Arkane Studios is one of the first-person-shooter genre’s unsung heroes. The developer has crafted titles, such as Dishonored and Prey (2017), that demonstrate a knack for producing unique shooter experiences. Deathloop continues this innovative trend by focusing on a clever time-loop mechanic that sees the protagonist reliving the same day, a la Groundhog’s Day—except with a multiple of death-dealing weapons. Slated for release later this year on PlayStation 5 and PC, the $59.99 Deathloop has the potential to be one of 2021’s best games.
Death Isn’t the End
In Deathloop, you play as an assassin named Colt. Upon waking up on Black Reef island, you soon find yourself stuck reliving the same day. In order to break the endless time loop, you must hunt and eliminate eight assassins called The Visionaries. Compounding matters is an assassin named Julianna who is doing her best to prevent you from breaking the loop.
As you explore Black Reef’s four districts, you find clues and information that facilitate your assassinations. Each district has four time periods: morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. You’ll need to explore the districts at different times of the day, since each visit contains different information. Considering how The Visionaries and their followers wish to continue living within the time loop, they’ll do everything in their power to stop you from breaking the cycle.
Although you replay the same day multiple times, Deathloop is not a roguelike. With each loop, you gain clues and information about your targets and Black Reef. While Colt may lose some weapons and equipment upon death, he retains his memories. For example, if you find a safe’s code, that code stays with you on subsequent loops. Thankfully, you’re not on a timer; you’re free to explore and conduct investigations at your own pace. This gives you a chance to gather as much intel as possible for the next loop. The ultimate goal is to learn all you can about The Visionaries, so you can get them into one location and take them out.
Deadly Tools
Game Director Dinga Makaba describes Deathloop’s core gameplay as “Dishonored with guns.” The weapons include handguns, SMGs, machine guns, shotguns, and even a silenced nail gun. Multiple vending machines scattered across Black Reef supply you with near-limitless ammo (in a nice touch, the ammo is completely free). A machete is perfect for stealthy takedowns.
Rare artifacts called Slabs provide Colt with a variety of supernatural abilities. The Shift power lets you teleport across the environment, while Aether turns you invisible. Karnesis and Nexus are two of the more interesting abilities. The former is a telekinetic power that lets you fling enemies like rag dolls, while the latter links enemies together. If you kill one foe, all foes die. Trinkets are slottable items that add weapon bonuses, Slab powers, and Colt’s physical abilities. The rarer a trinket, the more powerful its effects. The effects include Crack Shot (faster aiming), Shock Absorber (reduced gun recoil), and Big Box (increased ammo).
Crashing the Party
We got to see an assassination mission in action during a digital preview event. Colt hunted a Visionary, Aleksis Dorsey, who threw a wild masquerade party. Colt sneaked across rooftops and dispatched enemies with his machete, but was killed by a turret. Instead of restarting the loop, Colt returned to the beginning of the level thanks to a mysterious, unlockable resource called Residuum. Similar to Dark Souls, Deathloop lets you return to the place where Colt died so you can retrieve his dropped items.
During the second try, Colt hacked the turret that killed him with a device called a Hackamajig. In addition to hacking turrets, this versatile tool lets you unlock doors and activate electronics to create distractions. With the turret out of the way, Colt entered the party and spotted a masked partygoer poorly performing standup comedy. Her routine didn’t win her favor with the crowd, so a trap door opened beneath her. Colt took note of this detail for possible future use. Later, Colt overheard a conversation regarding Aleksis’ arrogant, boastful nature. As the developers explained, notes, conversations, files, and other items offer insight into targets’ behaviors and schedules. You’ll find different information depending on the time of day. This encourages you to scour each district’s time periods.
The demo came to a close with Colt once again infiltrating the mansion. When he returned to the standup comedy room, Colt spotted a tall, masked man on stage. The man’s arrogance and boastfulness marked him as Aleksis. Colt stealthed to the side of the stage, found a hidden control panel, and activated the trap door under Aleksis, plunging the target into a giant meat grinder.
This is just one of many ways you can handle Aleksis. If you want, you can take your chances and come at targets with guns blazing. Or you can lead targets to specific spots to kill them. The developers stressed the importance of player agency, and the multiple ways to complete objectives. In this sense, Deathloop’s open-ended assassinations remind us of the three recent Hitman titles.
Innovative Multiplayer, Retro Style
One of Deathloop’s more interesting features is its multiplayer. As mentioned earlier, Julianna Blake actively hunts Colt throughout the game, and she’s controlled either by a human or AI opponent. When playing as Julianna, you’re free to jump into a random player’s game or one of your friends’ sessions with Colt-killing weapons and powers. You’ll also receive a list of feats to complete, such as killing Colt with specific weapons or hurting Colt without killing him (effectively griefing the opposing player). Finishing these tasks awards you with points used to unlock weapons and powers. Because of that, your Julianna will differ from someone else’s. The devs didn’t divulge many details about Deathloop’s multiplayer mode, but promises to provide more info soon.
We can’t discuss Deathloop without delving into its retro presentation. Colt is a James Bond-like character who tosses out clever quips while dispensing enemies with style. The 1960s-inspired, retro-future technology and architecture harken back to the height of the Cold War. The incongruous upbeat soundtrack also gives the game a decidedly old-school flavor. Deathloop isn’t the only video game utilizing a retro presentation (see, Fallout), but its clever use of familiar imagery and sounds is unique and attractive.
One aspect that may not go over quite as well is the game’s humor. Deathloop contains a great deal of it, at least in the demo. This is mostly due to Colt, a protagonist who uses self-deprecating remarks to deal with being stuck in an endless time loop. While levity isn’t a bad thing on its own, the overabundance of humor may turn off some people. That said, humor is subjective, so we can’t completely knock Deathloop for adding comedic dialogue and situations. Plus, considering the overall atmosphere, the humor is not wholly out of place.
Break the Cycle
As one of the last Bethesda-published PlayStation exclusives, Deathloop has garnered a lot of attention. Based on what we’ve seen, it certainly has the qualifications to become a hit. Its fast and fluid combat, huge weapon variety, cool powers, and time-loop mechanics give Deathloop a distinct identity. We’ll find out what kind of surprises Deathloop has in store when it hits PlayStation 5 and PC on September 14, 2021.
