Review — Deathloop
Break the time loop by killing your targets on the lawless island of Blackreef.
When the French developer Arkane Studios created Dishonored it seems they struck gold with this immersive sim murder game. Two sequels, Death of the Outsider and Dishonored 2, quickly followed and the success allowed them to reboot the classic FPS game Prey. After a slightly disappointing sidestep where they collaborated with MachineGames on Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Cyberpilot, they return to form with Deathloop, a new immersive sim game that puts you in the shoes of an guy who has set his goals on eliminating 8 targets. The big twist is that he has to do this in the span of one day as he is stuck in a time loop.
Welcome to Blackreef, Where the Party Never Ends
In Deathloop, you play as Colt, a man who wakes up on the beach of an island and soon discovers that he’s stuck in a time loop where he’ forced to relive the same day over and over again. Your only desire is to get out of this loop and because of this, the inhabitants of the islands aren’t exactly friendly towards Cole. However, Cole’s mission becomes clear once he figures out he must kill eight targets, the leaders of the island who call themselves Visionaries. On top of that, he’s being hunted by Julianna, a woman the has a particular relationship with. As an added bonus, players can even invade your game as Julianna if you play online, creating an extra challenge and allowing for some fun dynamics, especially between friends.
The task at hand might soon easier than it is. How hard can it be to kill eight people on a small island, right? Well, it’s more tricky than you think. The biggest hurdle is of course the fact that you are limited in time, you have to kill all eight targets before the evening is over. The second hurdle is the fact that the islands is divided into four districts and visiting each district takes up about 1/4th of your time. The game is divided into four time zones, morning, midday, afternoon and evening and during each of these time zones, you can visit one of the game’s districts. And here is where it gets interesting, because the events in the district vary depending on the time of day. The starting area Updaam for example, is pretty calm in the morning, but during the evening there’s a party going on and all the residents are all psyched up. To make it even worse, the presence and accessibility of your targets also depends on the time of day.
Murderous puzzle
The result of this is an interesting puzzle where you must uncover how you can eliminate all eight targets in one day. You do this by gathering clues and information about the happenings on the islands and the whereabouts of your targets so you can execute the perfect murder plan. Every time you die of you make it to the end of they day, you’ll probably have a few new pieces of information and Deathloop makes for a delicious and intriguing puzzle. You’re also guided very well during your endeavor, as you return to a special menu when you switch between districts where you have an informative overview of all your clues and two schematics that helps you with the tasks you need to fulfil to make progress in the game. These tasks are basically the missions you need to complete to reach your goal.
To navigate through the districts and reaching your goals, you’re given a lot of freedom, as you can expect from Arkane Studios. Just like in Dishonored, the way you approach the task is entirely in your hands. Stealth or guns blazing, sticking to the streets or jumping from rooftop to rooftop, the choice is yours. To help you with your mission, you also have some special powers at your disposal, just like in Dishonored. Here they’re calles Slabs and you can equip two of them. The one you start with allows you to revive twice, other ones, like a short-range teleportation, you’ll have to take from the corpses of your targets, including Julianna, who has a random Slab equipped. There’s also a whole arsenal of weapons at your disposal, as you can loot them from your enemies. These include even some legendary guns you can find throughout the game. But remember, you’re in a time loop, which means that you’ll lose everything once the morning kicks in again.
Die, Wake Up and Try Again
Losing everything and starting from scratch, it sure does sound like Deathloop is a roguelite game, but aside from that, the game doesn’t have much in common with that genre. In fact, unlike Returnal, the time loop in Deahtloop doesn’t change things around and nothing is randomized. This means the learning process is completely different and the fact that every day things are the same means you basically know what you can expect each time you re-enter a level. On top of that, you’ll find a special substance throughout the level and when killing one of your targets called Residium which you can infuse your weapons, slabs and trinkets with so you can keep them between each time loop.
All of this makes Deathloop a compelling and engaging puzzle that keeps you longing for more as you slowly unfold the story behind the time loop and the relation between Colt, the Visionaries and Julianna. The freedom you’re given to tackle your mission is also boosted by the excellent level design. Each area has its unique sights and sounds and Arkane Studios has done an amazing job in terms of art style. It perfectly blends the sixties with retrofuturism and a touch of movies like A Clockwork Orange, John Boorman’s Point Blank and the early James Bond movies.
All of this is featured in that familiar, slightly cartoony style that’s also on display in the Dishonored series. On PlayStation 5, the game of course looks gorgeous with impressive lighting, especially at night, and extra sharp textures. I also didn’t experience any technical issues on PlayStation 5, where you have the choice between three modes of rendering. Personally I preferred the Performance mode as this allows you to play with 60 fps, something that has become invaluable for me now that I’ve experienced it with this new console generation. My only issues with the game is that the banter between Cole and Julianna can become a bit annoying at times and the weak A.I. I mean, when I can kill a whole group of enemies from the roof while they run around like headless chickens because they can’t see me, the A.I. is just disappointing. But other than that, Deathloop is an really must-play and one of the better games released this year.
4/5
Reviewed on PlayStation 5.
Download code provided by the publisher.
