Deadlock’s City Never Sleeps update makes familiar routes feel dangerous in a new way: players farming Souls in the tunnels can suddenly find themselves hunted by Rat King. PC Gamer’s account of the latest major update shows how its claustrophobic tunnel encounters and tense city ambushes can push a regular match toward horror.
City Never Sleeps Changes the Feel of a Match
The update brings six new heroes, with Rat King the first one PC Gamer’s writer focuses on. The change that stands out in the account is not just a new face on the roster: it is how an encounter with that hero changes the familiar rhythm of moving through Deadlock’s map.
Rem can travel through the maze of tunnels beneath the map, farming Souls and moving around away from the main lanes. That makes the tunnels useful, but the Rat King turns them into a place where a routine detour can become a frantic escape. It is a shift in atmosphere built from the same movement and combat systems players already know.
That kind of underground tension also gives underground mission design its appeal: limited space makes every unexpected threat feel closer. In Deadlock, Rat King’s presence makes the next encounter difficult to predict.
Rat King Turns a Farming Route Into a Trap
In PC Gamer’s reported match, the writer was moving through the tunnels as Rem when Rat King appeared at the end of an adjacent passage and started running toward them. The writer attacked, but could not bring the giant rat down, so fleeing became the only option.
There is a catch: while a player is locked in combat, the map closes tunnel entrances and exits. The writer forgot about that restriction, ran straight into a grated exit, and died in the tunnel. The encounter’s horror comes from that combination: a pursuer closing in, narrow routes, and an escape plan that fails at the worst moment.
The writer describes being jumpscared by Rat King repeatedly after that encounter, with the giant rat’s pursuit making each trip underground feel risky. It is an effective use of a familiar route: what had been a quiet place to gather Souls now carries the possibility of being cornered before there is room to reset or retreat.
| Encounter detail | Effect on the player |
|---|---|
| Rat King appears nearby | A routine tunnel run becomes a chase |
| Combat closes tunnel entrances and exits | Escape routes are restricted |
| A grated exit blocks the writer’s path | The attempted escape ends in a death |
The Horror Reaches Chinatown
The uneasy feeling is not limited to the tunnels. PC Gamer’s writer also describes walking through the new Chinatown district and crossing paths with an enemy Abrams, initially thinking the hero had not noticed them. Abrams was right behind the player moments later, shoving them into a wall.
Then enemy Seven appeared and used an ultimate on the writer. It is a specific match anecdote, not a guaranteed sequence for every Chinatown visit, but it captures the update’s broader tension: threats can arrive while moving between fights, not only when both teams meet on a lane. For players drawn to atmosphere-driven horror, the appeal of suspenseful encounters is the same-an ordinary moment can turn dangerous before there is time to react.
