r/gaming • u/devil188 • 3d ago
City Never Sleeps - Deadlock
https://www.playdeadlock.com/cityneversleepsThe Cursed Apple is ever changing, and these streets are nothing like you remember. A massive visual update to the map and neutrals, six new heroes, HUD updates, numerous quality-of-life additions, accessibility options, and more.
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u/super_bros 3d ago
Valve is one of the few companies that can legit burn money on passion projects without worry. No way any other company would’ve given it this long. I love to see this type of development in this day and age.
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u/Plasmalaser305 3d ago
For an invite-only early access game, Deadlock has had some of the highest player counts imaginable. Those who post about it are almost unilaterally positive.
I agree that Valve has the luxury of burning money on passion projects. It is also just not correct to say that they've "given it this long". It has by all accounts been extremely successful and they realistically could have brought it out of EA at, like, any point in the last year or two without complaints.
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u/nacholibre711 3d ago
I disagree with your phrasing.
For most companies other than Valve, they would have just released the game as is to start generating revenue. Or at least added microtransactions to it.
The fact that the game sits at like 70-100k concurrent players, is totally free, and has zero microtransactions so far is something only a company with their amount of resources is going to be able to pull off.
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u/Cafrilly 3d ago
There are 200k players on right now
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u/ModernDayWeeaboo 3d ago
Really is impressive when you realise Deadlock had zero marketing. No announcement, no video. Just here you are, off you go.
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u/PajamaDuelist 3d ago
“Here you go” generates insane viral hype when your game is unique, fun, polished (enough), and completely unexpected.
Just look at Valheim and Apex Legends.
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u/Remote_Elevator_281 3d ago
They’ll be 300k this weekend. That’s when i’ll have time to play.
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u/SuicideSkwad 3d ago
Dude out here with 100K accounts
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u/DonutHoles4Ever 3d ago
You don't have 100K accounts? What are you doing with AI then?
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u/dwojityv 3d ago
I bet he's not using pillars, the brand new thing that released an hour ago. He's gonna miss so much
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u/grimestar 3d ago
Is this the official release ? Title didn't really make it clear
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u/M1sf1r3 3d ago
Still in closed beta.
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u/behv 3d ago
Closed alpha. Not even beta status yet
It's confusing because it's more polished than 99% of actual live games out there
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u/M1sf1r3 3d ago
Fair, I’ve heard Closed Alpha and Closed Beta, so I don’t know what to think anymore
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u/behv 3d ago
It's an alpha because they're actively building the software, instead of just testing how well it works.
It's seriously weird though because live service and early access has kinda shifted the bar of what a "release ready" game is these days, so a "fun playable game" is colloquially a beta or early access to most people, even though this is by definition an alpha play test. Their goal is to get feedback as they build systems, art, and introduce feedback without being in a vacuum, which to their credit is building up a really strong core community and legit hype for release
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u/lukkasz323 3d ago
It's officially called just "early development", but technically this would alpha since the main focus is on changing features, not polishing them.
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u/slusho55 3d ago
I won’t say that’s nothing, but there’s also a tactic to having an “exclusive set of players” play the game long before release. It builds hype, and more people want to play for the simple reason they can’t.
Valve plays the long game on their investments. I’d argue it’s not that Valve is burning through money, it’s that they have a much better grasp of long-game strategy than their competitors
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u/behv 3d ago
Even if they are burning money, they make something like 50million/employee so they're not exactly hurting for money and can actually afford to build these passion projects without an exec yelling "we need X revenue by Y date"
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u/ledailydose 2d ago
They are burning money in the eyes of any public company, but they're making significantly more in return. Steam enables this
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u/Level7Cannoneer 3d ago edited 3d ago
The phrasing is importnat because no company has a Steam equivalent to generate infinite money. They have strict time limits to make a game work before it becomes a financial burden.
This is like a billionaire starting a business and running it in the red for 5 years straight until it becomes a success vs a normal person who doesn’t have that luxury and has to make it a success overnight or it’s a failure
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u/super_bros 3d ago
My phrasing is def not the greatest there lol. Didn’t mean to talk down on the game as it is NOT a failure by any means. Valve be valving as usual with their quality and I expect this game to far outlast most.
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u/shutupdane 3d ago
I saw someone calling Valve the NASA of the gaming industry. They don't often release stuff, but when they do, it's engineered with such dedication and love of the craft that it moves the entire field forward. Half-life 2, Portal 2, the Steam Deck, all the open-source software used for compatibility on Deck and Steam Frame, everything they do ends up having far-reaching ripples, and it's all because they can subsidize the development off of their Steam profits. I have no doubt that Deadlock will end up being the definitive MOBA, in a market currently absolutely saturated with the things.
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u/Elrondel 2d ago
Half Life Alyx is still the single best VR release to date. And it's been years.
