Last week, still images and clips of a game called Deadlock, which is alleged to be Valve's next big game, were leaked online. The 6v6 Hero Shooter is either legit or a very good fake, and the latter looks increasingly unlikely with the amount of material being released: today there are more. PC Gamer has contacted Valve for comment, but so far no response. 

In the absence of official words, I can't say if Deadlock is really Valve's next game, but it's undeniable that there's a beta version out there and its elements look like Valve games. The leak began with a screenshot and an explanation from Gabe Follower, an X user who specializes in Valve data-mining: "6 vs 6 is fighting on a huge map of 4 lanes. Available abilities and items. Tower defense mechanics. The fantasy setting was mixed with steampunk. Magicians, strange creatures and robots. Similar to Bioshock Infinite, high-speed movement using floating rails."

This was followed by a deadlock video leaked by PlayerIGN on X (not affiliated with IGN), which almost matched that description. Rails are a notable feature of the map, which can quickly carry players across zones and drop down into battles and other players, but I can't detect Team Fortress 2's faint hint of Americana in the city design.

The above was the beginning, but thanks to the message board 4chan, which has a series of threads dedicated to deadlock leaks, the floodgates have finally opened and a staggering 94 video clips have been posted (maybe more by the time it's published). These are all taken from beta or in-game files (like tutorials), so whatever the deadlock is, it definitely looks real and this is a big-scale leak for Valve. It's not the theft of Half-Life2's source code, but it's not too far away.

Certain clips from these leaks have begun to spread online, and we start with about a third of the video that is divided into two videos and focused on the frag reel They can be seen below from the X user pixel, alongside the claim that "the valve is cooked".

Reader: The valve is not cooked. But these leaks are somewhat out of hand, and, as above, there's a YouTube video that showcases the abilities of all the heroes (the most frequent comparison between Neon Prime and

folk reaching out is Overwatch, as if not wearing Valve's love for Team Fortress 2 on both shoulders). The latter refers to the spiritual continuation. One leak shows a robot character in a spy's brown suit, but as Pyro's main, the Infernus character (one of the subjects of these latest leaks) looks like Pyro and Sniper somehow had a baby.1 This doesn't quell the beating heart of team Fortress 2 fans living in vain hope of a 3rd entry, but TF2 has a much easier sequel

in these latest leaks, among other things, there's a highlight reel of kills that focus on characters that can "captivate" others. Run a matrix-style special that not only holds in that position for a few seconds, but also watches her movements with various inverted animations that prevent incoming shots from landing.

The second clip begins with the Pyro-adjacent Infernus before moving to the other person, but what this actually shows is that most characters seem to have the ability to dodge some kind of quick, as well as slide on their knees to succeed or fail in deadlock movements. Really fast game If this is Valve's next game, it's not just the studio's first third-person shooter (sorry Alien Swarm), but also a completely different move from the best-in-class FPS product.

Finally, it's worth noting how these clips were edited, the TikTok adjacency styles where words pop up as the background beats, various styles of quick jump cuts, and visual elements on the screen. It's unclear if this is part of the game itself or will be added later, but it allows players to edit and share clips in a social-enabled form.

Valve eventually moves in a mysterious way, and if the deadlock is real, it will either get a quiet blog post at midnight on Friday, announce the game, or never hear about it again. It is alleged that all of the leaked material comes from the game's beta version, so the deadlock will no longer look like this footage, and some may not make the final cut. Either way, I didn't have a 6v6 third-person team shooter next to my Valve bingo card: but now, seeing this thing in an extended move, I think I'd take it.