Ever since I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a gamer.
Like most of you (I hope), I give up my favorite pastime during the semester, as I know that I will half-ass any and every responsibility in my life to chase the dopamine high that comes along with digital victory. In between assignments these days I find myself wishing I had time to return to my Philadelphia Flyers black and orange gaming chair, boot up my PC tower and feel the headphones hug my giant ears, the sweet melody of my clan yapping over each other in Discord, greeting me after a long day dealing with real problems.
Summer passed too swiftly. Bored had I become with my usual multiplayer favorites “EA NHL” (hockey for you Texans) and “Dead by Daylight.” My skill and knowledge of the metas have been cultivated over years of dedication and love, but every game eventually gets boring or loses the luster that made you love it in the first place. Your favorite aspects get nerfed, your enemies get buffed, and you end up ragequitting and never returning. I’ve seen it a thousand times.
Classically popular shooters like “Call of Duty,” “Battlefield,” and “Rainbow Six: Siege” have grown beyond repetitive, and I long ago slung my rifle to instead be chased by Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger in DBD. I have zero desire to have tactical shootouts with screaming children and sociopathic incels. If I want to hear racism screamed over gunfire I can call my father.
So, I’ve been waiting for a game to fill me up, to make me feel alive again. I’ve met others like me, gathered in the quiet corners of Discord and Reddit, replaying the same games year after year, all of us seeking a savior. Then came word of an unannounced game about to host a private beta, and everyone wanted in. This unannounced game was trending to be 2024’s most interesting multiplayer experience mostly because it came from legendary developer Valve, headed by the King of Gamers, Gabe Newell.
Rumor was the game is invite-only, so you’d have to know someone who’s already been invited to receive a code to activate the game. It’s like being invited to a speakeasy or getting an STD. I spent the first week of the beta’s release wondering if I’d be lucky enough to be thrown a password, fearful that I’d be relegated to watching the fun on Twitch.
Behold, my savior! The great and powerful Blastwah, a brother of mine from our Destiny days, the two of us reunited earlier this year when Bungie released its final expansion for the aforementioned space opera. I was just starting dinner when my phone began to play “Yakety Sax” by Boots Randolph, my clan’s (World’s Last) custom ringtone. Blastwah was inviting me to play “Deadlock.” I started the download and turned off the stove. I’d be DoorDashing tonight.
Thing is, I had no idea what the game was, so I spent my idle time doing some research. “Deadlock” is a third-person MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) hero shooter developed by beloved game studio Valve (“Half-Life,” “Counter Strike,” “Team Fortress 2”). It has the gunplay of “Fortnite,” the gameplay of “League of Legends,” and pre-built heroes like “Overwatch.” I play none of these games because I like dating women. I’m just kidding, I was heavily into “Overwatch” for years, where I was reminded frequently by toxic players that despite a long marriage resulting in two children, I am actually gay.
I picked the coolest looking guy, which for me, was Abrams. Named after a tank with a character model that looks like Hellboy had a baby with John Constantine, Abrams has stood as the cover hero for most of the game’s promotion. I am a massive fan of both comics, so I chose Abrams and queued up.
Modeled after a gargoyle, and built to be a close-quarter, melee-centered character, Abrams is your prototypical “tank,” hence the name, GET IT?!?!?!?! I was not at all intimidated when I saw my opponent dressed like Michael Jackson with a Tommy gun.
“I’m about to moonwalk all over this bitch!” I yelled to the squad.
“That’s Wraith,” they replied. “Wait for help”
“I got this,” I responded, charging horns-first into the fight.
As it turned out, I did not got this. I put the boy in Hellboy, amassing a measly 4,000 points. The average is 15.
Clearly, I had no idea how to play this game and the randoms with us let me know. “Go play DOTA,” they said. “Dayman, you are trash,” another added. Indeed, I was, but hell if that was going to stop me. If sucking at something the first time was enough to make me quit, I’d have never become the fourth best 190-pound grappler in New Jersey in 2009. I enjoy the complexity of a game like this, even when I get my fart-absorbing gaming chair handed to me.
Humiliated, I watched a litany of gameplay videos and decided I was not ready for the nuanced gameplay required of Abrams, and instead chose a new hero: Seven, a robot samurai with an assault rifle and lightning powers. He excels in mid-range and has three abilities: A lightning grenade that does DPS in a small AOE, a static charge that stuns the enemy, and lightning rounds that chain damage to enemy teammates standing near your target.
The build system works much like “League of Legends,” where upgrades and abilities are purchased as you earn points by killing players, bots, and minibosses. There are builds cultivated by other players saved in the game servers, so you can save and follow your favorites to achieve OP status like your favorite streamer. As you can expect from any game, some of these builds are beyond broken, so enjoy them before they’re nerfed!
Each team has six players. The team that destroys the enemy base wins the match. You will be assigned to one of four lanes between the bases, with alleys, secret tunnels, and teleporters perfect for players who love to gank. Two lanes will have an extra person who can float to assist other lanes. Each lane has three layers of turrets with varying skins. Taking them down will allow your bots to progress and award your team with points and ability slots you’ll need to take down the enemy base, as it is highly protected. Killing the final boss (known as the Patron) wins the match. These matches run about 15 minutes on the short side, but average 30 minutes.
However, I’ve had several matches go more than an hour, with neither team able to complete the final push to kill the patron. In these instances, it is usually the team that has six players with nothing to do that wins, as I have had to apologize to my squad more than once for an imminent disconnect over an hour into a match as I must attend to something in the real world. This isn’t really the type of game you want to play if you only have half an hour here and there to unwind.
This one is for the hardcores. This one is for the gamers surrounded with trash from DoorDash orders, who live with permanent headphone indents in their quiff.
Currently the game boasts 21 heroes with different skins and playstyles. Of the two I tested, Abrams is a melee tank and Seven is a mid-range DPS with an incredibly powerful super. Most of the supers are OP, in fact, especially when paired. Seven, for example, unleashes an AOE lighting storm with him as the center point. Another character, Ivy (A favorite of Blastwah’s), is a gargoyle who can use her super to soar through the sky and pick up an ally to save them from danger or drop a lightning bomb named Dayman from the sky behind the opponent’s flank. More than once we teamkilled the enemy with this combination, as they were focused on protecting the patron or the front. Seven can activate this ultimate in the sky, so you can really surprise the enemy and slaughter them all before they have a chance to figure out where you are, and as we all know, there is nothing more satisfying than a team wipe except maybe a Dude Wipe.
The learning curve is steep but rewarding. I am not an experienced MOBA player, but I picked it up swiftly. There are great guides out there already being written and updated by passionate gamers who love to min/max their stats and builds. There are banshee snipers and steampunk pugilists, magicians who dress like Moonwalker and robots that look like they were pulled straight from Scooby Doo. There are detective gargoyles, and gamblers who shoot fire from their finger guns, and it all comes together in a beautiful smorgasbord of gaming that will probably encourage a few copycats, and maybe even establish a new genre. If you look at Valve’s resume, it wouldn’t be the first time. Or the second. Or third. Or fourth. Or fi-
-You get it.
“Deadlock” is in development by Valve and is currently in closed beta. Invites can be found at r/DeadlockGame.
