Deadlock Prototype Valve Unveils Early Game Version Featuring HalfLife 2 Enemies

Last Friday, Valve officially announced Deadlock, their hot new multiplayer shooter that blends third-person action with MOBA structure. The road to this reveal was anything but ordinary; Valve pretended to ignore the game’s existence for months, all while inviting thousands to play it.

Despite the announcement, the weirdness surrounding Deadlock doesn’t end there. How to access the game remains unclear and unofficial, and the Steam page for the game is still extremely cryptic. Meanwhile, the internet is flooded with gameplay videos. To add to the mystery, a Valve developer has unveiled an extremely early prototype of Deadlock.

However, players are already acting as if the game was launched yesterday. Tier lists of heroes are being created, and guides for new players are already out.

An Early Prototype of Deadlock Revealed

This prototype was unearthed by Valve content sleuth Gabe Follower, who shared the video on his Twitter account, stating: “Valve dev ‘Yoshi’ shared early gameplay footage of a Deadlock prototype.” The video, which you can watch above, shows a player navigating a very basic environment with a squad of antlions—those giant, scent-hunting insects from Half-Life 2. As the player advances, they are attacked by a group of enemy antlions, initiating a firefight before the player’s insectoid companions engage in the battle.

Aside from its peculiar nature, this video offers fascinating insights into the game development process. Despite being in a very early stage, you can see the foundational elements of what Deadlock has become, featuring players navigating maps with their AI minions. Notably, the antlions are a different color than in Half-Life 2 (gray instead of yellow), and they have a unique particle effect when they perish. Once rumored to be set in the Half-Life universe under the codename Citadel, Deadlock’s antlions might provide a glimpse into what the game could have been if Valve had pursued the Half-Life theme.

Multiple Iterations for Deadlock

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an earlier version of Deadlock. Several months ago, footage leaked on Reddit, showing Deadlock in its previous incarnation as Neon Prime. In that version, Deadlock featured a sci-fi setting instead of its current fantasy/supernatural theme, with players acting as robots within a cyberpunk city backdrop.

Given that Deadlock seems to still be in an early development stage, it’s impressive to see how many iterations the game has already gone through. This showcases Valve’s intense contemplation towards their games and their ability to pivot or completely drop an idea they deem ineffective.