Anika Begay
It’s been almost five years since Valve announced a truly new game, and the countdown has begun. Valve has yet to announce Stallhis new heroic shooter that takes inspiration from Look beyond, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2 and more. But that didn’t stop nearly 20,000 people from trying the game, including me.
And I’m not under an NDA. I didn’t sign any contracts, I didn’t make any verbal agreements; I didn’t even click on an EULA.
Today I received a no-obligation invitation to play Stall on Steam. Steam claims the game was made by Valve. It displays the Valve copyright logo when launched, and its executable is digitally signed by “Valve Corp.” The game’s directories contain Valve legal notices and numerous other text files that reference Valve, and it appears to be a Valve game. While Valve has not responded to my requests for comment, I am fully confident that it is legitimate.
So: what is it? Stall?
It’s a 6v6 shooter, like the original Look beyondwhere your team of heroes tries to dominate a map by slowly wearing down the opposing team and pushing them back. But you’re also leading an army of NPCs in four different lanes to destroy the opposing team’s stationary defenses, much like Dota 2 or other MOBA games.
There is no downtime. It’s a constant war between your team’s Troopers (the soldiers) and the enemy team’s Troopers, who keep respawning and advancing on enemy positions, wave after wave. But they can’t break through unless the human-powered heroes lend them a hand with powerful weapons, abilities, and upgrades.
Nor can the humans easily break through without their NPC army, or at least that’s what I saw in my first playthrough. To take down the fire-headed, energy-spewing Guardians or the giant Walkers blocking your path, it takes at least a coordinated effort from a human and his little autonomous friends. Each match culminates in a hand-to-hand fight against the enemy’s Patron, a giant floating orb with arms and death rays.
When I say “coordinated”, I am not referring to aim. This is not a To enhance OR Apex Legends-like a game where quick aim is the key. It seems like Look beyondor maybe even more Team Fortress 2 in its floating gameplay, which drains their health. You can tank, heal, and retreat even if a huge amount of enemy fire is coming your way.
Each match becomes more deadly as you unlock your heroes’ abilities and purchase skills, many of which give you more damage per second. Others provide lifesteal, shielding, and more. Each character also has strong and light melee attacks, and you can parry an incoming melee attack to stun your opponent.
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It helps that there are amount of ways to dodge enemy bullets and traverse the map: you can slide, sprint, air dash, dash jump, double jump, and climb ledges. Each of the game’s four lanes also has a zip line that lets you take a free ride in (and out) of the fray.
The zip lines don’t seem too powerful; after a previous loss, I once heard them compared to Fall of the Titansgameplay of attacking from any angle, but Valve keeps them away from the real lines of fire. You have to retreat to your own territory before they work.
It also looks like it will lead to some fascinating give and take as the game progresses. To power up, I had to take my hero back to a shop to purchase new perks with the souls I had accumulated from destroying enemy soldiers and heroes, but this left my territory undefended. When I returned, the front lines had been pushed back further than I would have liked.
Even in this “early development build,” there are already 20 different heroes, many of which look like ones I’d like to play. Yes, some of them are common archetypes like the archer, swordsman, sniper, and shotgun-wielding teleportation specialist, but it’s not all that simple: have you ever seen an Infernus literally tearing his enemies to pieces with his fingers?
I was initially drawn to Wraith for her style and the incredible power of her rapid-fire machine gun, then I switched to McGinnis when I discovered that she is the Team Fortress 2 engineer and heavy weapons specialist in one: turrets, retaining walls, AND a giant minigun that fires faster the longer it stays active.
I haven’t played enough to say whether the game is well-balanced or if there’s some sort of backstory to its heroes, but I can’t wait to try it out with my friends, and it looks like Valve will be okay with that.
While Valve has yet to announce or even publicly acknowledge the existence of this game, the current build allows anyone with a copy to invite as many Steam friends as they want to try it out. That’s why I have an invite, and that’s why my friends now have an invite.
It’s an unusual way to launch a game, but this is Valve we’re talking about: it’s an unusual company.
Update, August 12: It turns out Valve was Not It’s okay for me to try Deadlock with friends; I’ve been banned from matchmaking! Oh good. Feel free to make fun of me in the comments!
