New Valve shooter Deadlock is still in invite-only alpha, but it's already got "very blatant" cheaters

Deadlock
(Image credit: Valve)

Deadlock, Valve's new shooter/MOBA hybrid, already has a problem with cheaters, which is presumably giving fans of Valve's other shooters delicious schadenfreude and/or terror-filled flashbacks.

Last week, footage of players utilizing some of Deadlock's first cheats emerged. In the video, two players can be seen taking advantage of aim-botting and what appear to be bullets that curve around corners. An innocent player, reacting to that footage, notes that the cheaters are "very blatant," and seemingly "do not care at all" that their wicked ways are so obvious to anyone watching.

Taking a look at deadlock cheaters from r/Steam

It's not an ideal situation, not least because Deadlock is a game in an invite-only alpha state that's so early Valve has had to tighten restrictions against stat-tracking sites. It makes you wonder what the cheaters have to gain - with matchmaking and MMR changes also on the horizon, it's not like winning a bunch of games now will offer long-term benefit.

Hopefully, the presence of these cheats will encourage Valve to step up its anti-cheat efforts, although long-term fans will know that's not necessarily a given. Counter-Strike has relatively robust methods when it comes to detecting and punishing cheaters, but fans of Team Fortress 2 will know that that kind of attention isn't a given. Plagued by botting for years, TF2 is a harrowing tale of what can happen to a game once Valve slows down its update efforts. You've got to assume that Deadlock is in a somewhat safer state than that given its relative age, but I'm sure it's enough to get some fans breaking out in cold sweats.

Look, if you're that keen to win, just play as Deadlock's best hero, who's so powerful they come with a 93% pick rate.

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Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

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