Oh deadlock, where do I begin… I first played the game back when Valve opened up access requests on the steam front page to play the game back in 2024, I tried to play for a few hours but kinda just bounced off the game and despite me giving it a few hours it just didn't really click.
Fast forward to August 2025, a big new update was coming out i decided to give it a try with some friends and… got into a 40 minute match where most of us went 0-10… ouch, not fun.
Later we learned that because we queued up with a friend that had played hundreds of hours of deadlock, we were possibly thrown into the upper end of a hidden skill based matchmaking system? Unclear if that was true but alas that match was not fun and I called it quits.
I had only 10 hours played of deadlock by that point I was scared to queue into games and I didn't know how to learn the game and it was wildly frustrating, especially because the game had so many cool looking characters.
By this point I was ready to just kinda accept that deadlock wasn't going to be my kind of game, in theory I like the concept of MOBA's but I always find the item meta game aspect to be overwhelming and unfun for me.
I really enjoyed Pokémon Unite and Supervive(Rest in peace 😔 ) because they didn't have the same overwhelming item pool like League of Legends or Smite or Dota.
I just wanted to play cool characters with fun abilities and go pewpew, not try to learn what a large list of items do and trial and error my way into figuring out what works for a character.
Fast forward to Deadlocks most recent update, I heard about it and briefly read what they were adding and thought it sounded neat but I wasn't interested in trying to jump back into the game, I was too scared.
Scared about getting stuck in 40 minute matches that I would feel helpless in.
But then I see a clip of one of the new characters Rem being played (insert clip here) this one from Eskay specifically.
I watched the clip and thought the movement looked really cool and chaining the jump into the slide into a perfectly timed ultimate to put the enemy team to sleep so her team could then swoop in and secure the games mid map boss (aka the Rejuvenator) captured my imagination and with a sigh i re-download Deadlock.
This time my mindset is a little different. I'm going into the game to learn and I know I'll suck and I just needed to get over the initial hump.
That didn't make it any better, honestly the first 4-5 days I played it i sucked awfully, I couldn't do much in 6v6 and was somehow worse in 4v4.
It was frustrating. I couldn't keep up. I didn't know how to push, enemies kept running away from me. I was frustrated and just not having fun.
It all culminates in this moment where im playing with a friend we queued Into a 6v6 together, had a decent start with lane phase but then just fall behind awfully and start dying alot.
Our team was doing decently and the match ended up being kinda close but because me and my friend were both roughly 1 and 12 we just weren't contributing much we didn't know or understand what we should have been doing.
Then finally when the enemy team is about to push our base and end the match one of our teammates pauses the game and for the first time in the match speaks on voice comms.
Up to this point there was no communication from our teammates no text, no callouts no pings, and definitely no advice for struggling teammates.
So when they finally speak they proceed to roleplay as a sports news broadcaster complete with soundboard clips and make fun of me and my friend for being 1 and 12.
The game unpauses and we lose in less then a minute later.
*sigh*
I was genuinely pissed off in the moment, and between us dear reader I wanted to tell the guy to fuck off with his bullshit.
I instead just went afk to use the restroom while the match ended.
But that was it thats my villain origin story, I wouldn't say there was an overnight change but after watching a few YouTube videos specifically these from Eskay and Deathy.
I started to gradually but noticeably improve at Deadlock.
Over the next couple of days I mainly stuck to Deadlocks new and honestly super impressive and fun 4v4 street brawl mode.
I cant sing this game modes praises enough its 4v4, 1 lane, no money, each player picks 3 items from 3 sets of random items each round. The goal is to destroy the enemies Tower to win the round, first team to win 3 rounds wins.
This is genuinely one of the most fun game modes I've played in a MOBA, it strips away a lot of the extra intricacies of the main mode like the jungle camps and mid boss and urn, and just focuses on strictly team fights in a single lane with the Troopers aka Minions.
Instead of worrying about money and buying items you just had to make the best of your choice of random items which combines this sorta roguelike element to each match that makes every game unique.
