It's going to finally come out and still have a trailer at every fucking game show.
Arkane has finally managed to make a version of Dishonored where open combat doesn't suck, hooray!
Deathloop is cobbled together from a lot of familiar parts. Throwing bottles, blinking, drop assassinations, a totally-not-supernatural double-jump. Anyone who has played the Dishonored games will find the tools available to the player to be very familiar, and yet playing Deathloop felt different enough from Dishonored that I was able to find it new and thrilling. Part of that is owed to the aesthetic, which is about as textbook 60s retro-future as you can get without completely drowning you in wild technicolor designs a la We Happy Few. But the other part, the more significant part, is that you are completely unable to manually save - a complete inversion from Arkane's other games.
Taken on its own the central concept of Deathloop is intriguing, as playing with time is something that I think is uniquely suited to games, where you get to be the agent of change. Arkane Lyon have already proven to be capable developers when messing with this concept, but Deathloop’s whole-hearted commitment to the idea is where I found real excitement. As you’re only given one day, you will never see anything as dramatic as the years of change from Dishonored 2’s “A Crack in the Slab”, but there are so many more locations and little details here that the end product is still satisfying.
One of the most notable changes if you’re playing this right after the Dishonored games is that this Corvo is named Colt, he has a voice, and he is absolutely not afraid to speak his mind, even if it’s dumb as shit (and it usually is). Colt being one of the few people who can remember earlier loops works fantastically as a game mechanic and as a source of comedy. Bringing it back to manually saving - the complete inability to do so incentivizes just taking risks and hoping you don’t get looped right as you’re trying to do some important shit, but the loop itself means that failure isn’t catastrophic. In fact, abusing this loop and its quirks to gather information in little bite-sized chunks makes revisiting the same levels feel much less tedious than it might sound on paper, as mastering the loop is as much a goal for Colt as it is for you as a player.
Gathering upgrades across loops doesn’t feel like a chore the way it could in Dishonored, and despite most of the powers making their original appearance in a stealth game, getting into firefights can be a lot of fun (and is viable!) - I had a build that let me create a bunch of poison clouds and then blow myself up to ignite them. Nexus - this game’s version of “Domino” - still feels pathetic and useless, but it's entirely possible that I'm too peabrained to use it effectively. There is a real sense of growth as you acquire more upgrades for your powers, and it’s exciting to tear through a level that you know like the back of your hand - up until a player-controlled Julianna tries to place landmines and snipe you in spawn. Yes, this game has an invasion mechanic, and although you can turn off player-controlled invasions (I recommend doing so) it’s still on by default, and as such is one of the game’s prominent weak points.
As you progress through the loop and listen to tens of “are they angry, enjoying this, or... both?” conversations between Julianna and Colt, these little fragmented bits of story, character quirks, and exploitable weaknesses coalesces into a real plot that has real momentum behind it. The game staggers a bit at the end - I won’t spoil anything - with the way it handles this, and it’s the other “big” drawback of this game. I suspect an ending with more playable elements would be more satisfying, but in an immersive sim every additional piece of gameplay adds tens of ways for things to break, so I don’t blame them for keeping things scripted. It’s not even really a let-down - it’s an adequate ending - it just can’t match the hype the previous 20 hours have built up. The mission preceding it (where you acquire enough information from the leads to go through the final loop) also has too much guidance, and I think that it would’ve been an excellent opportunity for the player to demonstrate their knowledge and mastery of the levels and nudge everything into place one last time. All the information is already in the journal so players who take a break from the game can still consult it for reminders, meaning there’s not really a reason for it to be so hand-holdy this far in. Again, this complaint is fairly minor and doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the game in any huge way.
Taken as an entire experience, Deathloop is one of my favorite games this year, and barring some completely bonkers release in the next few months (it’s possible) I suspect this will be my GOTY. It is so far up my alley that it’s scaling the wall at the far end: an imsim where being loud doesn’t feel like a sin, where the characters are as fun as the gameplay, and where you will never have to quicksave.
Deathloop is cobbled together from a lot of familiar parts. Throwing bottles, blinking, drop assassinations, a totally-not-supernatural double-jump. Anyone who has played the Dishonored games will find the tools available to the player to be very familiar, and yet playing Deathloop felt different enough from Dishonored that I was able to find it new and thrilling. Part of that is owed to the aesthetic, which is about as textbook 60s retro-future as you can get without completely drowning you in wild technicolor designs a la We Happy Few. But the other part, the more significant part, is that you are completely unable to manually save - a complete inversion from Arkane's other games.
Taken on its own the central concept of Deathloop is intriguing, as playing with time is something that I think is uniquely suited to games, where you get to be the agent of change. Arkane Lyon have already proven to be capable developers when messing with this concept, but Deathloop’s whole-hearted commitment to the idea is where I found real excitement. As you’re only given one day, you will never see anything as dramatic as the years of change from Dishonored 2’s “A Crack in the Slab”, but there are so many more locations and little details here that the end product is still satisfying.
One of the most notable changes if you’re playing this right after the Dishonored games is that this Corvo is named Colt, he has a voice, and he is absolutely not afraid to speak his mind, even if it’s dumb as shit (and it usually is). Colt being one of the few people who can remember earlier loops works fantastically as a game mechanic and as a source of comedy. Bringing it back to manually saving - the complete inability to do so incentivizes just taking risks and hoping you don’t get looped right as you’re trying to do some important shit, but the loop itself means that failure isn’t catastrophic. In fact, abusing this loop and its quirks to gather information in little bite-sized chunks makes revisiting the same levels feel much less tedious than it might sound on paper, as mastering the loop is as much a goal for Colt as it is for you as a player.
Gathering upgrades across loops doesn’t feel like a chore the way it could in Dishonored, and despite most of the powers making their original appearance in a stealth game, getting into firefights can be a lot of fun (and is viable!) - I had a build that let me create a bunch of poison clouds and then blow myself up to ignite them. Nexus - this game’s version of “Domino” - still feels pathetic and useless, but it's entirely possible that I'm too peabrained to use it effectively. There is a real sense of growth as you acquire more upgrades for your powers, and it’s exciting to tear through a level that you know like the back of your hand - up until a player-controlled Julianna tries to place landmines and snipe you in spawn. Yes, this game has an invasion mechanic, and although you can turn off player-controlled invasions (I recommend doing so) it’s still on by default, and as such is one of the game’s prominent weak points.
As you progress through the loop and listen to tens of “are they angry, enjoying this, or... both?” conversations between Julianna and Colt, these little fragmented bits of story, character quirks, and exploitable weaknesses coalesces into a real plot that has real momentum behind it. The game staggers a bit at the end - I won’t spoil anything - with the way it handles this, and it’s the other “big” drawback of this game. I suspect an ending with more playable elements would be more satisfying, but in an immersive sim every additional piece of gameplay adds tens of ways for things to break, so I don’t blame them for keeping things scripted. It’s not even really a let-down - it’s an adequate ending - it just can’t match the hype the previous 20 hours have built up. The mission preceding it (where you acquire enough information from the leads to go through the final loop) also has too much guidance, and I think that it would’ve been an excellent opportunity for the player to demonstrate their knowledge and mastery of the levels and nudge everything into place one last time. All the information is already in the journal so players who take a break from the game can still consult it for reminders, meaning there’s not really a reason for it to be so hand-holdy this far in. Again, this complaint is fairly minor and doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the game in any huge way.
