Tens of thousands of people have been playing Valve's new multiplayer shooter Deadlock for the past few months, but in that time there has been no official announcement or confirmation from the game's creators that it exists. Until now, that is. Valve has released a very plain Steam store page for Deadlock , describing the game as an “early development multiplayer game.”
“Deadlock is still in early development with a lot of tentative art and experimental gameplay,” the page says. “Access to Deadlock is currently limited to friend invites through our playtesters.” The page also includes a single 22-second teaser trailer and no screenshots.
But at the time of writing, Deadlock had been played by 63,000 people. Those who had access to the beta were previously asked to “not share anything about the game with anyone”, but inevitably the footage leaked to the wider network. That restriction has now been lifted entirely, and people are posting their thoughts and more videos online.
Deadlock looks like a mix of Dota and Super Monday Night Combat, a third-person, 6v6 multiplayer shooter featuring corridors, respawning creatures, and a sky rail transportation system.
I've seen arguments that it's odd that Valve wouldn't announce a game that so many people are clearly playing, but I can honestly understand the decision. Valve is known for canceling projects during development, and as a genre, a lot of multiplayer shooters stumble in beta. For example, how many games has Ubisoft announced in the last five years and canceled the second players touched down on them? My only disappointment is that Valve couldn't come up with a more interesting name than “Deadlock” before making it official.