The cursed city where Deadlock's battles take place just got even spookier than it already was in the City Never Sleeps update. Valve's second major overhaul for the invite-only MOBA marks another major step in its pseudo-early access development, giving it a much stronger visual identity than it had before, six striking new heroes, and a massive list of tweaks to how it plays.

Deadlock's entire map has been redecorated into three distinct themes: a bright city center, a haunted university, and a shadowy stock exchange. All the buildings and creeps that inhabit each street have been redesigned to fit in. There are pickle jars with hands growing out of them lurking in the heart of the map, sentient stacks of books in the right lane, and slimy trashbag monsters in the left lane.

Squeezed between it all are four districts with their own identities, like a theater district infested with literal stage hands pulling the strings on steampunk-style automatons. Atop the Chinatown district is a bell tower where teams can fight over a fountain of souls to try to get a currency advantage in a tight match. Even the wooden crates that players smash for resources are now padlocked and bolted shut.

It's a whole new playground that will take some time for players to fully figure out. In the meantime, Valve has prepared six new heroes who will be released based on a player voting system, just like the previous set. My money's on the Rat King taking the lead because, well, he's the Rat King, a crowned rodent that began as a fan concept a year ago and quickly became a meme in the community.