Taken as an entire experience, Deathloop is one of my favorite games this year, and barring some completely bonkers release in the next few months (it’s possible) I suspect this will be my GOTY. It is so far up my alley that it’s scaling the wall at the far end: an imsim where being loud doesn’t feel like a sin, where the characters are as fun as the gameplay, and where you will never have to quicksave.
This isn’t the clockwork worlds of Outer Wilds or Hitman. Major decisions don’t so much as ripple through the day, but update the mind-map buried in the UI. The smooth movement and honeycombed worlds are occasionally up there with Dishonored, but the enforced repetition renders them lifeless after a few loops, as you slowly unpack how each location is little more than shifting closed off areas, altered set-dressing and enemy placement.
Certain events (the party) beg to be explored through some form of social stealth - but your main means of interacting with the world is a gun - so you just linger in the attic, looking for an opportunity. Puzzles also feel arbitrary - as Colt figures out nearly everything before you do & the information gathered often comes down to hacking door codes and computer terminals.
The sharp contrast between historical neighbourhoods and the decadent pop-facades echo Bioshock Infinite’s automatons rather than Dishonored’s lived in world. Targets are kept at a distance and from what little I learned of them through the playful but often obnoxious writing, I ultimately couldn’t find a reason to care.
Certain events (the party) beg to be explored through some form of social stealth - but your main means of interacting with the world is a gun - so you just linger in the attic, looking for an opportunity. Puzzles also feel arbitrary - as Colt figures out nearly everything before you do & the information gathered often comes down to hacking door codes and computer terminals.
The sharp contrast between historical neighbourhoods and the decadent pop-facades echo Bioshock Infinite’s automatons rather than Dishonored’s lived in world. Targets are kept at a distance and from what little I learned of them through the playful but often obnoxious writing, I ultimately couldn’t find a reason to care.
Se um dia a Arkane errou foi tentando acertar!
Esse foi um jogo que me divertiu muito! A história é muito boa e a interação do protagonista com a antagonista são excelentes e fica melhor coom a dublagem BR da Julianna. O grande forte do jogo é a forma que ele utiliza o loop , você revisita as mesmas areas diversas vezes, mas em horários diferentes que alteram as informações que você pode descobrir, areas que podem ser acessadas e etc. Não teve uma única vez que eu entrei numa região e sai de lá sem descobrir algo, e mesmo assim, terminei o jogo com algumas coisas ficando para trás.
O loop também te permite experimentar algumas formas de agir, não deu certo? volta no próximo loop e tenta outra forma eliminando um "problema" dos imersives sims que o player costuma fazer um save antes de tentar algo, em Deathloop não há como salvar durante a jogatina.
A trilha sonora também é muito boa, as músicas são um jazz rapido que fica muito caracteristico em momentos que deixamos a furtividade de lado e descarregamos o pente nos inimigos.
Esse foi um jogo que me divertiu muito! A história é muito boa e a interação do protagonista com a antagonista são excelentes e fica melhor coom a dublagem BR da Julianna. O grande forte do jogo é a forma que ele utiliza o loop , você revisita as mesmas areas diversas vezes, mas em horários diferentes que alteram as informações que você pode descobrir, areas que podem ser acessadas e etc. Não teve uma única vez que eu entrei numa região e sai de lá sem descobrir algo, e mesmo assim, terminei o jogo com algumas coisas ficando para trás.
O loop também te permite experimentar algumas formas de agir, não deu certo? volta no próximo loop e tenta outra forma eliminando um "problema" dos imersives sims que o player costuma fazer um save antes de tentar algo, em Deathloop não há como salvar durante a jogatina.
A trilha sonora também é muito boa, as músicas são um jazz rapido que fica muito caracteristico em momentos que deixamos a furtividade de lado e descarregamos o pente nos inimigos.
Deathloop is an enchanting kind of game. A type of game that effortlessly blew me out of my chair from beginning to ummm. Well that's where my problems lie. Deathloop starts strong and the bulk of the content is incredible but the ending is particularly weak. The final quest where you get to blow off the heads of everyone was surprisingly unsatisfying and the actual ending of the narrative itself is even more unsatisfying thematically to the point where I couldn't really get what the writers were going for. Overall, I strongly recommend Deathloop but it's important to keep in mind that it is a lot more about the journey rather than the destination.
que jogaço
pra começar esse jogo facilmente tem um dos melhores sistemas de exploração, tu vai no mesmo mapa pelo menos umas 10 vezes, e nessas 10 vezes tu descobre caminhos novos, segredos dos visionários ou armas raras
e uma coisa q eu costumo evitar falar mas que dublagem absurda, e fala da brasileira mesmo, ja é demais ver as interações de Colt e Julianna, mas a dublagem deixa melhor ainda
os aspectos tecnicos não tem muito o q falar, os graficos seguem no estilo Arkane mas sempre evoluindo dessa vez na nova geração, trilha sonora é boa mas nada marcante
e os unicos pontos negativos eu dou pro online q enche a poha do saco depois das primeiras 3 invasões, atrapalha muitas vezes as missões, e a IA q varias vezes te frustra pelo sistema de detecção
mais um puta jogo da Arkane como sempre faziam (até certo jogo).
pra começar esse jogo facilmente tem um dos melhores sistemas de exploração, tu vai no mesmo mapa pelo menos umas 10 vezes, e nessas 10 vezes tu descobre caminhos novos, segredos dos visionários ou armas raras
e uma coisa q eu costumo evitar falar mas que dublagem absurda, e fala da brasileira mesmo, ja é demais ver as interações de Colt e Julianna, mas a dublagem deixa melhor ainda
os aspectos tecnicos não tem muito o q falar, os graficos seguem no estilo Arkane mas sempre evoluindo dessa vez na nova geração, trilha sonora é boa mas nada marcante
e os unicos pontos negativos eu dou pro online q enche a poha do saco depois das primeiras 3 invasões, atrapalha muitas vezes as missões, e a IA q varias vezes te frustra pelo sistema de detecção
mais um puta jogo da Arkane como sempre faziam (até certo jogo).
incredible game.. questionable ending cutscene.
I've played about 3 hours of this game and I honestly don't feel like playing any more. I'd rather put time into voicing why this just doesn't work.
And the core of it is control. It's probably not the case but all of Arkane's games feel like they have some horrendous input lag, and the whole control experience is pretty stilited and lacks any flow. Aim Assist is rough, the control scheme on PS5 is laughable, the menus are a nightmare and blast you with paragraphs of text every 5 seconds. For what's basically a Dishonored Gaiden it feels an awful lot more complicated for no reason.
On top of that the structure of the game just feels really off. In the first few hours of this game it legitimately requests you go down the same path, stealthing or murdering the whole way, legitimately 4 times, like i'm playing Flower Sun and Rain again - Because despite this being an immersive sim where you're expected to go to and from the entrance all the time, Arkane have bafflingly made the levels long and thin. And the level structure itself is just bleh. Go to the great big spot on the map where it tells you to, kill, rinse repeat.
And maybe worst of all, the game just undercuts it's own core. Within minutes of starting the game you get a cheat death card that lets you die 2 times per location, practically 8 times per Day, with basically no consequence. It's like a studio mandate legitimately taped to the first door before you get into the game.
I was expecting I might not vibe with the game, I often don't with immersive sims, the only one I really, really like is Cruelty Squad, which you should probably just play instead.
