Deadlock’s gigantic new update gives its city a spooky new coat of paint and debuts 6 new heroes, including the one and only Rat King

The cursed city where Deadlock’s battles take place just got even spookier than it already was in the City Never Sleeps update. Valve’s second major overhaul for the invite-only MOBA marks another major step in its pseudo-early access development, giving it a much stronger visual identity than it had before, six striking new heroes, and a massive list of tweaks to how it plays.

Deadlock’s entire map has been redecorated into three distinct themes: a bright city center, a haunted university, and a shadowy stock exchange. All the buildings and creeps that inhabit each street have been redesigned to fit in. There are pickle jars with hands growing out of them lurking in the heart of the map, sentient stacks of books in the right lane, and slimy trashbag monsters in the left lane.

Squeezed between it all are four districts with their own identities, like a theater district infested with literal stage hands pulling the strings on steampunk-style automatons. Atop the Chinatown district is a bell tower where teams can fight over a fountain of souls to try to get a currency advantage in a tight match. Even the wooden crates that players smash for resources are now padlocked and bolted shut.

It’s a whole new playground that will take some time for players to fully figure out. In the meantime, Valve has prepared six new heroes who will be released based on a player voting system, just like the previous set. My money’s on the Rat King taking the lead because, well, he’s the Rat King, a crowned rodent that began as a fan concept a year ago and quickly became a meme in the community.

Don’t get me wrong, though, the others look great, too. Valve made a nurse who holds a needle like a gun, a Chess master who seems to float like Overwatch’s Zenyatta, a skeleton who found a rocket launcher, a cozy old witch who I do not trust, and a young artist who wields a paintbrush. Two heroes will drop each week with the first making their debut on Friday.

Here’s some other big changes I see on the update page:

• Player health bars are bolder and more readable than before
• There are now small indicators to help you see where nearby teammates are
• The kill feed is considerably more clear when it comes to seeing who took out who
• The entire shop interface is way more intuitive and includes filters for finding what you need fast
• There are several new ways to ping locations and objects on the map
• Characters have double the amount of voice lines as before and you can listen to them in a new menu
• New tools let you create bots to practice on and there’s a more comprehensive breakdown of combat details for the nerds out there
• There are new accessibility options, like custom UI colors, subtitles, and options to automatically move, mantle, and shoot

All of this is only a fraction of the things Valve has added to the game, some of which it’s intentionally keeping a secret so players can discover them on their own. Despite the size of the update, Valve hasn’t removed the need for an invite to play Deadlock. One has to wonder how many of these it will take before the game is finally released to the public so everyone can get a taste of what Valve’s been cooking up.