Deadlock

Deadlock is a multiplayer game by Valve that is still in an early development stage. It combines third-person combat with hero abilities, lanes, computer-controlled units, souls as a resource and long-term team objectives.

Valve is publicly developing the game further through the ongoing playtest. Many systems, graphics and balancing decisions may still change before the regular release.

A regular release date for Deadlock has not yet been announced. Valve still lists the game on Steam as “TBA” and explicitly as an early development version.

Access is currently through invitations from the existing playtest. This means Deadlock is playable, but not yet a regularly released Steam game.

Deadlock is currently announced for PC via Steam and is in the ongoing playtest there. Valve has not yet announced any other native platform versions.

Deadlock combines firearms and individual hero abilities with a lane-based map structure. Teams collect souls, build up their heroes through items and abilities, and fight at the same time for neutral areas, waves of NPC units and the enemy base.

Valve continues to change these systems significantly during the ongoing test. Bigger updates therefore not only affect balancing, but can restructure the map, objectives, user interface and long-term game systems.

Valve has not yet specified the technical requirements for the final PC version. On Steam, the processor, graphics card and OS version still explicitly say “TBD” (to be determined). A 64-bit processor with a 64-bit operating system is already listed. Specific details on memory or recommended graphics cards would currently be speculation.

With City Never Sleeps, Valve released one of the largest structural overhauls of the playtest so far on Sept 29, 2026. The update reworks large parts of the city and neutral areas, revises the HUD and quality-of-life features, and expands the accessibility options.

At the same time, Valve announced six more heroes for the next release wave. Rat King became playable on Oct 2, 2026, as the first of them. His permanent kit includes Scrap Grenade, Rat Swarm, Royal Pestments and Rule, Ratannia!.

New permanent systems and locations such as the Broker are also part of the reworked version of the map.

Steam currently lists 17 supported interface languages, including German. Full voice-over and subtitles are only listed for English on the store page. The other listed languages – including German, French, Japanese and Spanish – are so far only listed as interface languages. This label is not a promise of German voice-over at the later release.