And the core of it is control. It's probably not the case but all of Arkane's games feel like they have some horrendous input lag, and the whole control experience is pretty stilited and lacks any flow. Aim Assist is rough, the control scheme on PS5 is laughable, the menus are a nightmare and blast you with paragraphs of text every 5 seconds. For what's basically a Dishonored Gaiden it feels an awful lot more complicated for no reason.
On top of that the structure of the game just feels really off. In the first few hours of this game it legitimately requests you go down the same path, stealthing or murdering the whole way, legitimately 4 times, like i'm playing Flower Sun and Rain again - Because despite this being an immersive sim where you're expected to go to and from the entrance all the time, Arkane have bafflingly made the levels long and thin. And the level structure itself is just bleh. Go to the great big spot on the map where it tells you to, kill, rinse repeat.
And maybe worst of all, the game just undercuts it's own core. Within minutes of starting the game you get a cheat death card that lets you die 2 times per location, practically 8 times per Day, with basically no consequence. It's like a studio mandate legitimately taped to the first door before you get into the game.
I was expecting I might not vibe with the game, I often don't with immersive sims, the only one I really, really like is Cruelty Squad, which you should probably just play instead.
Nothing special but still fairly enjoyable.
a power fantasy version of thief but with guns this time is apparently even less of my thing
and there's really only so many times i can entertain thinking "huh, maybe there's a sneakier, secondary entrance besides this front door" before it starts feeling played out, especially when it gets as reductive as displaying that as cutesy internal monologue from your character physically over these things. dishonored 2 improved on this pattern with inventive level design in its second half, and i know prey does from what i've heard of it (and i should really give it a second chance), so i'm not sure why this seems to go backwards. maybe that changes as it goes on? we don't get imm sims often, so i'd hate to end up slandering this, but deathloop's first few hours are just so weak that i couldn't be bothered to find out
unfortunately, it also has severe frame pacing issues unless you can maintain 60/120 fps, and that's hard to manage with dips in performance anytime the AI starts doing anything besides standing around. another problem was that playing as julianna is marred by the game seemingly not trusting your client at all: the few matches i played were nearly unplayable as i'd rubberband with every step i took. i'm guessing this is a kind of rudimentary anti-cheat for a game with a light multiplayer component, but it definitely hurt my experience since it's such a core part of the game. i'd maybe wait for patches before playing if you're not a huge arkane fan
and there's really only so many times i can entertain thinking "huh, maybe there's a sneakier, secondary entrance besides this front door" before it starts feeling played out, especially when it gets as reductive as displaying that as cutesy internal monologue from your character physically over these things. dishonored 2 improved on this pattern with inventive level design in its second half, and i know prey does from what i've heard of it (and i should really give it a second chance), so i'm not sure why this seems to go backwards. maybe that changes as it goes on? we don't get imm sims often, so i'd hate to end up slandering this, but deathloop's first few hours are just so weak that i couldn't be bothered to find out
unfortunately, it also has severe frame pacing issues unless you can maintain 60/120 fps, and that's hard to manage with dips in performance anytime the AI starts doing anything besides standing around. another problem was that playing as julianna is marred by the game seemingly not trusting your client at all: the few matches i played were nearly unplayable as i'd rubberband with every step i took. i'm guessing this is a kind of rudimentary anti-cheat for a game with a light multiplayer component, but it definitely hurt my experience since it's such a core part of the game. i'd maybe wait for patches before playing if you're not a huge arkane fan
Deathpoop
I can't believe it's taken this long for Western AAA to learn what a time loop is. Majora's Mask came out in 2000. Moon was 1997. Fuck, Groundhog Day was 1993!
I'm glad the eventual result was turned out so well, though. Deathloop is so smart in so many ways. The interweaving of cause and effect, setting up dominoes and watching them fall, that forms the core of the main plot is as meticulously precise as one would hope. (To be honest, if you can't execute on that well you have no business making a time loop game in the first place.)
Even more impressive is the way it exists in dialog with modern game conventions: it has DNA from roguelikes, soulslikes, shooters, and of course Arkane's hallmark immersive sims (which feel almost like practice runs for this game). Plenty of games throw in the latest trendy mechanic, but what sets Deathloop apart is how integral they all feel--again, how smartly the game takes exactly what it needs from each genre and fits it into an incredibly cohesive whole.
I'm glad the eventual result was turned out so well, though. Deathloop is so smart in so many ways. The interweaving of cause and effect, setting up dominoes and watching them fall, that forms the core of the main plot is as meticulously precise as one would hope. (To be honest, if you can't execute on that well you have no business making a time loop game in the first place.)
Even more impressive is the way it exists in dialog with modern game conventions: it has DNA from roguelikes, soulslikes, shooters, and of course Arkane's hallmark immersive sims (which feel almost like practice runs for this game). Plenty of games throw in the latest trendy mechanic, but what sets Deathloop apart is how integral they all feel--again, how smartly the game takes exactly what it needs from each genre and fits it into an incredibly cohesive whole.
Ignoring the PC performance and optimization issues, Arkane simply did it again. A beautiful exploratory immersive-sim that shifts and morphs depending on the time of day and location. Was unexpectedly funny as well, will be playing well past completion.
I enjoyed this overall, but all those 10/10s make it seem much better than it actually is.
The good:
- Voice acting is chefs kiss
- The gameplay, and the general "feel" of the game, is very much like every other Arkane game. I personally like that, but ymmv.
- The concept of the game and how it plays out is cool. I liked seeing different areas at different times of the day, and planning how to navigate around them.
- Gameplay and pacing (after the tutorial) is pretty good and kept me constantly entertained, especially with different trinkets and powers.
- The world is interesting and there's little secrets to explore in different areas*
- Among Us in Deathloop (this is not a spoiler)
I finished this in 2 sessions (13 hours and 6 hours) without breaks, so that should tell you this is pretty fun.
The bad:
- *The little secrets you discover don't really reward you well for discovering them most of the time.
- My 2060 couldn't give me consistent framerate at 1440p, and even had some drops in 1080p. I ended up getting this on PS5, where it experienced a total of 3 crashes, and I encountered 2 bugs with the menus. Not a huge deal, but I wish things were better tested and optimized before release.
- The game doesn't give you a lot of freedom. It was marketed as "you'll have to explore and figure out how to kill all the bosses in a single loop", which holds true but there aren't multiples ways to do that. There's literally only one way to finish the game. Its linear, which is fine, but I will it provided less guidance and let me figure things out on my own instead of telling me exactly what to do and where to go.
I think if there was a little bit more freedom and a little less hand holding, this would have been a 4.5/5 for me.
The good:
- Voice acting is chefs kiss
- The gameplay, and the general "feel" of the game, is very much like every other Arkane game. I personally like that, but ymmv.
- The concept of the game and how it plays out is cool. I liked seeing different areas at different times of the day, and planning how to navigate around them.
- Gameplay and pacing (after the tutorial) is pretty good and kept me constantly entertained, especially with different trinkets and powers.
- The world is interesting and there's little secrets to explore in different areas*
- Among Us in Deathloop (this is not a spoiler)
I finished this in 2 sessions (13 hours and 6 hours) without breaks, so that should tell you this is pretty fun.
The bad:
- *The little secrets you discover don't really reward you well for discovering them most of the time.