And from what I've seen there's even unique legendary items that can appear that you cant even buy in the main 6v6 mode because they are so disgustingly overpowered.
With each match lasting anywhere between 15-25 minutes it's far less time commitment per round and just so much easier to keep jumping back into.
This game mode is honestly such a fantastic way to ease players into the games item pool and get players actually thinking about what items to buy, what would help them and more importantly just remembering what each item even does.
It's fantastic.
And it's because of this game mode that Deadlock is finally clicking for me, after the videos and spending probably 15 hours playing just 4v4, the way I view the game and each match has notably changed.
Im mentally taking notes of what damage type is affecting me the most, im thinking about item picks to counter.
Deadlocks wonderfully designed UI makes this super easy to digest, I can just hold tab check the top of the screen and immediately get the info I need on whether my enemies are building Gun/spirit/health items whether or not they are resistant to Gun/spirit damage.
Which the fact that this game has gotten me out of my stubborn anti item agenda when it comes to MOBA's and has gotten me to actually engage with the systems and mechanics is a massive testament to how well designed and appealing Deadlock is as a video game.
as of Deadlocks newest update I realized just how much the games evolved visually from its original alpha testing release in 2024, the art direction is sharper, the character models are visually appealing, the character designs are extremely unique, diverse and pleasant to look at.
In a gaming landscape that is saturated with Hero shooters and Moba adjacent games, Deadlock stands far above most of them and this might be a bit of a hot take personally I think Deadlock from a character art and design standpoint is the most visually appealing of any MOBA or Hero shooter.
And thats all before you consider the fact that Deadlock is very much still in Alpha testing I believe? The game is changing rapidly day to day, there's still a handful of WIP elements that need final touch ups. Some characters that haven't been visually updated at all since Deadlocks earliest iteration, and the game’s equivalent of towers needing a final visual pass aside from that i think Valve has a huge hit on their hands if it isn’t already since the game has averaged 100k users daily since the beginning of the most recent update and character vote.
… 2 weeks have passed since i wrote the first half of this post.
I’m now sitting at 100 hours of Deadlock played. I'm entirely locked in, I get it now, I understand how to play Deadlock.
-insert scoreboard picture here-
It’s so weird coming back to finish up this post i’m pretty sure i began writing this when silver had just come out, i was maybe 20-30 hours into the game at the time and i stuck to 4v4 like a crutch.
At this point i’m playing exclusively 6v6 matches, i managed to overcome queue fear, i’m no longer scared of doing bad, that moment i detailed earlier literally was my villain origin story.
It was the lowest point I've ever been playing deadlock and that fueled me to tilt queue over and over frustratedly determined to learn and I feel within the last 10-20 hours of gameplay it’s all clicked into place.
As you can see by the scoreboard on this match I now have the potential to carry my team to victory! :D
It’s so crazy like i’ve spent a lot of time not playing deadlock consuming Deadlock videos primarily watching Deathy, and Eskay’s videos on youtube and watching those made things click relatively early on, but i can’t pinpoint when i exactly began putting it all into practice it took way longer then i think is reasonable (50 hours!?!?) but thats also part of Deadlocks charm.
It’s like a fighting game where you learn how to play piece by piece and each match you try to implement at least 1 new thing you learned prior into practice, then before you know it you’re pulling off full meter 75% HP combo’s in a real match and feeling unstoppable
And by framing Deadlock in that fashion it lets me play the game with a much more positive mindset which is a lot easier said than done considering how frustrating it can be to play with other players who desire nothing more than to infuriate you and talk down to you when you have an off game.
With that said Deadlock has such a weird player base I don't know if league of legends is also like this but like the Deadlock player base likes to refer to certain characters as… extremely evil historical political figures???
