Gabe Newell’s company has reportedly been the victim of a huge leak (though it won’t top the Half-Life 2 story from 20, 21 years ago), and now the birds are saying that they have a 6v6 shooter in the works.

Deadlock has popped up on 4chan and Twitter. It’s rumored to be inspired by Overwatch (no big surprise), Team Fortress 2 (no surprise there either, as it’s an “in-house” game), and Dota 2, with the third-person shooter pitting two teams of six against each other. Gabe Follower, a pretty dedicated Valve fan, gave the most accurate account of what to expect in Deadlock on Twitter:

“6 vs 6 battles on huge maps with 4 lanes. Usable skills and items. Tower defense mechanics. Fantasy setting mixed with steampunk. Wizards, strange creatures and robots. Fast travel via floating rails, similar to Bioshock Infinite. Hero design pretty much inspired by the Dota universe. Main map references a modern steampunk European city (a bit like Half-Life). Originally the game had sci-fi elements inspired by Half-Life and Portal, but after bad feedback the development team decided to focus on fantasy.

Gabe Follower pointed out that Deadlock is a new name for an older project. The last time this game was known as Neon Prime, it may have been the name of the older sci-fi-infused concept. The leaked images of the project are convincing, but who knows if it’s a hoax. The interface (which looks quite temporary), character design, mini-map and font are all similar to what Dota represents. However, this 6v6 setup is becoming a bit of a tired formula these days, and we’ve seen the tech fantasy concoction in a game that no longer exists. Who remembers Battleborn?

But it’s also interesting what Garry Newman, the creator of Garry’s Mod, said on Twitter: he thinks it’s funny to see how everyone hates the four images of a closed alpha, while everyone would be at each other’s throats to play with it. That is, if the game actually exists.

Source: PCGamer

Since testers started sharing Deadlock screenshots all over the place, here's ones I can verify, featuring one of the heroes called Grey Talon. pic.twitter.com/KdZSRxObSz

— ‎Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) May 17, 2024

Enjoying watching everyone hating on 4 badly compressed screenshots of a closed alpha game, while 100% certain they'll be stepping on each other's throats to play it https://t.co/DcImRJSDXh

— garry (@garrynewman) May 17, 2024