I have played Valve's new shooter computer game called Deadlock and have opinions about it that I post online

Note: Due to the unclear coverage of this game, the images of Deadlock shown below are merely artistic representations.

It's the game the masses weren't meant to play, and yet tens of thousands of Steam users have access to Valve's latest game, the highly anticipated Deadlock! One of those users is none other than me, and although Valve has asked people not to discuss their experiences, I'm a journalist and therefore don't count as a person!

Also, like the guy from The VergeI simply pressed the “Escape” key when the startup screen asked me to be quiet, which you can still do.

Now let’s talk about Deadlock, as professionally, seriously and definitely truthful as possible!

First of all, you'll be happy to hear that this is a Valve game through and through. Deadlock is an unreleased game, making it a true product of the house that Gabe built. This is great news for anyone who was worried that after all these years of focusing on Steam, Valve might have forgotten how not to release games.

So how promising is this? Well, as with any early online product, the experience is currently in flux. Looking through the Anonymous Source Engine patch notes will give you some valuable background information to help you assess the current state of things.

Since it was sent out to a few thousand hardcore Team Fortress 2 players in May, Deadlock has been updated roughly every two weeks, with invited players providing feedback on balance changes. Using fans to conduct QA tests, for which the studio doesn't have to pay, is one of the game's biggest innovations.

Deadlock uses elements from the hero shooter and MOBA genres, but it doesn't implement them in a particularly original way. You can expect typical team action, where characters with unique skills work together and try to push back enemy lines. In fact, the overall concept seems quite outdated.

If it had been released in 2016, it might have seemed fresher. There is something unmistakable trusted about the whole matter. I can't think of anything similar, but if it Is First of all, I would probably think that it was robbed at that time.

A hero shooter needs heroes, and Valve certainly offers plenty to choose from. Each character has their own bespoke weapon and a set of skills that are subject to cooldowns. In a standard game, you're assisted by small, reanimated robots that attack autonomously and assist you in your front-line missions.

As the game progresses, skills and other characteristics can be improved by spending experience points. The so-called Helix Tree, which you use to improve your hero, allows you to branch out into different builds, thus offering more flexibility per character. You will not be short of content, at least as far as your toy collection is concerned.

While the map layouts are simple, you can build defenses to slow the opponent's advance, giving the genre mashup a touch of tower defense. By far one of the most important things to invest in are towers, although annoyingly I never see players spending time building these crucial strategic structures. Come on, it's not just about your kill count!

As mentioned, there's a large menagerie of weirdos to deal with, and each of them fulfills a specific role on the battlefield. There's a precision archer, a melee specialist with a katana, and a heavy attacker who's actually two characters working together. Cool!

One of the more interesting characters uses time manipulation to weaken enemies with abilities that slow them down. Players will be able to use this character's AoE abilities very often, and the fact that he looks like a fancy steampunk robot is the icing on the cake.

My favorite hero of all by far is Miko. She's basically an anthropomorphic mushroom, throws knives endlessly, and is great at both offensive and support roles. She has access to skills that let her heal allies and clear enemies with status ailments.

Was anyone else surprised by the first-person perspective? I wasn't expecting that.

Since Deadlock is designed for multiplayer, we need to talk about balance. Right now, we see some heroes being overly popular while others aren't being used at all. This is something that Valve hopes to address with these balance updates, although unfortunately they aren't getting the player feedback they hoped for.

The reason players were asked not to talk to anyone about the game is actually quite practical: Valve wanted data that was free of the bias that public criticism inevitably brings.

By isolating opinions, Valve could have seen what issues individual players really notice. If a lot of people complain publicly about a certain character like Kid Ultra or Deande, it creates a background bias that many players will look for, potentially leading to distorted feelings.

Unfortunately, we'll never know if Rath is truly OP or not, as Valve has continued to loosen restrictions on invites (originally requiring an email and manual entry of recipient names).

Visually, Deadlock has a very distinctive art style, and by “very distinctive” I mean “not distinctive at all”.

The aesthetic leaves a lot to be desired, unless you're looking for even more low-key, unremarkable, cartoony style a la Fortnite. Apparently we can't have a shooter like this without the Pixar graphics currently dominating the scene. It's colorful, I'll admit, but it's still nothing we haven't seen in abundance before.

Deadlock is so early, it hasn't even come out yet, that my review might change in the coming months. Perhaps, having failed to gain an audience, the game will go free-to-play and be overshadowed by Overwatch before being cancelled altogether, just like… oh…

Oh, I just realized I've been talking about Battleborn this whole time! OH NO!

(Except what happened with the invitations, of course).