It’s so strange to me, like i played call of duty modern warfare 2 in its heyday i’m no stranger to toxic players spewing slurs and profanity at each other which i’ve also witnessed in Deadlock matches *Shakes my head*
So yeah that’s sorta been my Deadlock journey, it just took me getting extremely angry at the game to push me over the edge to actually sit down and learn the game it helps that i’ve had a good group to also learn the game with so i wasn’t entirely alone, and that’s made the journey a lot more fun even if that journey could be extremely frustrating.
So how do I feel about the game now that I've sunk 100 hours into it and got over my fear of actually playing the game so I could learn it…?
I actually fucking love this chungus ass shooter way more then i think i have any other in recent time, it’s been so satisfying getting better at it and learning and it’s so much fun playing the game in this early state and seeing it change daily.
This most recent update that dropped 6 new characters and released them over the course of 2 weeks is SO MUCH FUN!!!! Like trying out the new characters and learning them and then theorizing about the next characters kit with friends is such a cool experience that will probably one day stop happening. (im not convinced that this isn’t the last batch character drop) but until they stop i will cherish these insane events.
It’s also just strange playing Deadlock and knowing it’s a brand new Valve game, it feels like there hasn’t been a major Valve release since DOTA 2 which technically there was Half Life Alyx but that’s a VR exclusive game so I tend to forget it exists, despite it being a genuinely fantastic showcase of what VR gaming could be.
Counter Strike 2 was also recently released but that game is more of a major update/Remake to CS:GO so i don’t know if its something i personally really count as “new”
And i don’t think anyone really remembers Artifact the short lived DOTA 2 online CCG (Collectible Card Game)
Deadlock i think has a uphill battle still, the team at Valve i think have captured lightning in a bottle Deadlocks style and gameplay despite its insanely high learning curve, stands out among the competition.
But due to that high learning curve i wonder if Deadlock will reach the same highs as DOTA 2 or Counter Strike 2
I’m very excited and curious to see what else the team has in store for the game when its inevitable open beta update comes along, I'm excited to see what kind of special events the team comes up with to inevitably replace the character vote events.
…. Another 2 weeks pass
I’ve lost track of time since i last worked on this article im now 200 hours deep into Deadlock, the game continues to be a weird addictive blend of insanely fun mechanics and deeply frustrating matchups and weird balancing and even weirder matchmaking that can make Roguelike RNG seem generous at times.
Okay maybe that's a bit hyperbolic but it's funny, I'm gonna wrap this article up by saying I'm definitely going to continue enjoying deadlock for the foreseeable future, still excited to see where the game goes.
Between the last chunk i wrote and now they released a massive balance patch to Deadlock that overhauled quite a few characters, nearly everyone except the games newest batch of heroes got wide sweeping buffs and some nerfs it was a wild patch notes list to read through, it was a lot of fun learning what changed and made the game instantly feel fresh again for a few days.
I do have one new thought to add to this blog post, and its that Deadlock is a game that i actively feel bad asking friends to play with me on, the games learning curve makes it really hard to play with a friend thats new and learning cause as it stands in this early state there is no ranked or unranked just 1 queue for 6v6 and you have a visible rank so a new friend that doesn’t really belong in your higher ranked lobbies will just get dragged into them and have a miserable time.
It kinda sucks sure there’s bot matches and thats a possible solution or the street brawl 4v4 mode, but 4v4 doesn’t prepare you very well for 6v6’s and bot matches could build bad habits.
I’m interested to see if/when they introduce Ranked/Unranked specifically or if they will add other potential modes to ease players into its mechanics.
I will wrap up this article by saying Deadlock sure is a video game i can’t stop playing it… like seriously help me aghhhhh ILL NEVER BE FREEEEE ILL NEVER FINISH THIS BLOG POST HECK IT IM JUST SENDING IT I CANT ANYMORE AKELFNEALKFNAEGKNEAKLAKLGNEaegkjeaglkjae………
Thanks for reading the mad ramblings i hope this is coherent and i will try to get more blog posts out soon i have a few things i’ve been playing between deadlock sessions so i might write about those soon.
If you have any feedback feel free to leave a comment <3
Comments
Post a Comment