After one of the strangest announcement campaigns ever, where over 16,000 people were playing a game that was not officially revealed, Deadlock is finally public knowledge. Overnight, Valve lifted the embargo on talking about the game, and after a couple of months in the beta I’m finally free to talk about it. But, with the current state of the game, I wish they had made some changes first.
For those that don’t know, Deadlock is effectively Dota 2 but with guns and six players on a team. Despite being called a hero shooter by many, it really isn’t; this is a MOBA at it’s core that just happens to have characters that shoot. If you go in and expect an Overwatch clone you are going to be in for a bad time.
But as a MOBA fan, I was pleasantly surprised when I first got to play Deadlock and found just how MOBA like it was. As a Dota fan a lot instantly felt familiar, and the actual act of shooting is pretty fun, and the last hitting mechanic where you can steal XP enemies get by shooting the orbs that appear first is a great idea. However, it didn’t feel great and something just wasn’t clicking.
Then I tried playing Kelvin, a big icy boy who can fire an ice beam that will slow and damage enemies. At the time, unbeknownst to me, he was considered one of the most overpowered heroes in the game which may have helped, but after a few hours of playing this is where Deadlock really felt fun for the first time.
We lost the match, but I finally felt like I had an impact on fights with simple abilities that had clear effects, something other characters often lack. I think the arsenal of slows also helped, as speed is a key factor in Deadlock compared to most other MOBAs. With Kelvin, I was unstoppable, despite the fact we lost, and Deadlock felt fun.
Since then, I’ve learned a few more heroes and, while none have come close to being as fun as Kelvin, I’m starting to understand how Deadlock works a lot more. Just like Dota, a lot of the games you play aren’t all that fun, but when you do get a great game, it channels those same emotions that will make you keep playing for another 50 hours chasing that feeling.
However, despite this I still think there are a few fundamental issues with Deadlock that arguably should have been changed before the game was announced, even if the beta remains invite only. If a game is even somewhat close and goes to the late game then split pushing is far too powerful, with the ability to fly down a pushed lane on the sky rail, you can be at the enemy base in seconds even if they are knocking on the door of yours. I’ve lost more games to split push than any other strategy.
This is likely due to how difficult the final stage of destroying the base is, if it’s at all defended. With players having to be in a very small area to damage the final stage of the boss you have to kill in the enemy base, some characters can single-handedly stall the game out whereas others feel useless.
It makes the late game feel frustrating and often stalls out games considerably as no one can get close enough to land the killing blows. A redesign to the base is surely in order at some point to fix this, as it frequently feels like the only way to end a game is to get a full team wipe and then move in uncontested.
But despite this, the core of Deadlock is still fun. I expect a lot of non-MOBA fans will bounce off this very quickly, especially given what many thought this game would be. However, as a Dota nerd I’m having a good time and will likely stick with it for the foreseeable, as long as Kelvin doesn’t get changed.
