Deadlock is, as players have quickly observed, more MOBA than shooter. But, as someone who sank about 2,000 hours into Dota 2 (though it's been a minute, I stopped in 2019), I can confidently say that its shooter mechanics are still a huge part of what makes it so fascinating: And that's because its lanes, which are very MOBA-like in nature, are utterly transformed by the fact you can run and gun in them.
In case you're unfamiliar, the "laning" phase in a MOBA refers to a match's early game. During this phase, most characters are at their weakest, and the objective is to secure as much "farm"—souls, in Deadlock—as possible. To do this, players score last hits on creeps (Deadlock's troops), apply pressure to their enemies, and try to avoid dying or being forced to run back to base. I am, simply put, obsessed with the way Deadlock handles this phase, because it's so gosh dang interesting.
