My Love for MOBA Was Dead, But This Game Locked Me in for a Second Ride in 2024

After spending 10,000 hours in Dota 2 and a few more in League of Legends and Smite over the last decade, I finally hung up my worn-out MOBA boots in 2023. After not having played a MOBA game in over a year, I did not expect a brand-new game to reignite the fire in me for this genre. Deadlock, originally revealed as Valve’s secret game, locked me in for a second ride of MOBA in 2024.

Deadlock modifies the classic MOBA games with a lot of new elements. Wondering how I put on my shoes for this stressful genre again in 2024? Here is why Deadlock made me fall in love with MOBA again.

No Mana More Fun, Finally

The primary reason I stopped playing Dota 2, despite investing countless hours, was the complex resource management. While managing health is understandable, the additional layer of mana management often felt unnecessary and added excessive complexity to the game.

Moreover, the mana disparity sometimes made me frustrated during a fight; leaving me no choice but to back off.

This situation often leads to more passive gameplay and eventually bores anyone playing Dota 2. Deadlock’s mana-free system creates a unique and exciting gameplay experience. It eliminates the constant worry about resource management, allowing players to focus solely on outplays and strategic decision-making. Without the constraint of mana costs, abilities can be used much more frequently, leading to dynamic and chaotic fights.

So, when I first started Deadlock, my first worry was if I had to play around a mana pool. Well, there was no mana pool. In this game, it is all about how skillful you are and only the cooldowns of your ability. This is a feature more relatable to TF2 or Overwatch-like hero shooters. But the fun part is that you can still level up your abilities to get strong, just like in a MOBA game.

By rewarding players for completing objectives and participating in team fights, this ability level up feature discourages the less engaging playstyle of jungle farming. Do not get me wrong; I love the mechanics of farming till a character is capable of fighting. But it’s not truly necessary.

However, mana management makes farming more important than taking an objective or initiating a fight. Deadlock getting rid of that mechanic immediately hooked me in for a fun and engaging MOBA experience. But the mana pool management is not the only complex thing that made me part ways with Dota 2 last year.

Less Complex Money Mechanics For My Brain

Even after 10K hours in Dota 2 and hundreds in League of Legends, the money mechanic was also always the frustrating thing for me. There are two types of farming you must do in these classic MOBA games.

One is the money or gold that gets you items from the shop, which later makes you stronger. The other is ‘experience’ that you also gain from last hits or just staying near a dying enemy. Experience upgrades your character’s abilities and opens new powers for each one.

Now, the issue with these two being separate is how you get the gold or ECP. You gain both from the last hits or objectives but there is a disparity. This makes it hard for you to understand when you will get your next Divine Rapier gold or a stronger Sun Strike. On top of that, Dota 2 also has a talent tree. The talent tree strengthens your character, and it can decide where the tide of your character’s playstyle will go. These mechanics piled up at once can stress you more than the rewards you gain.

Luckily, Deadlock gives me only one target, and that is my soul count. You farm souls throughout the game and that upgrades your ability point. The same farmed souls also help you get new items from the Curiosity Shop. This simple change makes the game easier to understand while retaining the MOBA elements.

Furthermore, Deadlock gives you a balanced path for a comeback. Now, if you lose an early game in Dota 2 or LoL, you will likely end up losing the game most of the time. This happens due to a lack of ways to sustain the gold and experience advantage.

Deadlock gets rid of it through a massive amount of side-objectives. For starters, you can farm small boxes and urns to earn more souls or permanent boosts. Along with that, you have multiple Sinner’s Sacrifice around the map that gives you more souls and boosts. But that is not the end.

You also get a Spirit Urn deposit mechanic. It spawns every 10 minutes to help a team progress to their ‘soul advantage’. Just like Dota 2’s Roshan, Deadlock also has a mid-boss. However, instead of a free resurrection, it boosts all the allies and minions. This helps you with the key objective of the game, which is to destroy the Patreon. But that does not take anything away from the fun and pacey fights!

Fast-Paced Gameplay Balances It

Deadlock balances the traditional MOBA experience and faster-paced gameplay by incorporating elements that simplify the game and increase the frequency of action. Most classic MOBA games are centered around a carry who jungles until they are ready to pick a fight. This is due to a lack of mobility and the games’ slowness.

