Deadlock

How are people getting invited to play? It's it just through a general Valve beta participation programme or is it specific to this game (that doesn't exist)?

I'm not sure. I can't actually remember if I entered my name into something somewhere or not.

Ended up playing PUBG this evening instead lol

www.gog.com/en/game/deadlock_planetary_conquest

I thought the thread is about this game.

Meh. Not interested anymore...

I thought it was a hair thread

Just watched a couple of Day9's videos on this. Looks really good.

I played a lot of DOTA 2 a while back. Was always terrible at it and hated a huge amount of my time playing it, but I persevered despite losing pretty much every game I played in the last year because the core game was excellent. The combination of a large group of characters with a big catalogue of items combining in interesting ways made it feel like an unsolvable puzzle that was always fresh. Since giving up on it, I've never found another game that has achieved the same never ending depth.

Perhaps this could finally be a replacement. Only negative I saw is that it will likely end up falling into the same trap as DOTA with a completely intolerable community. I put the blame for much of that on the game length, where 50+ minutes games are a big investment and will inevitably cause agro if much of that game length is a miserable experience for one team. Perhaps the Day9 game I saw was close and a less evenly matched game will end quicker.

Edit - should also add, if any kind person would like to send me an invite for this it would be appreciated!

A nice person over on the RPS comments for the Smite 2 review (which was basically "it's good, but you might as well play Deadlock") sent me an invite for this. Access was granted surprisingly quickly, as I was expecting to have to wait a few days, but it was actually just a few hours.

Played through the tutorial pieces and then went onto a couple of matches as a character called Abrams, a kind of blue Hellboy with a shotgun. Liked this a lot. It already feels pretty good to play and the core game is there right now. Shooting and movement felt satisfying, although the character I was playing felt a little sluggish (I assume the movement speed will vary from character to character).

When you kill a creep a little orb appears that is the souls you collect to use as currency. You can shoot those early, to get the souls a little quicker, but your opponents can also shoot them to deny you the souls. It's a genius bit of design and makes the shooting really satisfying.

First game there was a drop out, so it ended up being a little one-sided (although, not as one-sided as it should have been). Second game kept everyone in though and was a close match. Don't think I contributed hugely, but it was a win.

I need to dig into a bit more about the different characters, their abilities and the items available in the shop. The game handily gives you suggested ability upgrades and items to buy, but it also meant I went a bit on autopilot for the choices. From the glance I had at the store, looks like there is plenty there to work your way through and lots of interesting combos.

I believe you can invite as many people as you like, so if anyone is interested in giving this a go is let me know.