- My 2060 couldn't give me consistent framerate at 1440p, and even had some drops in 1080p. I ended up getting this on PS5, where it experienced a total of 3 crashes, and I encountered 2 bugs with the menus. Not a huge deal, but I wish things were better tested and optimized before release.
- The game doesn't give you a lot of freedom. It was marketed as "you'll have to explore and figure out how to kill all the bosses in a single loop", which holds true but there aren't multiples ways to do that. There's literally only one way to finish the game. Its linear, which is fine, but I will it provided less guidance and let me figure things out on my own instead of telling me exactly what to do and where to go.
I think if there was a little bit more freedom and a little less hand holding, this would have been a 4.5/5 for me.
One of the most pointless games since Bioshock Infinite! Yeah it's kinda that bad. Arkane sure have one of the most talented art teams that's wasted on such fuckin dogwater.
Nothing about the gameplay works! Nothing you do matters in this bum ass game!!!
Just play Hitman and have a good time! Fuck!!!
Nothing about the gameplay works! Nothing you do matters in this bum ass game!!!
Just play Hitman and have a good time! Fuck!!!
Deathloop is the logical endpoint of the genre of Immersive Sim when it comes to how we tell stories using it.
Before that, we have to talk about Immersive Sims or at least one of them,
Hitman is a series of games that some would categorize as an ImSim, I say some because I know for a fact that even just stating that is going to piss some people off massively because the terminology of Immersive Sim is vague and undefined with a very niche fanbase of very dedicated people who are willing to discuss it for hours on end. Just know, I do not care. I’m mainly referring to it as such because a similar group of mechanics, ideas, and goals appear between Hitman and other ImSims
Agent 47 is literally a blank slate character, he is a person developed to just do his job and that job is sleek and quiet murder of any number of targets in a given level, so it’s interesting to note that in Hitman, you are still required to basically live up to the role of a Hitman, rather than place yourself in those shoes.
The way the narrative is signposted throughout the series and all of the surrounding elements of the games paint the player character as a silent assassin who plans every minute detail to a tee so they can slip in and out, murdering their target before anyone even realizes something has gone wrong. This is pretty much guaranteed to not be the way you actually play the game starting off.
To get to this point, you have to go through these maps multiple times, learn their secrets, their layouts, their enemy placements, and everything else before you can be the person the narrative tells you you are. This essentially makes most of the gameplay as it pertains to the story disconnected. Agent 47 as a man cannot physically turn back time, he cannot Save Scum, and he, nor anyone else in the game has any knowledge of the countless previous runs that it took to get to the point where you can actually be Agent 47. Death is an explicit fail state which has no direct place in anything outside of the gameplay.
Deathloop is different.
Deathloop, as a game, is deeply fascinating to me, because even with its own elements separated, they’re great. The Shooting is Punchy and all the weapon types have their own little quirks and feel that make them completely distinct, the level design has so many different paths to destinations and areas that can change based on your actions, that just learning to get around is a blast and the way powers intersect with combat and exploration through all of that makes a game that is so immensely satisfying to play and learn, again and again, and again.
But the real thing that makes Deathloop not just good but Transcendent is how it takes the defined rules of the games it’s inspired by and the traditional player response to those rules and exploits them.
The way it does this is through the idealization and mechanical canonization of:
THE PERFECT RUN
Colt, unlike 47, is much more of a defined character, he had a place in the world before the story and he will continue to exist once it is over. Despite this, it is much easier for a player to put themselves in Colt’s situation because the narrative and gameplay of Deathloop come together in a way that I have not seen another game with these design philosophies before (to my knowledge).
In Deathloop, Colt’s goal is learning the maps, scouting out locations, experimenting with systems, and discovering secrets, everything you do in gameplay and discover is canon within the story, putting you in Colt’s place much more directly, despite not being a self insert.
The mythologized nature of going through and beating levels, streamlining your run, and getting to a point where you can quickly and efficiently kill all of your targets is the end goal, even death in the game, while still a fail state that can halt your progress and be an effective punishment for failing, is just a reality of the game, something that in-game characters will comment on and react to.
Even in failure, the ability to make hard progress, even in runs that don’t go how you planned creates a gameplay experience that finally feels like it scratches an itch I’ve had for a good while. I’ve never been too up on ImSims previously, the stress of perfectly good runs being failed in an instant or the pinpoint accuracy needed to get through them, while not a direct criticism of the design itself, more a personal issue, scared me away from games like Dishonored or Thief because quite frankly I just wasn’t very good at them. Even the new Hitman games to a degree would have lost me if it wasn’t for the new accessibility features basically telling you exactly what you need to do to succeed but even then it never felt exactly right in the end.
Deathloop, in creating an experience where failure and learning from your mistakes are contextualized in the story as just a natural part of growth and getting towards the end, rather than a hurdle to become what the game is acting like you are, spoke to me in a way these games have never done before for me without throwing out the complexity or difficulty that ImSims are lauded for. And for that experience, I cannot be happier with the game.
TL;DR How I Learned to Stop Caring and Love Immersive Sims
Before that, we have to talk about Immersive Sims or at least one of them,
Hitman is a series of games that some would categorize as an ImSim, I say some because I know for a fact that even just stating that is going to piss some people off massively because the terminology of Immersive Sim is vague and undefined with a very niche fanbase of very dedicated people who are willing to discuss it for hours on end. Just know, I do not care. I’m mainly referring to it as such because a similar group of mechanics, ideas, and goals appear between Hitman and other ImSims
Agent 47 is literally a blank slate character, he is a person developed to just do his job and that job is sleek and quiet murder of any number of targets in a given level, so it’s interesting to note that in Hitman, you are still required to basically live up to the role of a Hitman, rather than place yourself in those shoes.
The way the narrative is signposted throughout the series and all of the surrounding elements of the games paint the player character as a silent assassin who plans every minute detail to a tee so they can slip in and out, murdering their target before anyone even realizes something has gone wrong. This is pretty much guaranteed to not be the way you actually play the game starting off.
To get to this point, you have to go through these maps multiple times, learn their secrets, their layouts, their enemy placements, and everything else before you can be the person the narrative tells you you are. This essentially makes most of the gameplay as it pertains to the story disconnected. Agent 47 as a man cannot physically turn back time, he cannot Save Scum, and he, nor anyone else in the game has any knowledge of the countless previous runs that it took to get to the point where you can actually be Agent 47. Death is an explicit fail state which has no direct place in anything outside of the gameplay.
Deathloop is different.
Deathloop, as a game, is deeply fascinating to me, because even with its own elements separated, they’re great. The Shooting is Punchy and all the weapon types have their own little quirks and feel that make them completely distinct, the level design has so many different paths to destinations and areas that can change based on your actions, that just learning to get around is a blast and the way powers intersect with combat and exploration through all of that makes a game that is so immensely satisfying to play and learn, again and again, and again.
But the real thing that makes Deathloop not just good but Transcendent is how it takes the defined rules of the games it’s inspired by and the traditional player response to those rules and exploits them.
The way it does this is through the idealization and mechanical canonization of:
THE PERFECT RUN
Colt, unlike 47, is much more of a defined character, he had a place in the world before the story and he will continue to exist once it is over. Despite this, it is much easier for a player to put themselves in Colt’s situation because the narrative and gameplay of Deathloop come together in a way that I have not seen another game with these design philosophies before (to my knowledge).
