History VideoGame / DeadLock

* AllThereInTheManual: The game came packaged with [[http://store.steampowered.com/manual/328450/ a highly detailed booklet]], giving an abridged history and overview of every single race, including the two present that aren't actually ''playable''.

%%* JoinTheArmyTheySaid: Pretty much the basis of "The Deadlock Song".

* VendorTrash: Art resources provide a small morale bonus to the city they're in, but only up to a limit. However, they're also quite valuable as a trade resource, either to other factions or to the Skirineen, which may lead you to treating them as this.

-->''"Son, be a colonist", is what Dad said to me''\\

-->[spoken:] ''Kid, I'd like you to meet somebody. His OFFICIAL title is''
-->''"Commander", but I'd like you to think of him as more of a Social''
-->''Coordinator.''

-->[Chorus:]
-->''If I ever get back home again''
-->''If I ever get back home again''
-->''If I ever get back home again''
-->''That recruiter's gonna die.''

** If memory serves, the default settings change gameplay slightly, in that an arid planet like Mars would have more mineral resources but less food, while something Earthlike-wet would be the opposite.
** Averted in game. The whole plot of the story is that there are very few habitable planets, and the one in the game is desired by all races.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The Tolnans, your personal ExpositionFairy advisor, as it happens.
-->'''Manual Description''': Tolnans are not humanoid - our actual appearance has been described as "three oval-shaped spheres connected by a thin orange membrane". We have a limited psionic ability that let us project different appearances to light-seeing creatures. We never become the actual organism - the image simply reflects off the surface of an eye. You can identify Tolnan projections by the blue spots that often cover us.
** Notably, even the usual OnlySixFaces fare, commonly found in this game genre, are deliberately invoked with them.
-->'''Manual Description''': We have all taken the form and voice of a human in honor of the archaeologist that discovered us.
* AllThereInTheManual: the game came packaged with [[http://store.steampowered.com/manual/328450/ a highly detailed booklet]], giving an abridged history and overview of every single race, including the two present that aren't actually ''playable''.
* AmusingAlien: Most of the aliens qualify.

* DumbMuscle: This is the Tarth for you.
** Averted, however, in that they have the same research capabilities as most of the other races (the Chch't have the research penalty).

* HigherTechSpecies: The Maug provide an interesting example of this. Utterly dependent on their cybernetics, they also get significant research bonuses - they can even skip over technologies and research those further down on the TechTree. However, they're a relatively weak race recovering from the depredations of the Cyth.
* HumansAreDiplomats: The humans are described as shrewd traders and skilled diplomats, with bonuses for making peace-treaties and establishing trade routes. They are also [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules the least likely faction to make black-market deals]] with the Skirineen [[ItsPersonal (for good reasons)]]. That said, [[BewareTheNiceOnes if you piss them off too much...]]
* HumansAreWarriors: The Skirineen blew up Earth's moon, thinking that the humans (who hadn't fought a real war in a long time) would be easy pickings. Instead, the humans went berserk and stormed the Skirineen Empire. In the game, human units have the Berserk ability, which gives them massive combat advantages, though it destroys the unit at the end of the battle.
** It also gives them a [[PreAssKickingOneLiner pre-ass kicking]] BattleCry.

** TheComputerShallTauntYou: The other AI races occasionally do so as well.
* InstantWinCondition: Build the prerequisite number of city centres and all you enemies give up their claim on the planet, for some reason.

* IsometricProjection: The colony screen.
* JoinTheArmyTheySaid: Pretty much the basis of "The Deadlock Song."

* ObviouslyEvil: Their faces hidden under gas masks and garbed in dark robes, the Cyth look every inch the villain. The colony advisor sometimes refers to you, the player, as Dark One (though Veil Lord is probably the official title).
** Averted with the Maug. Horned helmets and masked faces would normally make for an AlwaysChaoticEvil barbaric civilization, but instead they're a rather sociable and meek race.
* PlantAliens: The Uva Mosk.
* PoweredArmor: The most advanced infantry units use this.

