On May 22, images of Valve's upcoming hero shooter, Deadlock, leaked online. New Valve games are always exciting, but the community's reaction to Deadlock has been surprisingly mixed.
New Valve Game, HUGE Leak
In a Reddit thread about the Deadlock footage on May 22, commenters agreed that Deadlock's character design "doesn't fit in with itself" and that the characters don't look like they should be sharing a game together. Other users criticized the game for being a team-based hero shooter at a time when the genre is more saturated than ever.
Valve arguably created the genre with its Team Fortress games. However, it's not 2007 anymore, and Deadlock now has to compete with established names like Overwatch 2 and Valorant. Valve needs to do something to differentiate Deadlock from its contemporaries if it wants the game to succeed, but players say Deadlock looks like "[Valve] took characters from a few off-brand hero shooters that weren't panning out and threw them together."
The character designs definitely clash. Characters like Ivy, Warden, and Infernus have a stark, 1920s noir-esque design, while Grey Talon and Kelvin look like they came straight out of Paladins.
