Valve abruptly releases a new fighting game in the most Valve way possible: Inside a Dota 2 limited event
Sleet Fighter is a free to play brawler built into the latest Dota 2 expansion
As part of Dota 2's Crownfall Act 3 event, there's a brand new Valve game you can play that's basically the popular MOBA's spin on Street Fighter. And wait for this... it's called Sleet Fighter.
The brand new 2D fighting mini-game is free to play for owners of the current battle pass and can be accessed from within the Dota 2 client. PC Gamer reports that the five-fighter roster includes the Dota 2 heroes Marci, Bristleback, Tusk, Vengeful Spirit and Dawnbreaker, and they each have their own special abilities and alternate outfits to choose from.
You can duke it out against NPCs in single-player mode or get competitive with your friends in online and - and this is the selling point for me - local multiplayer brawls. We desperately need more modern couch co-op brawlers that aren't Street Fighter or Mortal Combat, and although Sleet Fighter isn't anywhere near at the scope of those games, it's good to have some variety.
Plenty of streamers are playing the game already, giving you enough gameplay to judge for yourself whether it's worth checking out, but here's just one such video from the YouTube account Juswa:
If you do want to play some Sleet Fighter, you'll need to launch Dota 2 and navigate the homepage to Act Three's The Frosts of Icewrack event. From there you'll progress through the first story tile in the overworld and then pick the Sleet Fighter 2: Immortal Combat encounter, and that'll transport you to the Severed Head pub, which means, yes, canonically this game is just a few Dota heroes getting into a pub brawl with each other.
Wait, isn't there a League of Legends fighting game on the way too? Why yes, yes there is, and it has a silly name.
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After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.