In the wake of Deadlock’s public release, a lot of information has come out regarding the game’s development. Data mining points toward Half-Life 3 being in development, but also reveals prior versions of Deadlock. One of these versions was a Half-Life spinoff according to a prominent leaker.
Outside of Half Life: Alyx, the series has been dormant for a long time. Valve rarely releases games as they are, but HL fans have especially felt neglected.Half-Life 3is a meme for a reason.
However, details about Deadlock’s development have since been revealed. The game had several code names across years of dev time as it was ported into different settings according to Valve leaker and dataminer Game Follower.
Hecompiled all those thoughtsnow thatDeadlock is in the wild, with him reviewing some of the game’s prior code names and iterations.
Note: conversation starts at 2:20
“Initially Deadlock, aka Shadowline, aka Neon Prime, aka Citadel took place during the Seven Hour War where the Combine fought against the rebels on the streets of City 17.”
The Seven Hour War sets up much of Half-Life’s story. It was a conflict that ended the war between humanity and the Combine in, as you may have guessed, seven hours. He also shows footage of the game in a Tokyo-esque setting, something confirmed to have been scrapped by Valve in favor of their current steampunk/voodoo aesthetic.
Additionally, there’s concept art of Dynamo that has since beendiscovered in Deadlock’s files,including a reference to Half-Life 3 in the equation he’s writing out in the form of h/3λ, spotted just under the eye sigil that mirrors the Deadlock logo.
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What’s more, Deadlock is still titled Citadel in the game files themselves, which is the current version at the time of writing. Without any data mining tools or knowledge, you can browse local files and see the game listed as “Citadel” rather than Deadlock as one of the main folders.
If you’re just hopping into Deadlock yourself,check out our tier listto get up to speed on which characters you should be playing.
Carver Fisher is Dexerto’s Deputy US Editor. His expert coverage areas include Gaming and competitive Esports, where he’s covered League of Legends extensively. He also has bylines at Elo Entertainment and Inven Global. Contact him here: carver.fisher@dexerto.com
