping them from start porting them if this is super successful. Pretty sure sony/MS would welcome the extra revenue and make it easier for valve.

Valve may face challenges with manpower and seems reluctant to outsource development, especially after being dissatisfied with the launch of CS:GO.
 

Guilty_AI

Gold Member
Valve may face challenges with manpower and seems reluctant to outsource development, especially after being dissatisfied with the launch of CS:GO.
also just remembered they make money off the steam marketplace with these games rather than normal mtx... yeah, they probably won't port this.
 

nikos

Member
Looks kind of early/janky but that's also a 30 FPS video. I'll definitely try it whenever it releases.
 
The game is not a hero shooter, it's a deep MOBA, to the extent it feels like a spiritual successor to Dota 2 in TPS form. I only learned yesterday that, unsurprisingly as it's influence is strongly present, development is helmed by Icefrog.

The game will be a huge success and has potential to become a classic competitive online title.

Complaints about TTK: just like in MOBAs, auto attacks (or in this case using your main gun) are for mobs and chip damage on players. You kill ppl with abilities and you can get WTF rekt in seconds.
 
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00_Zer0

Member
This isn't a Hero Shooter. This is a MOBA. So it's closest competition would be SMITE 2 (on console) and SMITE 2, Leage, Dota, and Heroes of the Storm on PC.

- I'd personally rather play this than any MOBA or Hero Shooter on the market (console).
- MOBA's are objectively better than Hero Shooters.
- NeoGAFs takes on this are extremely predictable.
- Hi-Rez (Smite 2) Studios should be worried. This looks waaaaay better in my opinion.
- Railway system is an interesting admittance to the 3rd person MOBA problem of map traversal.
- This is still an "old style multiplayer" game. I'm much more interested in the open world, small team size games (Arc Raiders, Marathon).
- This will certainly be a success. The saturated market people will cry.
Doesn't matter what the gameplay rules are, or what the gameplay consists of, I will never play it. Sorry you had to waste the space explaining all that but I knew it was basically a FPS/Moba Hybrid. Still looks bland and boring AF.

I'm well aware that IceFrog is the lead making this game. With his background with Mobas/Dota and Valves FPS expertise in the FPS genre it's no surprise they would attempt this, but I honestly think the game will crash and burn. Nobody asked for this unholy amalgamation of genres and I believe it's going to bite Valve in the ass in long run.

People are begging Valve to save TF2, and get it back to it's glory days, meanwhile it took the whole community review bombing that game and starting a #FixTF2 social media campaign for Valve to take notice and do the bare minimum to fix the bot problem.

They are barely staffed enough to cover Steam as a storefront, let alone developing and maintaining games like CS2, Dota, Half Life next, TF2, and now they add this?

When Valve pushes out a full release of Deadlock what other Valve Gaas game is going to suffer because of it? We know Valves schtick of their employees having a "desk on wheels", it was drilled into our heads years ago, but that style of working on games doesn't work anymore.

When people show concern that they are tired of GaaS games sometimes they don't necessarily mean they hate this or that genre, but here, at least in Valves case, they barely have enough human resources to keep up with what they already have on their plate, let alone add something new. So have fun with your half baked, barely updated, Moba shooter because it's in your future.
 

HofT

Banned
It's crazy how overwatch is almost 10y old and other studios haven't figured out that half of its success was solely on the character design.
For real, there's a reason why those character trailers received millions of views each. People liked the characters themselves. I also think that representing different countries and giving each character a slightly stereotypical personality helped a lot as well. Made it feel grand.
 
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Sentenza

Member
I'm also interested in an invite, if someone here has some spare.
More for morbid curiosity rather than for genuine interest to play it, if I have to be perfectly honest.
 
It's funny that all of the sudden hero shooters aint that bad anymore once the favourite platformholder is doing it. 🤣🤣
The reception here is still heavily skewed towards negative. There are even a few posts here think this is a waste of resources compared to what Valve could make instead.

I think one thing people can at least agree on is that Valve will polish it endlessly before release, thus making it a solidly fun experience even if they loathe the two genres it’s blending.
 

Bridges

Member
Oh nice, I just checked my email and apparently got an invite four days ago. I'll have to check it out tomorrow if my PC can run it
 
I don't know about a clicker game. I'm saying the test is gaining traction and attention due to it's quality, not just because it's made by Valve.

I'm a 40yo jaded gamer that was there during the early online multipayer era with (QuakeWorld, UT, CS) as well as spending serious time on LoL/DotA 2 when the MOBA genre blew up, and I can say this is really something special. I'm going through my 2nd addicted gamer youth thanks to this game.
 

BlackTron

Member
Yeah it could use more polish but it also isn't finished so I won't judge yet. I like the MOBA as a shooter idea and I'd give Valve the benefit of the doubt before dissing it as "yet another hero shooter".
 
I got an invite from someone I used to play DOTA2 with a long time ago. jumped in yesterday and today and tried out a little. it's basically DOTA2 but 3rd person shooter. the start would always be slow as you poke with the other side and try to harass and deny/"last hit" to get more souls. then you buy some items and upgrade your abilities. but once it reach mid to late game, clashes can be over pretty fast if you're not careful. pushing your lanes and moving over to other lanes to gank or jungle is also pretty interesting. I still had not get all the inner workings of the game yet but it definitely can be fun and interesting. the problem is my aim is not the best when you really benefits from headshots here, so by default I suck pretty bad and always become the weak link in a team. but it would help with the right hero I guess. I'll keep playing from time to time and see.
 

Moochi

Member
I played a round. It's pretty janky and unoptimized at the moment. I didn't have a great time, but I think the concept is viable. The lanes set up some fun duel like confrontations you don't get in many other fps games, and the added busywork of dealing with mobs and jungling are a tried and tested gameplay loop.

The fundamental things I want to see fixed are mostly optimization, autobuy recommended items from the shop, and a more coherent style. It's Fortnite/noir right now, and I'd like it if it was more noir.
 

Rickyiez

Member
I don't understand what's the fuss of it being another hero shooter .

There is no oversaturation of GOOD hero shooter nowadays . I honestly would welcome a proper made one , but yeah provided it has to have great character design .
 
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LQX

Member
It's surprisingly okay. Its like a mix of DOTA2 AND TF2. I can see it being potentially huge for Valve as it screams organized team esports, buy the season pass, buy new hats, but new outfits.

I fucking hate the bland look of these types of games though, as they are optimized out the ass to run on anything, which is good, but makes the visual boring IMO.
 

HoodWinked

Member
It's pretty fun, but the character designs are so bland and lame.
They pretty much have the same design sensibilities of Concord's characters but they're just more generic since they are using that Valve dota2 palette with a steampunk aesthetic.

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