Deadlock Early Access Review

Deadlock is an up-and-coming MOBA that might give League of Legends a run for its money.
Deadlock Featured

Deadlock is a brand-new MOBA developed by Valve. With a unique setting and fun twists on the genre’s gameplay, Deadlock is clearly a contender for the top spot alongside other genre giants, even in its early access state. However, the game still suffers from genre-familiar barriers to entry that may put off new and interested players from fully immersing themselves in what the game has to offer.

For those unfamiliar, a MOBA is a “multiplayer online battle arena,” a genre famously inhabited by DOTA 2 and even more infamously ruled by League of Legends. These games tend to follow a similar setup. Select a hero with a unique set of skills, push waves of NPC allies down several “lanes” to destroy objectives, and gain resources along the way that steadily increase your power. Eventually, one team snowballs over the other with a harder power spike, claiming victory by destroying their opponent’s base.

Deadlock is much the same. It sees teams of six battling in the streets of New York during the roaring 20s, destroying “towers” and leading minions into the enemy “nexus” to claim victory. Though it has the hallmarks of the genre, Deadlock separates itself from familiar games in a few key ways.

Deadlock Bebop Kill
Screenshot: Try Hard Guides

The first, and probably most noticeable immediately, is that Deadlock is a third-person shooter. It certainly isn’t the first of its kind, with shooters and MOBAs having had a few (noticeably unsuccessful) crossovers in the past. Deadlock does the combination pretty well, though, combining abilities typical to the MOBA genre with gunplay that requires reflex and accuracy to pull off properly, adding a challenge for even seasoned League or DOTA players.

The second, less immediately noticeable but, in my opinion, most impactful difference is the setting.

As I said earlier, Deadlock forgoes the typical fantasy setting of most MOBA games and sends us into the roaring 20s, though with a twist: Every hero in Deadlock is actually a Warlock, a spellcaster gaining their power from demonic patrons, who serve as the focus of the objective-based gameplay.

I absolutely love this. Deadlock’s setting is an amazing combination of period pieces, Lovecraftian, Hellboy, and countless other clear inspirations that I personally am a big fan of. It works incredibly well, too, giving the game a very potent identity I didn’t expect coming in, thanks to Valve’s sort of hush-hush marketing on the still early access game.

Similar titles lately have utterly failed due to a lack of cohesive or appealing identity. Companies are trying to sell a game focused on heroes with an utterly uninteresting band of dorks on their roster instead. Deadlock does not suffer from this problem whatsoever, with its cast of characters being supremely cool in both design and character.

A Spanish-speaking gargoyle with a dual-magazine MP18? We’ve got that. A turn-of-the-century gangster who lights you up with a Tommy gun and arcane card tricks, never taking her hands out of her pockets? She’s here as well. What about a well-dressed pyromancer who finger-guns fire bolts at you? Of course, Deadlock has that as well.

Deadlock Bebop
Screenshot: Try Hard Guides

It is a game absolutely jam-packed with personality, a personality that feels strangely hidden due to the game’s lack of marketing or subtle use of promotional images. I have no doubt that when Valve is ready for Deadlock to leave the early access phase and get hands-on from the public, Deadlock’s cast of colorful and cool characters will suck in a massive audience.

Gameplay-wise, the game is pretty solid and definitely what I, a chronic League player, would call fun. Fairly standard MOBA mechanics have improved quality of life, such as proximity “gold” sharing for your team, resource denial, fast travel to lane, and in-lane shops. The game also features a host of abilities for champions that range from familiar to downright creative, and combined with the item shop (and the very generous item allowances, far more than your genre-typical six or seven times), allows for some interesting and complex builds, allowing for diverse playstyles on familiar characters.

Unfortunately, I think Deadlock, at least in its current state, still suffers from some problems that other games in the genre are infamous for.

Deadlock Fire
Screenshot: Try Hard Guides

Of particular note is the game’s steep learning curve. Though Deadlock comes with a tutorial that will teach you the game’s basics, it will take you a while to learn the very kits and characters presented to you throughout the game. This is true of any MOBA, and it can make fighting against or cooperating with unfamiliar characters a challenge for new players.

Learning your own kit is a smaller challenge, but learning the optimal build path and various stats present in Deadlock can also make a lot of your early games end in losses as you try to master not only yourself but the enemies you’re made to play against.

Snowballing is also a present problem in Deadlock by design.

Though losing games in Deadlock didn’t feel quite as oppressive as, say, League games, there were certainly times where I felt as though I was in an inevitable yet slow losing spiral. It isn’t very fun to walk into a lane and instantly get killed, and the game’s third-person perspective can make it easy to get annihilated without ever seeing your enemy coming.

Deadlock Zipline
Screenshot: Try Hard Guides

While these issues may put off new players from getting into Deadlock, they are problems prevalent to the genre and not to the game itself. That being said, there are other games out there that do have these problems on an even larger scale (try learning all of League’s 200+ champion’s abilities in a timely matter) that still manage to be ultimately successful, and I have no doubt Deadlock will be the same.

Overall, Deadlock is an exciting addition to a genre that hasn’t seen, in my opinion, an up-and-comer with a real fighting chance in a while. Deadlock is sure to be popular, thanks to its twist on gameplay, fun setting, and great characters, if not outright give League of Legends a run for its money.

Pros:

  • Great Characters and Setting
  • Fun mechanics that improve on familiar genre gameplay

Cons:

  • Familiar barrier-to-entry problems that other MOBA titles suffer from
Erik Hodges

Erik Hodges

Erik Hodges is a hobby writer and a professional gamer, at least if you asked him. He has been writing fiction for over 12 years and gaming practically since birth, so he knows exactly what to nitpick when dissecting a game's story. When he isn't reviewing games, he's probably playing them.

Comments

Leave a Comment

All comments go through a moderation process, and should be approved in a timely manner. To see why your comment might not have been approved, check out our Comment Rules page!

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.