The review that started it all

Deadlock is weird and needs some more love for it to be great, but it's definitely good. You can really feel the potential and I'm excited to see where it goes. Character design is unmatched. I love the grungy, dark UK street vibes that the devs are going for. Extremely similar to SMITE and plays very much like League of Legends or DOTA, just third person for those unfamiliar. Similar to those games, expect balance issues over time as more playable characters are added, but it definitely shines in similar aspects to League where each character feels unique and offers the feeling of having agency and being the main character. I think that competitive multiplayer games really thrive and grow on creating this feeling for their players (looking at you Jett and Yasuo). Lacks the sweatiness of some of the competitive games out there since it's still early in development which is a huge plus for me. However it also doesn't seem to have skill based matchmaking, so you might be put up against someone with 1k+ hours in your first hour. QoL is huge for me and Deadlock does it right imo. It has in game build guides that can auto-purchase your items and allows for prioritization of multiple characters within their character selector which I think adds a feeling of having a choice rather than being held hostage by your team composition (who knows if this will be in a competitive game mode, but I like mixing it up at least in its current iteration). Another massive part of the game is that your transportation from your pass is directly associated with where your minions are located. As you push down the lane or get pushed on your zipline extends or retracts which makes the map feel more dynamic and can punish the enemy for not managing waves effectively (it also lets you get back into the action quickly). Movement is a huge portion of the game, think of a battle royal style game where you're jumping and sliding. I think this is where a lot of player skill comes in. You can deal more damage and avoid more damage with strong movement. This in addition to many characters having skills that enhance or restrict movement (since most of your damage is coming from one spell or your gun) makes improving your movement a huge unlock for getting better. Overall it's a game developed by Valve so it's likely going to be around for a while and I for one am glad to see a fresh take on the MOBA genre. Would love to come back and edit this review one day with a 9 or above.