This review contains spoilers
Really sadly disappointed in Deathloop.
Arkane is one of the 3 developers I implicitly trust to give me a good time. Alongside Respawn and Platinum, going into an Arkane game, I know generally that I'm gonna get an entertaining imsim, usually primarily stealth based, and probably with cool magic powers. And on paper, Deathloop delivers that.
In practice, things are a bit different.
A good imsim is kind of like a magnificent clockwork watch. You can watch the pieces tick and work against each other, friction causing action and reaction, to present this impressive end result. You can press on different elements of the clockwork, and the system will react in different ways - this is the joy in Dishonored, how can I lean on my powers, or exploit enemy placements, or use some stage element to achieve my goal?
Instead, Deathloop is kind of like a house of cards - it's still an impressive accomplishment in its own right, but when you apply pressure to it, there's only really one way for the cards to fall down.
The sell of Deathloop was that it was Arkane's systems-based design writ large across multiple targets. What you do in the morning can affect a Visionary in the afternoon, maybe changing where they'll be in the world, or the kit they have access to.
In truth, the scenario is much more linear. There is one "solution" to the loop, and the game is basically shepherding you to achieve that one solution. Ultimately, everyone's final loop is going to look (on a macro level) the same - the only real variance will be what weapon the player used to kill the visionaries. I would argue that that is in itself countenance to what Arkane have themselves said the game would be in pre-release marketing, but more to the point, it's not what I really expected or wanted.
There are 4 areas of Blackreef that you'll be spending your time in. You'd think with 8 visionaries, you'd spend an equal amount of time in each, digging out clues and schedules, but really, you'll get to know Updaam and Fristrad Bay extremely well, with barely a visit to The Complex or Karl's Bay. The latter I think I visited a total of 4 times - and one of those was because I made a mistake while I was there so had to re-loop to try again, and one was the final loop (which forces you to go to each area in a specific order). My impression of revisiting these areas over and over was akin to that of playing Wolfenstein Youngblood - the areas themselves were quite interesting, but there wasn't enough to carry the amount of time you'd end up spending there. Rewards for exploration are rarely worth your time, especially once you've got the "legendary" weapons which you'll probably be carrying at least one of every loop after you discover them.
My one hope for the game was the final loop, which is itself fun - playing out the heist that you've (or, I guess, the game) put together and pulling it all off elegantly is quite entertaining.
ENDGAME SPOILER WARNING
Late on it is revealed that you will have to kill Julianna last, elsewhere on Blackreef. Foolishly, I thought this was perhaps an opportunity for Arkane to pull out a traditional puzzle box for the last hurrah, but sadly I was disappointed on that front.
SPOILERS END
Playing as Julianna is an exercise in frustration, at least on PC. It is evident that Deathloop has no anticheat, and because a lot of people just want to finish the game, there seems to be a dearth of players on the platform to invade. As a result, you'll quite often be dropped into a game with a Colt that is unkillable, or can resurrect an unlimited number of times. I can't say I had a single good duel as Julianna - but at least as Colt, I had a few where I was matchmade with someone fun. It can be very cathartic to get killed twice by Julianna and then get your brutal, final revenge on her.
There are other minor annoyances. The reactor section is embarassingly bad, a whole area seemingly precision-designed to set tempers aflame. Even if you know the "solution" should you get spotted, actually enacting that solution is practically impossible with the entire compound gunning for you.
Similarly, if you get spotted while in Aleksis' house (and you haven't identified which of the wolves is him) there's no way to kill him without looping as the eternalists respawn endlessly, and he seems to disappear off the map. If this happens to you because Shift fucked up and dropped you in the middle of a crowd of people, well. Let's just say it can be a tad blood-boiling.
So yeah. I'm pretty sad with how this one turned out! My only hope is that now that Arkane is a Microsoft subsidiary, they get the time and budget to make a proper new immersive sim. Dishonored and Dishonored 2 are some of my absolute favourite games, so we can but hope.