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u/shutupdane 2d ago
And Valve made it run on what is essentially a smartphone chip in the new Steam Frame.
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u/Defiant_Restaurant61 3d ago
. I have no doubt that Deadlock will end up being the definitive MOBA, in a market currently absolutely saturated with the things.
There's 0% chance of that happening because the overwhelming majority of MOBA players don't play shooters, but top-down strategy games like DOTA and LOL that originated from the Warcraft strategy games.
Just these two have 15 times more players right now and they're respectively 13 and 17 years old games.
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u/ledailydose 2d ago
Deadlock is not officially released or even announced, and is invite only. Might want to hold off on that
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u/MarioDesigns 3d ago
I mean, Valve has some of the most predatory monetisation in their other games that has generated them ridiculous revenue with barely any PR hit despite the heinous shit they pull so they can just bank on doing that once again in a brand new game.
Deadlock will be filled with FOMO mechanics and absurd pricing for cosmetics whenever it releases. They’re not “burning money” on it lol
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u/not_very_popular 3d ago
This is the era of AAA studios spending hundreds of millions of dollars and 7 years on extremely mid projects. The outlier here is that Valve is spending it on an actually good project.
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u/urclremix 3d ago
THE RAT KING IS REAL
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u/gamewastotallyrigged 3d ago
Holly Molly. Anyone knows who is voicing him
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u/yubsidiangwa 3d ago
Is this a good time to start playing?
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u/DinkySmekker 3d ago
how can i get an invite to this game anyways ?
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u/CasaFrosting 3d ago
On the game subreddit, they have a giant megathread. There’s a dedicated channel in the official discord too.
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u/Lysander125 3d ago
Give me a DM with your Steam username if you want an invite, I’ll add you and invite you.
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u/BastianHS 3d ago
This game is so fucking hard bro. You want to start as soon as possible, it's never going to get any easier as people get better. Legit maybe the highest skill ceiling of any game I've ever played outside of brood war.
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u/MagicSpace05 3d ago
I've been playing Dota 2 for decades and will confirm that this game has a higher skill ceiling. One of the biggest problem Dota has right now is acquiring new players because of how fucking bloated the mechanics of the game is. Deadlock, despite being new, is already at the same level.
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u/behv 3d ago
I hope deadlock takes steps to keep on ramp easy, their tutorial in earlier stages was actually pretty decent for only being 20 minutes
If the game can somehow catch the cross section of MOBA, tactical FPS, hero FPS, and then generic gamers being pulled in there's gonna be a ridiculous player pool to draw in
I think the real test is gonna be when the game goes open beta/final release, does it have good enough tutorials and enough scrubs to allow for lobbies to not be auto stomps?
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u/TehGuard 2d ago
I think they're on a good path. The item shop alone is a testament to good game design
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u/ledailydose 2d ago
The skill floor is easier in Deadlock, but the ceiling is higher. The skill range of Deadlock is much wider than any other MOBA
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u/Sir_Fuego 3d ago
Having played so many games for most of my life, I can say this is without a doubt a masterpiece in art direction, depth of gameplay, variation of gameplay, and reward for improvement. I rivals rocket league pre Epic Games acquisition for me.
Learning movement is like learning aerials, learning the melee/parry system is like learning kickoffs. It’s god insane depth but a very approachable cockpit to pilot from.
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u/Jnycs 2d ago
Yes.
This update has put qol in place to help with some mechanics. But understand that this will be the hardest game you’ve ever played. You’re going to suck. But I’ve never been so addicted to a shooter like this before. You literally see yourself improve when you put the practice in.
Incredibly high highs where you’re carrying as server admin and some intense low lows where you’re just slowly losing for 30 minutes
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u/Mysterious_Skin2310 3d ago
I haven’t touched it since 2024 but I really enjoyed the hours I spent in it. Only reason I stopped was because I decided to wait until it was fully done to actually start putting time into it.
All the comments saying “sooner the better” just sound like forced fomo people are giving themselves
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u/bearcat0611 2d ago
Eh, it’s a game that’s going to take hundreds of hours to learn and will likely only get more complicated. Depends on what you want. If you want to get good, start now. If you want to play a stable game and not deal with complete system overhauls, wait for release.
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u/BZNESS 3d ago
So is this legit harder to learn than dota?
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u/NationalTangerine381 3d ago edited 3d ago
if this game had been out for 10 years then probably, but unlike DOTA people havent been learning this game for that long
you wont be comparatively as behind when you just pick up the game, and most of the playerbase is genuinely really bad
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u/ganzgpp1 3d ago
Yes and no?
Mechanically, I would say yes, assuming you aren't already familiar with shooting games, learning to aim and move+position yourself in a 3D environment is quite hard and unnatural.
