Key findings
- According to Valve leaker Gabe Follower, Deadlock was originally set in the Half-Life and Portal universe.
- Reportedly, it took place between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 during the Seven Hour War against the Combine.
If you’ve been following Valve’s leaks over the past few years, you’ll know the story of Deadlock. For anyone who doesn’t know, it first leaked under the name Citadel, a clear reference to the towering Combine structure in Half-Life 2. Then it became Neon Prime and later Shadowline, before becoming the Deadlock we know, completely abandoning its connection to the Half-Life and Portal universe.
According to Valve leaker Gabe Follower (and as reported by Dot Esports), the game is set during the Seven Hour War, where “the Combine fought against the rebels in the streets of City 17.” While there’s no hard evidence, much of the architecture in Deadlock, which you can play now, looks strikingly similar to that of City 17, so it certainly fits.
What is the Seven Hour War?
If you want to refresh your knowledge of Half-Life, here is a quick summary: The Black Mesa incident in the first game opened a dimensional rift that allowed aliens from the frontier world of Xen, led by the Nihilanth, penetration the facility. While Gordon Freeman was in stasis, an interdimensional empire known as the Combine learned of Earth through the same rift.
While they have the ability to jump across and through entire universes, they cannot teleport within a local region, while two Various corporations on Earth (Aperture Science and the aforementioned Black Mesa) figured out how to do this, so the Combine launched a full-scale invasion to learn humanity’s secrets about portals and teleportation, winning a war against all of humanity in just seven hours.
The Combine who started the Seven Hour War have nothing in common with the Combine in the games, as they left the Combine after turning select humans into mindless slaves who kept the rest of the population in check.
Deadlock would have supposedly taken place during this war, using the conflict as a backdrop for its MOBA-like gameplay. However, I doubt it would have been fought by rebels in City 17, as neither existed yet. The Seven Hour War was fought with the last bastions of the planet’s military, and City 17 would have only been given that name after the war.
Instead, we would probably have fought as a collapsing army in the Eastern European metropolis, which became City 17 against these alien invaders.
Deadlock wasn’t the only Valve game set in the Seven Hour War
Following the release of Half-Life: Alyx, Valve has finally revealed some Half-Life games that have been canceled in the years since Episode 2. One of them was called Borealis, a VR game written by former lead writer Marc Laidlaw that would have us jumping back and forth between the Seven Hour War and a time period shortly after Episode 2 on the interdimensional ship of the same name.
Deadlock’s developers shared some early footage of the game on Discord last week, revealing a mashup of Valve assets, most of which were copied from Half-Life.
Leaker Tyler McVicker also claimed in 2015 that Valve was working on an open-world game for Half-Life 3, in which Gordon Freeman experiences dream sequences of the Seven Hour War before waking up in Aperture Science. Valve is clearly determined to find a way to tell this part of Half-Life’s story.
Anyway, Deadlock is no longer a Half-Life game, but that doesn’t mean Valve is done with the series – there are leaks about a new Half-Life 3 and rumors of a spin-off coming alongside the new Deckard VR headset. Let’s just hope they actually come out this time.
