Synopsis:
DEATHLOOP is a next-gen FPS from Arkane Lyon, the award-winning studio behind Dishonored. In DEATHLOOP, two rival assassins are trapped in a mysterious timeloop on the island of Blackreef, doomed to repeat the same day for eternity.
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Reviewed on: PS5
Also available for: PC
Cast: Jason Kelley, Ozioma Akagha, Cherami Leigh, Erika Ishii, H Michael Croner, Josh Zuckerman, Khoi Dao, Marcella Lentz Pope, Andrew Caldwell
Developer: Arkane Studios
Creative Directors: Dinga Bakaba, Sebastien Mitton
Executive Producer: Morgan Barbe
Technical Director: Hugues Tardif
Studio Director: Romuald Capron
After being revealed at E3 2019 and following an endless onslaught of trailers that echoed the traits of the roguelike genre, Deathloop has found its way into our homes. With the whole of Blackreef stuck in a time loop, Colt Vahn tries to break the loop by killing the eight Visionaries of the Aeon project within a single day. Deathloop continues Arkane Studios rise to prominence off the heels of the successful Dishonoured series and the reimagining of Prey. But did the team at Arkane Studios deliver the game they presented in the litany of trailers? Or is Deathloop a much greater experience?
Deathloop places you in the shoes of Colt, who’s stuck within an eternal time loop. The day is broken up into four time periods, Morning, Noon, Afternoon and Night. Players will need to explore each of the game’s four areas as events play out through the loop known as the First Day. Updaam during the morning is a quiet town district, but when the sun goes down, Updaam becomes a raging hub of life. Understanding how each area changes becomes key to Colt’s plans. This information becomes the strongest commodity within Deathloop as information is retained upon death.
The idea that information is the only thing that remains after death leads to a key question about Deathloop: is it a roguelike? Honestly, not really. Yes, once you die, you must restart each day, losing any guns, abilities, or trinkets in the process. Unless you have infused them using the games’ currency, Residuum, which will allow you to keep most of your loadout past the day’s loop. By the later stages of the game, your whole loadout is at your fingertips from the start of each day; this, in turn, leads to Residuum becoming irrelevant and collecting weapons no longer necessary. Weapons range from silent nail guns to shotguns and heavy-duty machine guns. Every weapon can be augmented with a range of perks. Still, I did not need many of these weapons as the Deluxe Edition of Deathloop (provided by Bethesda and Arkane Studios) comes with a rare silenced pistol that resolved many of the problems presented by the game. Perks are available for the guns, and more character centred perks increase Colt’s health or how much sound he makes while walking. These perks do not have much impact on the game, and many of them can be overlooked or sacrificed into Residuum rather than using them for their primary purposes.
The Abilities known as ‘Slabs’ are carried by some of the Visionaries and these Slabs bear the trademarks of Arkane Studios. ‘Shift’ allows Colt to teleport across distances, and ‘Nexus’ connects multiple enemies to be killed all at once. It is easy to see the similar abilities in both the Dishonoured series and Prey, which left me wishing that Deathloop was allowed one or two unique skills to match with the game’s flair. Much like the previously mentioned guns, once I had settled on the abilities that suited my playstyle, I had very little need to change them throughout the rest of my ten-hour playtime. This recurring theme throughout the game design of Deathloop became one of my disappointments. By the end of the game, I found myself sticking to the same paths that I could work my way through quickly. Much of the map was no longer required and unused. The exploration that filled up most of the early hours of the game was no longer needed, and much of the life that filled Blackreef disappeared and became repetitive. It’s expected from a game of this style, but I felt very little desire or need to try something new or change the way I played, which led to side missions and things off the beaten path missed within the natural course of Deathloop.
Death is not as final as previously suggested in this article or the game’s media releases. Early in the game, Colt receives the ‘Reprise’ ability, which allows him to die two times before the day is reset on the subsequent death. These extra lives are also reset by killing the game’s antagonist Julianna upon her infrequent area intrusions. Through these mechanics, the roguelike elements of the game are stripped away, and players are given more freedom to explore Blackreef or take away some of the pressure created by the punishment of death as Arkane Studios had initially presented it.
