It’s been since Valve announced a truly new game — and counting. Valve has still not announced , its new hero shooter that takes cues from , , and more. But that hasn’t stopped from trying the game, including me.
And I’m not under NDA. I have signed no contracts, made no verbal agreements; I haven’t even clicked through a EULA. Earlier today, I received a no-strings-attached invite to play on Steam.
Steam claims the game is made by Valve. It displays Valve’s copyrighted logo when it launches, 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 feels like a Valve game.
Though Valve didn’t respond to my requests for comment, I’m completely convinced that it’s legit. It’s a 6-on-6 shooter, like , where your team of heroes attempts to dominate a map by slowly wearing down the opposing team and pushing them back. But you’re also leading an army of NPC grunts down four different lanes to destroy the opposing team’s stationary defenses, a little like or other MOBA games.
There’s no downtime. It’s a constant war between your team’s “Troopers” (the grunts) and the enemy team’s “Troopers,” which 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 humans easily break through withou.