In Deathloop, Colt’s goal is learning the maps, scouting out locations, experimenting with systems, and discovering secrets, everything you do in gameplay and discover is canon within the story, putting you in Colt’s place much more directly, despite not being a self insert.
The mythologized nature of going through and beating levels, streamlining your run, and getting to a point where you can quickly and efficiently kill all of your targets is the end goal, even death in the game, while still a fail state that can halt your progress and be an effective punishment for failing, is just a reality of the game, something that in-game characters will comment on and react to.
Even in failure, the ability to make hard progress, even in runs that don’t go how you planned creates a gameplay experience that finally feels like it scratches an itch I’ve had for a good while. I’ve never been too up on ImSims previously, the stress of perfectly good runs being failed in an instant or the pinpoint accuracy needed to get through them, while not a direct criticism of the design itself, more a personal issue, scared me away from games like Dishonored or Thief because quite frankly I just wasn’t very good at them. Even the new Hitman games to a degree would have lost me if it wasn’t for the new accessibility features basically telling you exactly what you need to do to succeed but even then it never felt exactly right in the end.
Deathloop, in creating an experience where failure and learning from your mistakes are contextualized in the story as just a natural part of growth and getting towards the end, rather than a hurdle to become what the game is acting like you are, spoke to me in a way these games have never done before for me without throwing out the complexity or difficulty that ImSims are lauded for. And for that experience, I cannot be happier with the game.
TL;DR How I Learned to Stop Caring and Love Immersive Sims
A game so intrinsically focused on failure that I even fucked up this review multiple times, scrapping entire paragraphs and infusing certain sentences with copy+paste residuum so that I could use them again on my next attempt. Why is this game so difficult to nailgun to a wall? I guess because it’s trying and often failing to do a lot of things at once but still somehow remaining a supremely fun time, a wild and wacky rollercoaster that fluctuates between terrible trial-and-error tedium and top-tier thrills; novel FPS game design that suggests a dangerous playing-with-knives solution to Quick Save and Quick Load, the imsim’s natural predator.
andihero described DEATHLOOP best when he said Arkane have had to walk a tightrope of intentional repetition and actual repetition here, a balancing act they’ve more or less pulled off with only a few broken bones - for every frustrating long-term retry of a stealth section or battery puzzle, you’re probably gonna get a dozen moments where you effortlessly finesse an action set-piece to the point where you’re basically a teleporting Terminator vis-a-vis Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, blinking in and out of a terrifying existence (shift ftw) to fuck up a horde of drugged-up millennial wasters (my personal justification for the AI issues) while on your merry way to the next wall of inscrutable emails or scientific memos. The gunplay delivers satisfaction fast, and develops out in 60s sandboxes that more or less enable whatever variant of the FPS power fantasy appeals to you personally - though I don’t know why anyone would wanna go silent here when you can chain dudes together and kick them into the ocean.
The story’s Whatever. The bullet-points are salient - corporate-government exploitation of physical phenomena, abasement of those in acute positions of class and race, our obsession with eternal youth and pleasure-pursuit - but their presentation is backgrounded in ways that fail to bring the ideas to real life, set-dressing on primary-colour shooty-bang playgrounds. I get that Arkane are constrained by budget more than most “big” developers, but delivering almost all the game’s exposition in these little UNATCO email terminals or post-it notes just doesn’t feel right when you’re in the middle of meat-grinding zoned-out zoomer zombies with a ten-chambered chrome shotgun; I often amused myself by imagining Colt putting on little bloodstained reading glasses to decipher cryptographic cyphers and shipping manifests. The text dialogue between the Visionaries is densely dull (does anyone really wanna read a recreation of Discord banter in a sexy James Bond thriller?), and no amount of hasty last-minute “I’m building a factory… for child slavery!!!” dialogue can make them compelling villains worth hunting over and over again; Elon Musk character-shorthand no longer elicits feeling, and we must try harder.
Julianna, however, is a strong beating heart who keeps Colt/Player’s blood pumping through all the game’s channels, even those turgid tutorials and repeated visits to Fia’s hideout from hell. I can’t think of many games where the banter’s been this alive - there aren’t many cutting one-liners, but those that Colt/Julianna land on each other are often followed up with a smug-satisfied-or-surprised “aaaAAAAH HAH!”, which is endearingly lifelike and helps sell these time-turning sicko-superhumans as real people instead of right hands holding disembodied guns. The Big Twist is even handed with appropriate lack-of-care, a cack-handed backhand aimed in the general direction of the other first-person narratives that DEATHLOOP might be pastiching with its grindhouse style. Nothing’s too serious here, and I like that.
In that regard, DEATHLOOP’s a resounding success - a low-budget exploitation classic that homages and hitmans the games that it took inspiration from, a blending pot of JC Dentons and Agent 47s and SHODANs and the 451 other games where guards like to stare in the opposite direction of the door you’ve just opened. But that’s why we like these things, right? We want to be the only intelligent being in the room, again and again and again. Don’t invade my space or offer me a way out.
andihero described DEATHLOOP best when he said Arkane have had to walk a tightrope of intentional repetition and actual repetition here, a balancing act they’ve more or less pulled off with only a few broken bones - for every frustrating long-term retry of a stealth section or battery puzzle, you’re probably gonna get a dozen moments where you effortlessly finesse an action set-piece to the point where you’re basically a teleporting Terminator vis-a-vis Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, blinking in and out of a terrifying existence (shift ftw) to fuck up a horde of drugged-up millennial wasters (my personal justification for the AI issues) while on your merry way to the next wall of inscrutable emails or scientific memos. The gunplay delivers satisfaction fast, and develops out in 60s sandboxes that more or less enable whatever variant of the FPS power fantasy appeals to you personally - though I don’t know why anyone would wanna go silent here when you can chain dudes together and kick them into the ocean.
The story’s Whatever. The bullet-points are salient - corporate-government exploitation of physical phenomena, abasement of those in acute positions of class and race, our obsession with eternal youth and pleasure-pursuit - but their presentation is backgrounded in ways that fail to bring the ideas to real life, set-dressing on primary-colour shooty-bang playgrounds. I get that Arkane are constrained by budget more than most “big” developers, but delivering almost all the game’s exposition in these little UNATCO email terminals or post-it notes just doesn’t feel right when you’re in the middle of meat-grinding zoned-out zoomer zombies with a ten-chambered chrome shotgun; I often amused myself by imagining Colt putting on little bloodstained reading glasses to decipher cryptographic cyphers and shipping manifests. The text dialogue between the Visionaries is densely dull (does anyone really wanna read a recreation of Discord banter in a sexy James Bond thriller?), and no amount of hasty last-minute “I’m building a factory… for child slavery!!!” dialogue can make them compelling villains worth hunting over and over again; Elon Musk character-shorthand no longer elicits feeling, and we must try harder.
Julianna, however, is a strong beating heart who keeps Colt/Player’s blood pumping through all the game’s channels, even those turgid tutorials and repeated visits to Fia’s hideout from hell. I can’t think of many games where the banter’s been this alive - there aren’t many cutting one-liners, but those that Colt/Julianna land on each other are often followed up with a smug-satisfied-or-surprised “aaaAAAAH HAH!”, which is endearingly lifelike and helps sell these time-turning sicko-superhumans as real people instead of right hands holding disembodied guns. The Big Twist is even handed with appropriate lack-of-care, a cack-handed backhand aimed in the general direction of the other first-person narratives that DEATHLOOP might be pastiching with its grindhouse style. Nothing’s too serious here, and I like that.