Arkane spent many of its trailers focusing its attention on Colt’s journey to kill the visionaries in a single day. There was little talk of the impact of the day cycle and how broken up the cycle is, but players can fail several times throughout a single day as the extra lives reset in-between day periods, and ammo is refilled regularly. The stigma of difficulty found within many rogue-style games is not entirely in Deathloop, so I am sure some may not pick up the game upon release because of this reasoning.
Blackreef has an attractive aesthetic, and the world is filled with many images for your eyes to feast upon. From the streets of Updaam to the frozen wastes of the Complex, there are a variety of locations to explore (as varied as a single island can be). Colt’s inner monologue is scrawled across the landscape, which could be distracting for some players, but on many occasions, I found these thoughts to be amusing and add to Colt’s character throughout the game. But with these exciting locations filled with Arkane’s trademark style of retro-modern devices that always seem inspired by Ridley Scott’s Alien, the people who inhabit it tend to fall short. The eternalists that live upon the island roam and exist as challenges for Colt across each of its areas, but the AI for these enemies leave a lot to be desired. Miss three shots around an enemy’s head? They won’t notice. Kill an enemy mid-conversation? They stand confused for a while before beginning to look around. It was not long in my time with Deathloop that I began to understand the liberties anyone can take with these NPCs, which immediately took away from the stealth gameplay that Arkane Studios’ encourages.
While other things may fall to the wayside in the later stages of Deathloop, it’s in the narrative that players will find themselves captivated. The story and mystery centred around Colt and Julianna drives the motivation to see this game through to the end. Through the conversations the characters have at the beginning of each area, it is easy to see that there is a lot of information for Colt and players to discover within the shores of Blackreef. Some of these questions are answered, while others are not. But the chemistry between the Colt and Julianna is overflowing. I do wish that had been the same for the other characters in the game. Arkane does a fantastic job of expressing its story and characters through audio recordings and documents. Still, I would have appreciated more interactions with each of the characters as the game went forward. Apart from Julianna, the rest of the Visionaries act like memories in a bottle; they do not react to previous events of days gone. There is no ongoing relationship built, only what we are told of with each of the characters. Colt Vahn is the sturdy centrepiece of the narrative, though, voiced by Jason E. Kelly, it is easy to connect with the former captain as he tries to understand his connection to Blackreef and the Aeon project.
Though “breaking the loop” is the main focus of Deathloop, players are also allowed to place themselves in the shoes of Julianna to defend the loop. Doing so puts players in someone else’s game to hunt them down. For these moments, players can choose between the ‘Single Player’ mode, ‘Multiplayer’ mode or ‘Friends Only’ mode. Sadly, I could not fully experience this second mode due to ongoing connection issues with the Bethesda servers. Anytime I switched my game on PS5 to multiplayer mode, I struggled with an error that the game was disconnected. On a couple of occasions, I attempted to protect the loop, the game was unstable, or I struggled to find another game. And yes, my internet is fine, and tests to the PSN network at the time came back successful.
Deathloop is not the game that has been presented to players through countless trailers since 2019. It is a much better experience that continues the hallmarks of Arkane Studios. Allowing players to find their style within a game and using it to conquer any challenge put before them, its execution within Deathloop may not be flawless across multiple areas, however, my time with the game was still enjoyable, and I fully expect Deathloop to grace itself on several Game of the Year lists as 2021 comes to a close.
Arkane Studios has truly cemented its style now with another franchise added to its repertoire. I look forward to how the studio strives to innovate within its style, whether that is through writing, level design or game design. Deathloop’s ending leaves plenty of questions and may not satisfy everyone, but there is plenty to love about the game and plenty more to see when another instalment graces our press conferences.
(Deathloop code provided for review)
