Looks like Valve’s next game is Deadlock, a multiplayer shooter and MOBA mix of Overwatch, Dota, and Team Fortress.

If you’re wondering what Valve is working on as the next game after Counter-Strike 2, the answer may be right at your fingertips. Details and screenshots of Deadlock, a third-person shooter with MOBA elements, apparently leaked during a recent closed play test, revealing a mix of Overwatch, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 from Valve.

Deadlock is apparently the latest evolution of a project previously known as Neon Prime, which you may vaguely remember as Valve vaguely trademarked it a few years ago. The game’s reappearance as Deadlock came from notorious Valve leaker Gabe Follower, who described it as being a competitive hero shooter in the vein of Overwatch or Valorant – albeit in third person – with lane-based map design and even MOBA tower defense elements. like Dota 2 or League of Legends.

These maps will host matches between two teams of six players, who will control unique hero characters capable of spawning different abilities and items. The maps themselves are said to be “huge”, with the inclusion of floating rails – much like BioShock Infinite – to help players move around.

The game world also seems to take at least a little inspiration from BioShock, with a mix of steampunk and fantasy set in a European-inspired city home to strange creatures, robots, and magicians. (Gabe Follower notes that the game was originally more sci-fi themed, closer to Half-Life or Portal – which might explain Neon Prime’s futuristic nickname – but that it evolved more focused on fantasy after the “bad comments” from testers.)

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Screenshots purportedly verified by the leaker reveal at least one character, a bow-wielding ranger called Gray Talon, capable of using traps as well as long-range precision. The character design does indeed look Overwatch or Dota-y to me, with the map teases showing the city’s streets and alleys covered in graffiti.

YouTuber Tyler McVicker added to the swirling rumors by claiming that the now-leaked closed play test already had hundreds of people trying out Deadlock, with a proper announcement and reveal of Valve’s next “major” game due very soon – may -be earlier than even the developers. expected, given that the information is already disseminated to the public.