Deadlock by Valve
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 3 moba games by recommenders
Free, polished team game with deep gameplay that fans of League and Dota find appealing. Critics say it runs poorly on Proton.
Free, polished team game with deep gameplay that fans of League and Dota find appealing. Critics say it runs poorly on Proton.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 11 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Polished and solid
“It's very polished, but in early access right now.”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “I Built an Open-World Engine for the N64 [video]” “the game is already very solid”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “45% of Enthusiasts 'Seriously Considering' Leaving Sony for PC” Feels like League or Dota
“Deadlock is filling the LoL-shaped hole in my contemptible subsistence”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” “dota and deadlock welcome you”
Comment from 28 Mar 2026 in “People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account” Deep gameplay and attention to detail
“Deadlock takes the MOBA genre to a whole new level in terms of gameplay depth and complexity.”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license” “The attention to detail of Solomon with Valve's new game Deadlock is neat”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Diablo 2 Survivors”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Runs poorly on Proton
“plenty of competitive multiplayer shooters that work fine on Linux”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features” “Games like Valve's own Deadlock just run terribly on Proton”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March”
Other moba games people recommend
The two most recommended other moba games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dota 2 | 28 | 12 | 70% | 12 | — | Approved |
| League of Legends | 16 | 26 | 38% | 8 | — | — |
| Deadlock by ValveThis page | 11 | 1 | 92% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
All 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Get them cracked at Deadlock”
“The attention to detail of Solomon with Valve's new game Deadlock is neat”
“the game is already very solid”
“a pretty rad game in my opinion”
“plenty of competitive multiplayer shooters that work fine on Linux”
“Deadlock takes the MOBA genre to a whole new level in terms of gameplay depth and complexity.”
“Games like Valve's own Deadlock just run terribly on Proton”
“It's very polished, but in early access right now.”
“dota and deadlock welcome you”
“but also some good games: Half-Life: Alyx, Counter-Strike 2, and Deadlock”
“Deadlock is a game that is really good to play with a fixed group.”
“Deadlock is filling the LoL-shaped hole in my contemptible subsistence”
“I've spent hundreds of hours in the game having a blast for free”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.