Arkane is one of the 3 developers I implicitly trust to give me a good time. Alongside Respawn and Platinum, going into an Arkane game, I know generally that I'm gonna get an entertaining imsim, usually primarily stealth based, and probably with cool magic powers. And on paper, Deathloop delivers that.
In practice, things are a bit different.
A good imsim is kind of like a magnificent clockwork watch. You can watch the pieces tick and work against each other, friction causing action and reaction, to present this impressive end result. You can press on different elements of the clockwork, and the system will react in different ways - this is the joy in Dishonored, how can I lean on my powers, or exploit enemy placements, or use some stage element to achieve my goal?
Instead, Deathloop is kind of like a house of cards - it's still an impressive accomplishment in its own right, but when you apply pressure to it, there's only really one way for the cards to fall down.
The sell of Deathloop was that it was Arkane's systems-based design writ large across multiple targets. What you do in the morning can affect a Visionary in the afternoon, maybe changing where they'll be in the world, or the kit they have access to.
In truth, the scenario is much more linear. There is one "solution" to the loop, and the game is basically shepherding you to achieve that one solution. Ultimately, everyone's final loop is going to look (on a macro level) the same - the only real variance will be what weapon the player used to kill the visionaries. I would argue that that is in itself countenance to what Arkane have themselves said the game would be in pre-release marketing, but more to the point, it's not what I really expected or wanted.
There are 4 areas of Blackreef that you'll be spending your time in. You'd think with 8 visionaries, you'd spend an equal amount of time in each, digging out clues and schedules, but really, you'll get to know Updaam and Fristrad Bay extremely well, with barely a visit to The Complex or Karl's Bay. The latter I think I visited a total of 4 times - and one of those was because I made a mistake while I was there so had to re-loop to try again, and one was the final loop (which forces you to go to each area in a specific order). My impression of revisiting these areas over and over was akin to that of playing Wolfenstein Youngblood - the areas themselves were quite interesting, but there wasn't enough to carry the amount of time you'd end up spending there. Rewards for exploration are rarely worth your time, especially once you've got the "legendary" weapons which you'll probably be carrying at least one of every loop after you discover them.
My one hope for the game was the final loop, which is itself fun - playing out the heist that you've (or, I guess, the game) put together and pulling it all off elegantly is quite entertaining.
ENDGAME SPOILER WARNING
Late on it is revealed that you will have to kill Julianna last, elsewhere on Blackreef. Foolishly, I thought this was perhaps an opportunity for Arkane to pull out a traditional puzzle box for the last hurrah, but sadly I was disappointed on that front.
SPOILERS END
Playing as Julianna is an exercise in frustration, at least on PC. It is evident that Deathloop has no anticheat, and because a lot of people just want to finish the game, there seems to be a dearth of players on the platform to invade. As a result, you'll quite often be dropped into a game with a Colt that is unkillable, or can resurrect an unlimited number of times. I can't say I had a single good duel as Julianna - but at least as Colt, I had a few where I was matchmade with someone fun. It can be very cathartic to get killed twice by Julianna and then get your brutal, final revenge on her.
There are other minor annoyances. The reactor section is embarassingly bad, a whole area seemingly precision-designed to set tempers aflame. Even if you know the "solution" should you get spotted, actually enacting that solution is practically impossible with the entire compound gunning for you.
Similarly, if you get spotted while in Aleksis' house (and you haven't identified which of the wolves is him) there's no way to kill him without looping as the eternalists respawn endlessly, and he seems to disappear off the map. If this happens to you because Shift fucked up and dropped you in the middle of a crowd of people, well. Let's just say it can be a tad blood-boiling.
So yeah. I'm pretty sad with how this one turned out! My only hope is that now that Arkane is a Microsoft subsidiary, they get the time and budget to make a proper new immersive sim. Dishonored and Dishonored 2 are some of my absolute favourite games, so we can but hope.