Deadlock characters move significantly faster than their MOBA counterparts, reducing travel time between lanes and objectives. This accelerates the pace of the game and leads to more frequent engagements. In Dota 2 or LoL, you must get items or initiate abilities to reach a higher movement.

Luckily, in Deadlock, you have the zip lines. Well, they help you move around the lanes easily. This is something that is a major missing from all classic MOBA games. The fact that I can dip out of a fight using a zip and zoom back in after healing from base is what makes the experience fast and pacey.

And if you can master the zip movement with other items, well, you can go from lane 4 to lane 1 in about a few seconds. Deadlock also comes with teleporters that are faster than the teleportation system of Dota 2. Well, I am not even going to mention League of Legends having no lane-to-lane movement mechanics at all (oops, I did).

Another fun part of the movement system added by Deadlock is the dodging mechanic. Unlike the classic MOBA games, here you have a stamina bar. This means I do not have to keep an eye on my dodge abilities to survive a fight. I have free dodge, double jump, and wall jump to get rid of them. That adds a lot to the already quick environment of Deadlock.

On top of that, the objectives in Deadlock are designed to be captured more quickly, encouraging teams to fight over them more often. This creates constant pressure and dynamic gameplay. The side objectives also help you push your main goal further.

However, in classic MOBA games, the side objectives do not add much to your key objectives. For the most part, they feel like a jungle quest for your carry.

Overall, Deadlock gives me more incentive to pick a fight or objective. While the soul distribution for the fights is still not balanced, I do not get bored of it like I used to get in other MOBA games. Thanks to the movement and pace of the game, this is possible.

The Joy of Shooting with Theorycrafting

When the mechanics part of classic MOBAs lured me away, I was reaching around to find something new. That is when I shifted to Valorant, Apex Legends, and Overwatch. What is common in these games? Well, they are all shooters.

I immediately realized that my love for using abilities while shooting was reflecting. Although I was having fun in Valorant ranks, or Apex Legends LTMs, none of it gave me the freedom of theory-crafting. Unfortunately, I was already invested in shooters and there was no escape.

That fortune turned around in 2024 and kudos to Valve for presenting my daydream right before my eyes. Deadlock is not only a MOBA, it is a shooter-for-all. Even my colleague who hated shooter games with a passion, immediately got hooked on Deadlock. One of the key reasons for new players joining Deadlock as a shooter is the more chances in one game you get to prove yourself. Moreover, there is no camping like PUBG or Valorant in Deadlock.

Moreover, thanks to the comfortable shooting mechanic Deadlock presents, it becomes easier for new players. There is no recoil mechanic and anyone with a decent mouse can understand the shooting. You can play the game even if you are not a sharpshooter but if you are, you will get rewarded. This makes Deadlock such an ideal alternative for any shooter lovers.

And this is where Deadlock finally got me back into my MOBA kick. I get all the shooter joyride of The Finals, Apex Legends, and a faster pace ability usage than Valorant. And all of that is balanced with my love of theory-crafting. With the freedom of building my items for a rewarding experience and the clean shooting mechanic, Deadlock is an impressive shooter MOBA.

TPP Overpowers Bird Eye View Gaming

A key reason why I did not play Dota 2 or any other MOBA for the last two years was the POV as well. When I initially played Defense of the Ancients in World of Warcraft as a mod, the birds-eye view was something attractive to me. However, that time has passed and for years I wished Valve made Dota 3, which was Dota 2 from a third-person point of view.

And of course, that would not happen thanks to our strong Dota 2 community. Which led me to fall down into the misery grasp of Smite for a few weeks. Well, that did not help me at all. Smite felt like a MOBA game in TPP view for sure, but it lacked verticality.

That is when I decided it was time to put a stop to my love for MOBA. But, Valve was cooking and they cooked a MOBA game that I always dreamt about. And, in 2024, I prefer TPP over the classic birds-eye view MOBA experience.

Overall, Deadlock has revived my love for MOBA with a lot of new mechanics that go perfectly with my 2024 cravings. Have you tried Deadlock yet? Share your experience with me in the comments.