Deadlock has been an ongoing experiment by Valve for quite a while now, it feels like the company is rather wary of the current live service landscape and wishes to take a break by relying on what they already have out. It is safe to say that Deadlock will never surpass games like Counter Strike or perhaps even Overwatch, but the gearing of this game is a clear attempt at taking a shot towards Blizzard, whom stole the hero shooter crown from them when Overwatch kind of killed Team Fortress 2. Maybe 2026 will be the year that revenge is best served dead and cold.
Deadlock wants to be different
Mid bosses, HP pools, buffs and debuffs, it seems that this Hero Shooter has all of them and it will keep bringing more things too. Although, considering how tired everyone is of the live service model, and even free games that were hyped up like Highguard met a very quick demise, it is surprising that Valve still considers going forward. I will admit I have 0 idea of how this game plays properly since I haven’t been able to receive a key since I don’t know anyone who did, but from the changes and some gameplay videos alone it definitely looks like something different.
Valve is the master of live service, you could even say they created loot boxes and popularized them too, not to mention they also have big ties with secondary markets with skins and all. Leaving that aside it looks like Deadlock might be a new breed under the live service umbrella, showing us some new concepts and hopefully they don’t really push for any sort of monetization in an egregious way. If Deadlock wants to succeed, it also needs a minimum standard to allow players to setup their own servers, games like this need to live forever.
