ValveFor much of 2024, Deadlock was Valve’s worst-kept secret. The hero shooter/MOBA hybrid had been running playtests with thousands of players well before its actual announcement, but after one of those playtests resulted in massive leaks, including a report from The Verge, the game was finally revealed. Since then, it’s been making slow progress as an invite-only playtest, and now, with Valve in the middle of adding six new characters over the course of two weeks, Deadlock seems to be in its best state ever.Valve recently announced its new slate of heroes with a novel way for playtesters to guide their release. The first new character, Mina the vampire, was added on August 18, but after that, players have the ability to vote on who’s coming next. Billy, a goat-man wielding a bat was added on August 20, followed by the bellhop Doorman two days later.Deadlock’s new characters, the Doorman in particular, have sparked a surge of new interest in the shooter. | ValveThe three new characters are already changing up Deadlock in a major way, especially after the introduction of Doorman. One of Doorman’s abilities lets players throw a pair of doors onto almost any wall in the arena, letting both teammates and enemies pass through them. That makes him a similar support character to Overwatch’s Symmetra, or, to use a Valve-specific example, it’s an awful lot like introducing the main mechanic of Portal into the game, with all the chaos you’d expect to result.Mina and Billy have also become popular picks, but Doorman feels like a fundamental change for Deadlock. Mobility is massively important in the game, and Doorman offers not just a way to move around the map quickly, but also to instantly use that speed offensively. On the game’s subreddit, players quickly began sharing clips of themselves throwing out two portals — excuse me, doorways — and using them to ambush enemy teams in a way that wasn’t possible before. Maybe more interestingly, enemy players can even be baited into using the doorways and walking into a trap set by the Doorman’s team.While the teleportation ability has gotten the most attention from players, it’s not even his most creative ability. Doorman’s ultimate ability lets him lock down an enemy for a few seconds. From any other player’s perspective, the affected character is simply frozen, but when you’re on the receiving end of the ultimate, you’re sent to another dimension where you need to complete a short platforming challenge to break out, or take damage when a timer expires. If Valve can match that kind of creativity with future characters, it may be time to start paying more attention to Deadlock.Deadlock’s Hideout could become a bigger part of the game in future updates. | ValveCurrent playtesters seem to be paying a lot of attention to the new updates, too. After the introduction of its newest characters, Deadlock has seen a surge in online players.Along with the new characters, Deadlock’s latest update also added a less attention-grabbing but still interesting change to the experience between matches. Rather than a menu to choose matches from, players will now start at the Hideout, a cozy apartment where they can test their abilities, while waiting for a match to start. It even serves as a social space where other players can join, and Valve says it will serve as a hub for events coming to the game later as well. Voting for the next characters on the roster is also happening at the Hideout now, meaning similar ways for players to direct updates could be coming to the space as well.Deadlock’s third new character is coming at 5 p.m. Eastern on August 25, with the final two coming over the next week. Voting is still open for the final three, so anyone who has an invitation to the playtest can cast their vote now (Paige, “who can bring books to life” is the correct choice, if you were wondering).