Key information
Valve's latest MOBA, Deadlock, features a setting called The Cursed Apple, which heavily draws inspiration from New York City. A recent gigantic update introduces a spooky new coat of paint to the city alongside six new heroes, including characters modelled after local archetypes such as Solomon, a chessboard-wielding park chess player, and Baba, representing a pigeon-feeding grandma.
Unlike many MOBA characters that function primarily as action figures or rely heavily on historical fantasy tropes stemming from Warcraft and Dota, Deadlock creates dimensional personalities. Characters like Vyper combine the role of a sewer lizard with a dismal career criminal, while Seven shares tender memories of friendly wight Kelvin and an affinity for the naive goo monster Viscous.
According to PC Gamer, Deadlock breaks new ground for lore fans by remaining independent of older genre forebears. The publication noted that the title avoids feeling like advertising for other products while providing deep narrative features, including over 10,000 non-ping voice lines patched into a single pre-release update.
The playtest enthusiasm remains strong two years into its private phase, with SteamDB showing that the game recently hit a new all-time concurrent player count peak. Community engagement continues to thrive with fan art and eager speculation regarding future additions to the roster.