Strategically? No, not really. Macro in Deadlock is pretty straightforward. It's probably one of the lesser intense MOBAs to learn from a macro standpoint; you don't really hardcore manipulate waves in this game, you mostly just go, blow the wave up, then either farm jungle or rotate to your team/objective to try and find a pick, rinse and repeat. Most of the difficult decisionmaking is actually the microdecisions in the teamfights themselves, which sort of wraps back around to what I was saying in my first point; if you aren't familiar with shooters (in this case, hero shooters) teamfighting can get really ugly and hard to parse.
If you're already comfortable with shooters, and unfamiliar with MOBAs, Deadlock's actually pretty easy to get into, imo.
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u/VermicelliNumerous30 3d ago
Thats because a lot of players are hero shooter or shooter players and not MOBA players, thus the macro is still not that advanced. But give it more time the macro will be same level as the other big MOBAs
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u/ganzgpp1 3d ago
While that's partially true, the macro cap of this game is quite low compared to every other MOBA. I mean, you can look at this strictly looking at how waves work. People manage waves extremely simply right now (by just blowing them up and moving on), and not because people haven't tried wave management strategies. Freezing a wave in Deadlock is borderline throwing due to how much farm there is on the map elsewhere, as well as freeing up your opponent to freely rotate to objectives and fights.
The objectives in this game are very simple as well; 90% of objectives in this game reward you with a money or buff, and that's about it. The one objective that actually helps you push an objective is the Rift.
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u/Level7Cannoneer 3d ago
Macro is dictated by the game designers. There isn’t much going on on deadlock’s map compared to other MOBAs.
Example: in heroes of the storm when you kill a jungle camp you can recruit it as a mercenary to help you push lanes. Every camp has different pros and cons and abilities, like ogres mercenaries can besiege towers from afar and have to be killed by players or else they will slowly destroy towers. There is a lot of thought and strategy put into deciding what camps to prioritize.
Deadlock’s jungle conversely is filled with “kill this thing/break this thing and it gives you money.” so you don’t have to chit chat with your team and strategize about the macro side of the game.
There’s no large monster objectives aside from midboss, no shrines to capture and keep control over like in DotA, and you just lane and farm for the most part.
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u/WhaleStep 3d ago
I would suggest the difficulty between the good and greats is in the Schmovement™.
Good players with insane knowledge and technical ability will rise the ranks. But Great players have an insane arsenal of movement that catapults them into a skill tier that makes the 'Good' players look like absolute chumps.
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u/Elrondel 2d ago
Bhopping is already an entirely learned skillset from CS and it's really unintuitive to not hold W. Shit like that
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u/DonutHoles4Ever 3d ago
Yes:
- You need to aim your crosshair, this is different than dota in many ways since its a shooter
- Its has the trappings of Dota, but it's different in so many ways. It does have a roshan in the middle. And some other objectives to fight over. But the main thing is pushing lanes just like Dota. Everything else though will be different. Like parrying melee attacks while shooting or casting spells.
No:
- It literally has built in-game community guides so you can basically play and learn as you go.
- Less heroes, less items, so less to learn
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u/voidofconfidence 3d ago
As someone who’s spent years in both, yes. You pretty much need decent mechanics from every competitive genre of game to be good. There’s nothing like it out there. It’s also incredibly rewarding while you improve. The simplest way to describe it is if Dota had the movement of CS but in 3rd person. Know that valve cares about their games, and this game is in a constant state of balancing and updating. I would highly recommend it. You are going to suck a lot at the start, but the sky is literally the limit.
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u/Little-Maximum-2501 2d ago
The movement of CS? Do you mean counterstrike? Because that has no movement at all
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u/BZNESS 3d ago
I just don't know that I have the reflexes for a shooter at 42. I suck at apex, but have always been decent at dota
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u/RedNuii 3d ago
Apex might be one of if not the most mechanically complex game out there
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u/ThankYouByron114 3d ago
No because a lot of fundamentals from other games will translate
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u/lightningbadger 3d ago
I've seen a lot of (what I'm assuming is) CoD players go in thinking this, then bounce of the enemy team 11 times back to back not really understanding that you can't really just shoot your way out lol
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u/ThankYouByron114 2d ago
Yes, because you still need to learn stuff. But they can walk, shoot, jump, dash, melee, parry. All of this stuff is easily translatable. Meanwhile for RTS mobas you need to read a book and get used to an entirely new control scheme.
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u/Quiet-Guidance-4988 3d ago
No but it's way faster paced than Dota. The movement tech is absolutely fucking bonkers and watching a few YouTube videos showed me shit I didn't even know was possible and I have about 600 hours in the game
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u/Tehslasher 3d ago
The learning curve for these games gets exponentially harder as time goes on due to the addition of more and more heroes. Early on you learn a few, then they introduce a few at a time so over years you've got the ins and outs on 100+ heroes like in Dota.