* WeAreAsMayflies: The Chch't, who get an in-game population bonus, very helpful for early expansions.
* YourHeadASplode: The Cyth mind blast does this.

A fairly simple game, it stood out by virtue of the creative art design. Each of the seven races has a distinct look that can be seen in the residences and cultural centers of their colonies. Originally, the look of units was intended reflect the race that built them, but this was scrapped in favor of generic units (though the infantry still has species-specific appearances). It also took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the setting, with the voice-acted colony advisors either showering you with praise or snark, depending on your performance.

* SendInTheClones: Featured in Deadlock 2: Shrine Wars.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The Tolnans, your personal ExpositionFairy advisor, as it happens. Notably, even the usual OnlySixFaces present in those game genres are deliberately invoked in between them.
-->'''Manual Description''': Tolnans are not humanoid - our actual appearance has been described as "three oval-shaped spheres connected by a thin orange membrane". We have a limited psionic ability that let us project different appearances to light-seeing creatures. We never become the actual organism - the image simply reflects off the surface of an eye. You can identify Tolnan projections by the blue spots that often cover us. We have all taken the form and voice of a human in honor of the archaeologist that discovered us.

* AllThereInTheManual: the game came packaged with a highly detailed book, giving an abridged history and overview of every single race, including the two present that aren't actually ''playable''.

** in the sequel, ''Shrine Wars'', you can instead hold control of the randomly-found native temples for a set number of turns to attain victory.

* NonEntityGeneral: Partly averted, in that each race gives the player a specific title. Chch't: Hive Imperius. Cyth: Veil Lord (or Dark One). Human: Commander. Maug: Chieftain. Re'lu: Overseer. Tarth: Ubergeneral. Uva Mosk: Grand Hortus.

-->''"Son, be a colonist", is what Dad said to me''
-->''"It's a cushy life, and you'll get alien real esate for free"''
-->''So I talked to the recruiter, to see if this was so''
-->''He smiled at me... the nicest smile... and said "Kid, don't you know?"''
-->''A colonist's job is easy, a colonist's wage is high''
-->''A colonist's pension plan would make a civil servant cry''
-->''There's never any danger, there's always lots of fun''
-->''And as for job security, it's better than a nun's''

* SuicidalOverconfidence: If you so much as scratch someone's territory they'll automatically set you as their enemy, and their advisors will occasionally pop up and threaten and taunt you, even as you proceed to methodically squash them out of existence. Occasionally subverted ''after'' an attack, when the enemy advisors will whine and plead for you to leave them alone.
* TheSymbiote: The Re'lu are actually two races, each individual consisting of a symbiotic pair. The fragile Re are blue and skinny anthropoids. Throughout their history, they depended on the vaguely canine Lu for protection. In return, the Re use their psychic powers to broadcast soothing thoughts in the Lu's brain. Background fluff states that the human animal rights groups became outraged when they found out about this symbiosis, saying that the Lu were being exploited. This soured the relationship between the two formerly allied races. It's worth point out that, thanks to their advanced technology, the Re probably don't really need the Lu any longer.

* BloodSport: Some of the documentation said that the Chch't participated these. Three of them would enter a ring and try to kill each other with their stingers. The way it was set up, sooner or later two would gang up on one (though that one could still win, if sufficiently skilled).

** TheComputerShallTauntYou: The other AI races occasionaly do so as well.

Released in 1996, Deadlock is a turn-based strategy game with a few city building elements thrown in for good measure. The planetary map is divvied up in to different provinces (a la Risk), on which you can build colonies. The colony screen is akin to VideoGame/SimCity, letting you tailor each colony to support population, grow food, mine ore, raise morale, and the like. When your units meet the units of a hostile faction, combat happens. This is controlled by the computer, though you can tip the odds in your favor by researching technologies to improve your units. Troops that survive multiple battles also gain toughness points.

Deadlock was followed by a sequel called Deadlock 2: Shrine Wars.

* BritishAccent: The Re'lu.

-->-- the Deadlock song, by Paul Kwinn. Read the rest of the lyrics [[http://www.artbeco.com/artbeco/ProjectsArt/Deadlock/Deadlock%20Song.htm here]].