In that regard, DEATHLOOP’s a resounding success - a low-budget exploitation classic that homages and hitmans the games that it took inspiration from, a blending pot of JC Dentons and Agent 47s and SHODANs and the 451 other games where guards like to stare in the opposite direction of the door you’ve just opened. But that’s why we like these things, right? We want to be the only intelligent being in the room, again and again and again. Don’t invade my space or offer me a way out.
I'm still currently playing Deathloop, and so far I think it's definitely the best Arkane game gameplay wise. It's very reminiscent of Dishonored, with all the slabs. The gunplay is phenomenal; it's weighty and packs a punch.
I've definitely played more as Juliana, I find it really tense and it's gotten me into online games again a little. It seems timeloop games are in vogue currently.
I've definitely played more as Juliana, I find it really tense and it's gotten me into online games again a little. It seems timeloop games are in vogue currently.
Deathloop had me in the beginning with its quirky style and story, Colt’s investigation into Blackreef interesting for a time. Unfortunately the longer I played, the less invested I became. The four areas recycled the entire game, even with the differences between times of day, just became boring—this extends to the lack of variety in enemies as well. I often felt frustrated with the stealth too, detection being overly sensitive even when stationary in full cover.
But I liked Colt and Julianna, their banter silly and a little bit endearing. It’s just a shame the story fizzled out like it did. Like always I finish what I start, so it’s not like I didn’t give it a chance.
But I liked Colt and Julianna, their banter silly and a little bit endearing. It’s just a shame the story fizzled out like it did. Like always I finish what I start, so it’s not like I didn’t give it a chance.
So what is this some kind of deathloop?
This review contains spoilers
It took 10 hours for this game to properly click for me and make sense, and I think it was purely because the menus are a fucking mess like I haven't seen in a while.
I was getting some kind of sensory overload every time I had to browse them. It somehow looks so much more complicated than it actually is, and I'll never understand how this setup wasn't just the first prototype for a menu system. Also, still with the controller cursor for navigation? Come on.
The game is pretty fun when the loop (shut up) starts making sense, but the premise itself kinda reveals the whole thing to be much shallower than it initially appears. Treading the same few areas at different times of day and sometimes there's snow. Barely anything changing between these other than enemy placement and some doors being open/closed. It gets old fast.
You find documents and lore about the place, but all of it seems to hint to larger stuff that doesn't pay off. I fucked the ending of the game for myself because you've to approach someone at the end of a long bridge to have a chat, and I tapped R2 to draw my gun just in case, this is when I learned that drawing it this way also fires it, and I hit them right between the eyes. No chat for me. Just standing there now, expected to make a decision based on no info. Deflated, I picked one at random, and got a cutscene that I can't even glean whether it was a good or bad ending. So off to youtube I went to see what I missed, and wouldn't ya know it, I got the bad ending. They're both bad endings. Not that there is no good ending, it's just that what they consider to be good is also a bad ending. A shit ending. They fuck the game right up the wall at the end, pay nothing off, and roll credits on you.
You just get nothing here, man. A cowardly exit. Plenty of the middle of this thing is great fun when you've hit a good stride, but you can feel it start limping in the last third. It also doesn't help that on PS5 I was plagued with visual and menu bugs that often resulted in me having to quit out. I dunno. I've only played the Dishonored games, and Prey, but this is Arkane's weakest for me. Feels like I've wasted my time here, that includes typing all this out when I could have just written "cunt game" and went to bed.
I was getting some kind of sensory overload every time I had to browse them. It somehow looks so much more complicated than it actually is, and I'll never understand how this setup wasn't just the first prototype for a menu system. Also, still with the controller cursor for navigation? Come on.
The game is pretty fun when the loop (shut up) starts making sense, but the premise itself kinda reveals the whole thing to be much shallower than it initially appears. Treading the same few areas at different times of day and sometimes there's snow. Barely anything changing between these other than enemy placement and some doors being open/closed. It gets old fast.
You find documents and lore about the place, but all of it seems to hint to larger stuff that doesn't pay off. I fucked the ending of the game for myself because you've to approach someone at the end of a long bridge to have a chat, and I tapped R2 to draw my gun just in case, this is when I learned that drawing it this way also fires it, and I hit them right between the eyes. No chat for me. Just standing there now, expected to make a decision based on no info. Deflated, I picked one at random, and got a cutscene that I can't even glean whether it was a good or bad ending. So off to youtube I went to see what I missed, and wouldn't ya know it, I got the bad ending. They're both bad endings. Not that there is no good ending, it's just that what they consider to be good is also a bad ending. A shit ending. They fuck the game right up the wall at the end, pay nothing off, and roll credits on you.
You just get nothing here, man. A cowardly exit. Plenty of the middle of this thing is great fun when you've hit a good stride, but you can feel it start limping in the last third. It also doesn't help that on PS5 I was plagued with visual and menu bugs that often resulted in me having to quit out. I dunno. I've only played the Dishonored games, and Prey, but this is Arkane's weakest for me. Feels like I've wasted my time here, that includes typing all this out when I could have just written "cunt game" and went to bed.
I just keep abandoning games! I guess I just hate them now! Deathloop is kind of dope. The artstyle and architectural design is fine, I really like Colt and Julianna's personalities and voice actors. What I don't really like is the structure of this game. The tutorial is really long and I just wanna be let lose, but then when I got loose, I fucked up the objective (I forgot to jump I guess and dropped the ghost vacuum machine in the ocean, so I can't suck up the visonary(have to restart the level)). I think I would just vastly prefer a normal level structure like Dishonored. It's dope they did this, but I don't wanna play it.
A game made of a lot of really great ideas. I love the aesthetic and the time loop gimmick, and I personally found the story very entertaining. But compared to other Arkane games its a little lacking and the Ai in particular is a joke which kinda took me out of the game more often then I was willing to let slide. Also the dark souls esque Julianna being able to be another player is balanced very poorly but the game is able to make up for it by being simply fun as hell
a real gamers' game. a game for the gamers. made by gamers. maybe not gamey gamers. but definitely the sort of quote unquote "sophisticated" gamers. the gamers who played BioShock and Half-Life and have Deus Ex posters on their wall. there's nothing really wrong with these kinds of gamers, it's just all very mid, in my opinion. like the game of film geeks who think Edgar Wright invented action comedy or Guillermo del Toro invented horror.
it's a slickly crafted, lovingly shiny game that drips with a kind of contemporary sports car swag. it presents really well. all the art design is popping off the screen. it all screams "look at me!". and tonally, the game screams "love me!" too. like there's no friction here, not really. there's friction from the time loop stuff, but far less than in say a Souls game. gaining back your XP (or residuum) is not a huge time-wasting, anxiety-driving hassle. playing it with markers and hand-helpers on turns it into a very linear experience. which is not a knock for me, I love that shit. but still, it adds up. when you leave an area, you get a lil rewards screen where Colt does a little jig in the corner and it really made me wonder who exactly game was for.
some loose points:
the banter in this game is some Marvel/Deadpool esque nonsense. it's all very smarmy and self-aware but not clever or sharp or character revealing. julianna is snarky to the point of being non-existent as a character. Colt is so dumb he's almost charming. but the game has like zero intention of exploring who this man really is outside of lame comebacks and grumbled swearing. he's maybe the most interesting game dad in some time. he's far from the stoic brooding Geralt/Kratos/Joel archetype - instead he's a real genuine loser. but again the game nothing to really say about him or for him to say. he's just a surly player surrogate at the end of the day.
