Deadlock Alpha Gameplay & Impressions

I have Alpha access to Valve's new super secret game Deadlock that totally nobody knows about. Is Deadlock a good game? Is this a Counter-Strike killer or a TF2 killer? No of course not that's silly. All I know is, I don't like MOBAs, but this game is pretty good and has some potential, but also some critical problems that they need to figure out.

[kaotakeow]

Fun Fact : Despite being in alpha, Deadlock has a replay system that can tracks on your death/kills and even whenever you use abilities

[TwoSouthFarm]

According to rumor (random shit I read on the internet), Yamato looks like this because in Neon Prime, she's supposed to be an alien LARP-ing as a Japanese samurai.

[StriderPF]

Valve once again proves why you should never write off a game with their name on it

[Absolute_Zero]

"One thing I don't like is how some items allow you to hard counter what the opponent is doing".

Its an IceFrog game alright...

[FlibTheBard]

For all the shooter players that are new to the genre: shoot creeps. The red dots on the map should be more tantalizing to you than enemy hero portraits.

[MaybeBillClinton]

It baffles me that a game released in alpha like this is generally more polished than a huge amount of other games fully released

[Hyperion]

On the topic of items feeling like they hard counter some heroes: this is an intentional design choice brought over from DotA. It's done this way to try and prevent item builds from being formulaic, and making you dynamically adjust your item build to deal with what your opponents are building. Most (all?) of these super powerful hard-counter level items can also be countered by other items, to facilitate this.

For example, an opponent builds an item that lets them silence you on demand to stop you from channeling your super powerful team fighting ability. You recognize this, and now have the option of just trying to deal with it and only using that ability when that opponent is dead or the item isn't available, or you can counter it with the "Unstoppable" item to make you immune to such things for a short time. These super powerful items are expensive, so it's a very weighty choice.

You can definitely make a valid argument that you don't like items being so powerful and want items to be weaker or have less direct effects, more similar to League of Legends, but it is undoubtedly a solid, well-reasoned design choice that does have the intended effect of making builds dynamic.

[Tyretes]

Yamato and Grey Talon character design is a leftover from Neon Prime, Bepop too. they're still a placeholder.
there's also a Yamato leaked redesign which is more fitting to the game's world.

[yp_biggie]

It's funny how a game in its alpha has a 100k player count and a "complete" game that took 8 years and 200 mil have a peak for 600 people

[gonzaloalonso]

As an old dota player (more than 12 years) I have the same problem with dota and deadlook: I don't know how long a match is gonna last, some times 20 min, some times 50 mins. As a kid i had a lot of free time to play all afternoon, but now that I am a adult (fuck me), I do not want to speed almost an entire hour in a single match. Aside from that, I think the game is awsome.

[jkljosh]

The biggest Eehhh design is Yam, and that's because she was made for neon prime and hasn't been updated yet, she was an alien who got obsessed with Japanese culture but that has changed now but they don't have a new model yet

[oceantume]

It's understandable that you don't like counters as someone who doesn't play MOBAs, but that's part of the idea. Building a big item to counter someone on the enemy team inevitably means that you aren't building something else (e.g. more damage, or something to prevent getting countered yourself), so it's all about tradeoffs. I've played matches where I should've made the counter item and I didn't, and I played other matches where the counter item was a mistake because it didn't even help us in the end.

There are also items like Unstoppable or Debuff Reducer/Remover that serve as a "counter to the counter". At a higher level, you get into this mindset where timing is extremely important and whether you want to fight or not depends on many of those variables: Which ults are up, do i need just 1k before we can basically team wipe them with item X, did enemy X just hit their item timing and we need to chill? etc.

I really appreciate your input though since I very much respect your experience with Counter Strike and I'm glad to see you're enjoying the game!

[SynchroFPS]

As a longtime fps player, mainly overwatch, I found this game to be very accessible as a moba because the shooter elements gave me something that I was already comfortable with, like a stepping stone into the moba elements.

[Lexyvil]

Absolutely loving the game so far. My favourite aspect is the ziplining, which prevents having to walk back/forth to the shop. Not even that, but there are many shops.

[sskuk]

There's so little going on in Counter Strike, everybody starts uploading other content!

[AzizTheGazele]

0:38 I can't be the only one who's main games are both mobas and fps right? I feel like the prime target audience and am having so much fun

[refusingtoconform]

That quote is gonna stick with me: "Don't you think I know that!? You can requeue to play with better players, I still have to be ME."

[exoticdachoo]

"You gotta design a game with audience in mind"

better get to adding jiggle physics then

[jaxweby]

the game does seem fun, but honestly, if it's gonna be as toxic as Dota or League, i don't think it's gonna stick for long
i've remembered PirateSoftware's shorts on Dawn Gate and how that game let you rank up quickly if you got positive commendations from teammates and couldn't be from friends. if you were toxic, you'd have to *grind* to level up, but being friendly meant you could actually make progress.
Dawn Gate died long ago; Deadlock has the ability to bring something like that back and foster a positive community for MOBAs, which i feel is sorely lacking.

[xenobis]

I think games can be either a craft or an art. Just depends on whether it's supposed to be fun or evocative.