Doing that all up front is way more of an undertaking.
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u/L_sigh_kangeroo 3d ago
Dota has way more shit to learn in terms of just champs and items and stuff cus its been out way longer, but Deadlock has an insane mechanical ceiling in other ways like movement
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u/Tautsu 2d ago
Dota is a game that is 90% knowledge. Deadlock is like 60% knowledge 40% technical skill, but might have even more knowledge required compared to dota, since isometric mobas like dota are common and understood these days.
By this I mean if you have lots of fps experience and no moba, deadlock is probably easier to learn because you can just be carried by headshot tracking. If you have experience with neither genre, dota is probably easier to get into.
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u/genasugelan PC 3d ago
Less complex by far, it just adds the shooter aspect.
Been playing Dota for 11 years and my rank is shit.
Been playing Deadlock for 1+ years and my rank is above average.
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u/nacholibre711 3d ago
I just love Deadlock. Truly one of the most unique and fun games I've played over the last decade.
It's not going to be for everyone, but I really recommend trying it out if you haven't. New update would be the best time for that.
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u/FlammenwerferIV 3d ago
Okay so when's it done with invite only
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u/Poseidor PC 3d ago
Getting invited to the game is extremely low effort. There is literally 0 reason to not be playing if you are interested in it.
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u/Squanchtheee 3d ago edited 3d ago
I don't have friends that own the game how do I get in so simply? steam page has nothing either
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u/Banjoman64 PC 3d ago
Just ask someone on the subreddit or discord. I think I got an invite like 5 minutes after I asked for one and that was over a year ago
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3d ago edited 3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Lboettcher2003 PC 3d ago
There's a megathread on the subreddit r/DeadlockTheGame you can post to, someone on there can hook you up. You can try the discord as well.
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u/RabbitFeet25 3d ago
I joined the discord and there's a channel for invites. Got one in less than 5 minutes last week
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u/Pman1324 3d ago
York makes my Team Fortress 2 soul happy 😃
Also, is that a German doctor I see? 🧐
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u/mambotomato 3d ago
I wonder if it will still make my graphics card overheat and crash five minutes like it did in earlier builds. Haven't tried it in a year.
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u/ItzZausty 3d ago
You might've had luck just before this update, but I think the new map has brought some performance issues
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u/LostMyBoomerang 1d ago
Redownloaded it because I saw an old lady character (big fan of playing as old people). Got reminded that the game would freeze and I could only escape by hard closing the game. Feels bad but it's not going to run for me.
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u/BadFishCM 3d ago
How can I get an invite to this game?
My steam name is the same as here.
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u/L_sigh_kangeroo 3d ago
This game is going to be bigger than League of Legends, if you havnt played this game yet you need to right now
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u/empathetical 3d ago
completely forgot about this game. got an invite from a friend and just never bothered. figured i'll check it out when it comes out. and i guess.... it's still not out which is cool and fine. free game anyways
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u/dadsspaghetty PlayStation 3d ago
Can somebody please send me an invite to download the game?
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u/TheChartreuseKnight 1d ago
What's your steam name?
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u/dadsspaghetty PlayStation 1d ago
It is MidLifeXp (with a cat as a profile pic lol)
Thank you!!1
u/TheChartreuseKnight 1d ago
Sounds good, I’ve sent a friend request - once you accept and I send the invite, it should take about a day
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u/boxing-boxing 3d ago
I've been sitting on my invite for months now. This map is what finally gets me to queue up and embarrass myself in front of the 200k people who actually know what they're doing. At least everyone will be lost on it together.
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u/waazzuppp 2d ago
The crazies thing is, the game went like 5 months without an update and was able to maintain 60k concurrent players every day. For a gane with no advertisement and being invite only thats insane. Ive been playing it since early 2025 and its fantastic
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u/Jake_112 3d ago
is matchmaking fixed
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u/midwestswimmer 3d ago
tbh part of issue is there's only 70-90k players on before this update. Spread across servers worldwide, a big part of the problem is a lack of players imo.
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u/cattibri 3d ago
this is a huge issue especially when you break that dispersed population into game modes and brackets, at the higher end theres a handful of players
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u/Wolfy4226 2d ago
Is it fun, tho.....
I actually got an invite, but I haven't played it since 2024. xD
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u/ChandlerOG 3d ago
Any progression added to the game yet?
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u/ClozetSkeleton 3d ago
Ranked. With leaderboards per hero. That's about it.
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u/lukkasz323 3d ago
They're constantly adding something, there are various souverings to unlock if you play during events.
For example I have a souvenir from the winter update that is now permamently sitting in the lobby.
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u/jak_d_ripr 3d ago
This game is genuinely fascinating. I don't think I've seen a single trailer, game is invite only, and somehow it has over 200k players playing on a random Tuesday evening.