the game plays the way I wish Dishonored did. far smoother. less emphasis on stealth. you can basically play it like Doom in every level except the party mansion (which is less of an intricate deathtrap and more of a series of infinite AI, making it a real pain to be in). the powers are cool. all the high level guns look like Destiny weapons. it's a fun experience for about 5 or 6 hours until you kind of exhaust everything.
i wish there was more to this game than the pastiche art style and vague meta commentary on the endless bloodthirsty loop of video game violence from the point of view of underqualified gun man. every dollar and man hour clearly went into art and graphics. job well done. i wish the game had just anything to really say in the end because it seems like a waste. even if it was just a nice character story.
i feel like the previous generation of AAA gaming already turned hard away from dark and gritty stories and away from games that could really make the player feel a friction from playing them. and that the new generation kicks off with Deathloop only makes me worry we're in for even more snarky power-fantasy trips that cuddle players even more. aww well.
it's a slickly crafted, lovingly shiny game that drips with a kind of contemporary sports car swag. it presents really well. all the art design is popping off the screen. it all screams "look at me!". and tonally, the game screams "love me!" too. like there's no friction here, not really. there's friction from the time loop stuff, but far less than in say a Souls game. gaining back your XP (or residuum) is not a huge time-wasting, anxiety-driving hassle. playing it with markers and hand-helpers on turns it into a very linear experience. which is not a knock for me, I love that shit. but still, it adds up. when you leave an area, you get a lil rewards screen where Colt does a little jig in the corner and it really made me wonder who exactly game was for.
some loose points:
the banter in this game is some Marvel/Deadpool esque nonsense. it's all very smarmy and self-aware but not clever or sharp or character revealing. julianna is snarky to the point of being non-existent as a character. Colt is so dumb he's almost charming. but the game has like zero intention of exploring who this man really is outside of lame comebacks and grumbled swearing. he's maybe the most interesting game dad in some time. he's far from the stoic brooding Geralt/Kratos/Joel archetype - instead he's a real genuine loser. but again the game nothing to really say about him or for him to say. he's just a surly player surrogate at the end of the day.
the game plays the way I wish Dishonored did. far smoother. less emphasis on stealth. you can basically play it like Doom in every level except the party mansion (which is less of an intricate deathtrap and more of a series of infinite AI, making it a real pain to be in). the powers are cool. all the high level guns look like Destiny weapons. it's a fun experience for about 5 or 6 hours until you kind of exhaust everything.
i wish there was more to this game than the pastiche art style and vague meta commentary on the endless bloodthirsty loop of video game violence from the point of view of underqualified gun man. every dollar and man hour clearly went into art and graphics. job well done. i wish the game had just anything to really say in the end because it seems like a waste. even if it was just a nice character story.
i feel like the previous generation of AAA gaming already turned hard away from dark and gritty stories and away from games that could really make the player feel a friction from playing them. and that the new generation kicks off with Deathloop only makes me worry we're in for even more snarky power-fantasy trips that cuddle players even more. aww well.
Did I expect the next game in the Dishonored series to be a PS5 launch title about dismantling an impressionist time cult? No, not really. But now I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Deathloop is a special game in that it continually gave me more than I asked for. Traversal that feels great? Check, but here are items and upgrades that really bust movement wide open. A story that justifies the game’s looping premise? For sure, but we’ll also give you knockout performances in every role and some real depth to each character if you’re willing to dig. Levels that feel purposeful and lived in? A tall ask but we’ll do that and make each space feel unique, interesting, and have at least three different versions. It’s a deceptively deep experience. At first what feels like Prey quickly gives way to Dishonored–all of which makes sense given Arkane Lyon’s tenure–but as you tug at each thread of the game, more and more reveals itself creating this standout rougelite action RPG experience that’s unlike anything else I’ve ever played. Okay, so that’s only sort of true. It’s like a TON of things I’ve played before but in the best of ways. The way it threads together the lineage of immersive first-person action games with an exceptional polish makes everything feel fresh.
Deathloop is its own marvel as much as it is the logical next step for Arkane as a studio.
Deathloop is a special game in that it continually gave me more than I asked for. Traversal that feels great? Check, but here are items and upgrades that really bust movement wide open. A story that justifies the game’s looping premise? For sure, but we’ll also give you knockout performances in every role and some real depth to each character if you’re willing to dig. Levels that feel purposeful and lived in? A tall ask but we’ll do that and make each space feel unique, interesting, and have at least three different versions. It’s a deceptively deep experience. At first what feels like Prey quickly gives way to Dishonored–all of which makes sense given Arkane Lyon’s tenure–but as you tug at each thread of the game, more and more reveals itself creating this standout rougelite action RPG experience that’s unlike anything else I’ve ever played. Okay, so that’s only sort of true. It’s like a TON of things I’ve played before but in the best of ways. The way it threads together the lineage of immersive first-person action games with an exceptional polish makes everything feel fresh.
Deathloop is its own marvel as much as it is the logical next step for Arkane as a studio.
Tried this on game pass and didn't like it. I've been a fan of Arkane with games like Prey and Dishonored, and despite mixed reviews I wanted to at least try out this game. The enemy AI is completely brain dead as you could kill someone right next to them but as long as its not in eyesight, they won't react. The levels are very linear and its just very boring to navigate. I'm glad I didn't buy this game.
Midloop
Deathloop is testament to what Arkane as a studio has developed into in the past decade or so - an intelligent game maker that understands the immersive sim like no other and refines it with their own formula in the most creative ways, borrowing multiple game ideas that have been successful in recent years and streamline it into a triple a quality experience, that makes you think one thing on so many occasions: it just works so well.
I have played and rated all but one Arkane Game with at least 4 stars, multiple times with 4,5 stars. You could say I’m a fan of their work, and so it was mind-boggling to me how bad their marketing for this game was, because up until I read the reviews I had no interest at all in this game. They did such a good job of underselling this, it’s borderline criminal. I did not expect Deathloop to be my favorite loop-centric game this year, but 12 minutes was an utter disappointment so I’ll take what I can get.
Deathloop has got to have one of the best first few hours in a game, it’s a well made tutorial for a multitude of complex systems interwoven into the very core of the narrative, it makes a lot of sense and doesn’t feel like something you want to skip - the pacing is just one of those things: it works so well. They are able to set up a great mystery, which will keep you engaged with every single tidbit of information you find. Audio logs and text chats convey the general mood as well as the cutscenes and conversations the main characters have: It has a jazzy spy thriller atmosphere and the game doesn’t take itself too seriously.
One of the big strengths of Arkane‘s formula has always been how smooth the actual gameplay feels. Using your powers and traversing the map is another one of these things: it just works so well. But what makes this so much better (for me personally) as in their previous games, is the fact that you don’t just replay levels for the heck of indulging in the mechanics, but that it’s necessary to progress with the story. Which is fine, because every area has different things going on depending on which time you arrive there. The rougelike repetition gives you the chance to try out different possibilities and perfect your playstyle. It is however far too easy, because as soon as you‘ve found your groove with shift and some of the weapons and especially hacking the turrets, you basically become a god and there is no real danger there any more. Sometimes I just ran and jumped through an entire level not even caring for the enemies, because they are just not fast enough. This definitely takes away the necessity of experimenting with the different play styles, but also makes it a lot more accessible for people who want to enjoy the story.
Another thing, that kind of looses its magic along the hours you play the game, is the unraveling of the mystery. I don’t know if it’s just me, but by the end I did not really care that much anymore and the ending kind of confirmed this hunch, it fell flat for me. It’s a bummer, because the setup was so good, but it’s also fine, because the gameplay itself is more than enough to make this game worth your while.
Immersive sims are predestined for trophy hunters like me, because some of the most fun I had while playing Deathloop, was trying to get some of the more difficult trophies like killing all visionaries without being seen in the entire loop, or not killing a single eternalist, using specific weapons or traps to kill someone and many more things that forces you to experience every single thing this game has to offer. You find secrets, Easter eggs, use guns that don’t fit you regular playstyle etc. So close to when I got the platinum I was breezing through the game like it was a playground specifically designed to be taken apart like that. It was a perfect trophy hunt.
I wouldn’t say Deathloop is the best Arkane Game to date, I preferred the atmosphere of Prey and the cinematically scripted missions of Dishonored 2. But Deathloop is definitely the most meticulously crafted one, especially considering to have a multitude of different ideas merged to one great product. It shows just how good they are as developers and I’m sure the next game will continue to prove this.
I have played and rated all but one Arkane Game with at least 4 stars, multiple times with 4,5 stars. You could say I’m a fan of their work, and so it was mind-boggling to me how bad their marketing for this game was, because up until I read the reviews I had no interest at all in this game. They did such a good job of underselling this, it’s borderline criminal. I did not expect Deathloop to be my favorite loop-centric game this year, but 12 minutes was an utter disappointment so I’ll take what I can get.
Deathloop has got to have one of the best first few hours in a game, it’s a well made tutorial for a multitude of complex systems interwoven into the very core of the narrative, it makes a lot of sense and doesn’t feel like something you want to skip - the pacing is just one of those things: it works so well. They are able to set up a great mystery, which will keep you engaged with every single tidbit of information you find. Audio logs and text chats convey the general mood as well as the cutscenes and conversations the main characters have: It has a jazzy spy thriller atmosphere and the game doesn’t take itself too seriously.
One of the big strengths of Arkane‘s formula has always been how smooth the actual gameplay feels. Using your powers and traversing the map is another one of these things: it just works so well. But what makes this so much better (for me personally) as in their previous games, is the fact that you don’t just replay levels for the heck of indulging in the mechanics, but that it’s necessary to progress with the story. Which is fine, because every area has different things going on depending on which time you arrive there. The rougelike repetition gives you the chance to try out different possibilities and perfect your playstyle. It is however far too easy, because as soon as you‘ve found your groove with shift and some of the weapons and especially hacking the turrets, you basically become a god and there is no real danger there any more. Sometimes I just ran and jumped through an entire level not even caring for the enemies, because they are just not fast enough. This definitely takes away the necessity of experimenting with the different play styles, but also makes it a lot more accessible for people who want to enjoy the story.
Another thing, that kind of looses its magic along the hours you play the game, is the unraveling of the mystery. I don’t know if it’s just me, but by the end I did not really care that much anymore and the ending kind of confirmed this hunch, it fell flat for me. It’s a bummer, because the setup was so good, but it’s also fine, because the gameplay itself is more than enough to make this game worth your while.
Immersive sims are predestined for trophy hunters like me, because some of the most fun I had while playing Deathloop, was trying to get some of the more difficult trophies like killing all visionaries without being seen in the entire loop, or not killing a single eternalist, using specific weapons or traps to kill someone and many more things that forces you to experience every single thing this game has to offer. You find secrets, Easter eggs, use guns that don’t fit you regular playstyle etc. So close to when I got the platinum I was breezing through the game like it was a playground specifically designed to be taken apart like that. It was a perfect trophy hunt.
I wouldn’t say Deathloop is the best Arkane Game to date, I preferred the atmosphere of Prey and the cinematically scripted missions of Dishonored 2. But Deathloop is definitely the most meticulously crafted one, especially considering to have a multitude of different ideas merged to one great product. It shows just how good they are as developers and I’m sure the next game will continue to prove this.
a blend of so many fantastic ideas into one incredible, memorable, and jaw dropping experience. So so much to love about this game. The combat and guns are chunky, brutal and incredibly satisfying, each with their own distinctive feel and worthwhile perks. Enemies felt navigable while still threatening. The stealth is stellar, keeping with arkanes well crafted levels that change realistically and interestingly between time periods. normally useless data logs are turned into important, detailed clues that both deepen the world-building and are useful to furthering your quest. The mysteries of blackreef cut so much deeper than it's time loop and I'm incredibly excited to learn more about this world and it's characters as I continue playing. the invasions are so incredibly fun, and while it's stressful to be invaded (I failed the final mission thrice because of an invasion) it's incredibly gratifying to overcome an opponent with real skill and interesting plays and traps. your playtime as colt informs your playtime as julianna as well traveled routes become spots to watch or lay traps. your knowledge of both attacker and defender weave into one another so seamlessly as this living world you're tasked with exploring and controlling becomes a battlefield of two equally powerful hunters scouring for each other. It's fantastic.
the aesthetic and sound design/soundtrack of this game are all incredible. everything is infused with this 70's 80's aesthetic that gives everything so much more energy and personality.guns feels powerful, like one shot could blow someones head to pieces.
the characters in this game are phenomenal, each target has mountains of personality, and colt and julianna's discourse is funny, interesting, and provides more insight into the mysteries of blackreef. every character is masterfully voice acted.
I can't find anything to dislike about this game. even after finishing, I plan to continue discovering it's mysteries, controlling it's world, and especially invading other players
the aesthetic and sound design/soundtrack of this game are all incredible. everything is infused with this 70's 80's aesthetic that gives everything so much more energy and personality.guns feels powerful, like one shot could blow someones head to pieces.
the characters in this game are phenomenal, each target has mountains of personality, and colt and julianna's discourse is funny, interesting, and provides more insight into the mysteries of blackreef. every character is masterfully voice acted.
I can't find anything to dislike about this game. even after finishing, I plan to continue discovering it's mysteries, controlling it's world, and especially invading other players
bought a xbox one s for so cheap and didn’t realize u could stream next gen games on it. cool surprise for me and it worked well, playstation now never streamed nearly as good as this. sleepy ahh moid game. fun gameplay ig but creatively bankrupt in every other single way. no story hook to speak of bc this mine as well have been written by ai and the set design is actually fucking disgusting. mid century/art deco/retrofuturism but done baselessly and with no artistic intent or love for the actual architecture and marketing of that very specific timeframe. seemingly there’s only tv pits and egg chairs bc portal and fallout are very big very popular fps games. like omg how do u think anyone who actually likes the art design here would feel if they went to a theme park or read about architecture or visited any town built within the last hundred years to see irl remnants of this time in human history. Ig that’s a slightly privileged take yeah but there’s still plenty of ways that are free and easy to familiarize urself with 50s/60s aesthetics that aren’t indulging in kind of an empty and hollow recreation of them that solely exists bc men pog out over nuke cola and jk simmons in portal 2. side note the Xbox one s is literally so sleek and pretty ahh, ps4 so fucking ugly that mine is covered in stickers.