Arkane Studios is well known for creating games that marry style, player freedom,
and incredible level design.
In that sense, Deathloop nestles into the studio's pedigree quite comfortably.
While it is certainly and favorably comparable to Dishonored,
Arkane isn't just regurgitating its own recipe.
Deathloop uses time and repetition
to create something that is both narratively and mechanically fascinating.
There are times when the game can't keep up with its own ambitions, but overall,
it's a controlled, chaotic good time.
Succinctly explaining Deathloop is no easy feat, something the game itself is more than well aware of.
Its opening hours are mercifully and purposefully slow as it takes you step by step through its intricacies.
You play as Colt, someone who is trapped in time on Blackreef Island.
He's stuck in a Groundhog Day situation where every 24 hours is just a single day repeating itself.
Colt has to figure out how to break the loop and regain his lost memories,
all while evading a skilled markswoman named Julianna.
To accomplish this, he needs to gather intel
that will make the next loop more efficient
as well as kill super-powered individuals known as Visionaries.
It's clear with Deathloop that Arkane wants to balance a fine line between player discovery
and guided entertainment.
Although you may not know exactly what’s happening and why,
the game is always pointing you in at least one direction,
allowing you to constantly make meaningful progress.
There are innumerable variables that dramatically alter
even a single action.
When you travel to a specific location during the day,
how you get there, and whether or not you're detected along the way
can all shake up any given encounter.
A lot of times, there is no wrong choice since the greatest weapon in Blackreef is knowledge.
The more you know, the more avenues open up,
each filled with its own rich rewards.
You may venture out and not kill a single Visionary or gather any weapon that's useful,
instead perhaps only retrieving a code to open a particular door.
The next loop, that door may pry open a whole new elaborate path
you've never seen before.
Like other Arkane games,
the locales of Deathloop are intricate webs of possibility,
and although their purpose in providing an abundance of choice may be similar,
how the areas accomplish this goal is much different.
Because you revisit the same spots over and over to pursue different leads,
you may only be in a level for a matter of minutes, depending on your goal.
Each area accommodates this quite well, feeling compact
and letting you quickly get where you need to be, if that's your objective.
It makes areas feel a lot different than, say, a level in Dishonored,
where everything is more sprawling.
There are huge swathes of things you may not see at all,
depending on how you get through an area,
but because Deathloop is built on repetition, it's more like peeling away an onion.
As you become more familiar with an area,
you uncover additional layers, making it bigger over time.
It keeps things fresh, despite seeing the same landmarks again and again.
The amount of surprises, at least in terms of explorable spaces,
is well in tune with the length of the game.
Just as you start to tire of the locales, you'll have what you need to break the loop.
Over time, you uncover incredible weapons and abilities to power up Colt.
The best assets come with the greatest risk,
such as killing a Visionary to steal their ability or firearm of choice.
The various abilities are a delight and all feel useful in their own way.
Shift is a teleport that's essential for reaching otherwise inaccessible areas,
and Karnesis lets you fling enemies around like they're paper dolls.
One of the best is easily Nexus, which allows you to link enemies together.
You kill one linked enemy and the entire chain goes down,
creating situations where you can clear large rooms with minimal effort.
The weapons are equally powerful and come with their own unique attributes,
such as a submachine gun that can quickly transform into dual pistols.
For as powerful as your tools are, you’re limited with what you can bring with you.
Colt can only carry two abilities and three guns,
and there are plenty of situations where you'll want far more than that.
It can be even more difficult if your weapons share the same type of ammo.
As a result, you both have to plan carefully before heading out
and make crucial decisions in the moment.
Do you swap out a weapon even though you don't currently need it,
just to bring it back and infuse it so it stays in your arsenal when the loop resets?
Do you pursue new intel
or kill a Visionary again to get an upgrade for your favorite ability?
There’s no right answer, but such flexibility makes the game interesting,
at least at first.
Such interest unfortunately wanes too early, however.
Way before the end, our Colt started to feel practically invincible.
Not only did we have fully upgraded weapons and extremely useful abilities,
the majority of upgrades found were either ones we already had
or not that useful.
In the beginning of the game, it's genuinely exciting to uncover every new upgrade
just to see how Colt will grow, but far too quickly, that growth feels stunted.
Exacerbating the issue is how utterly braindead the AI can be.
They make the worst decisions, basically throwing themselves into the grinder,
and there are times when utter chaos is happening within yards of an enemy
and they don't even pretend to care.
With any open-ended game, AI can't be perfect
and unnatural responses are bound to happen, but the issues here
go beyond that understanding.
Colt also has three lives every time he enters an area.
Lose those lives and he'll lose whatever he couldn't afford to infuse and bring with him into the next loop.
Yet it doesn't take long for three lives to feel far too generous.
Even with those criticisms in mind, it's worth acknowledging
how enjoyable Deathloop is even when it's being a pushover.
There’s a flow to everything that makes combat so kinetic,
and there are multiple design decisions that prevent even the most basic encounters
from being standard affairs.
Health doesn't fully regenerate,
leading to some white-knuckle moments during frantic shootouts
when you'll be scanning the scene for any health item you can get your hands on.
Plus, even the most basic buildings have multiple ways you can approach them.
With your teleport ability,
verticality becomes one of your greatest tools.
Buffering the difficulty problem even further is the invasion system,
which is Deathloop's best aspect.
At unpredictable times during a loop, Julianna will attempt to assassinate Colt.
If you're playing in single-player mode, the AI will attempt to invade you,
which is way less dangerous than if you're playing online, where a real player is in control.
It is so unbelievably tense when someone invades.
They can set traps and lure you into them,
or they can pop out of nowhere at a moment's notice.
The mind games you play with another person as you duel are genuinely incredible.
It's a system that greatly rewards the player who has more knowledge of the current area,
as well as the one that's more properly outfitted.
The trophies for taking down Julianna are very useful.
You get an upgrade for one of your abilities and refresh your lives.
Crucially, if you just want to progress the story,
you can turn the online mode off in-between missions with no hassle.
The opt-in nature ensures that it's always a memorable encounter
and not an overly frustrating one.
Of course, you can play as Julianna and invade other players.
As she levels up, she gets stronger,
and you even earn new outfits for her and Colt.
The story of Deathloop is intentionally bewildering, but it does do some things rather well.
The Visionaries you're meant to kill are truly despicable,
and the game does a remarkable job of showing you how deep their depravity runs.
There's one segment involving a particular Visionary
that’s a great fusion of character building and gameplay.
By the time it's over, you'll be waiting with bated breath to put a bullet in the bastard's head.
It's also impressive how much of the narrative slides into focus.
Things that didn't make any sense at all in the beginning
become well understood parts of the story by the end.
Deathloop is by no means a flawlessly executed narrative, though.
Almost the entire story comes from notes and audio logs, which while pertinent,
can make it feel cluttered and dry.
When Colt heads off to a mission, Julianna will call him on the radio to insult him.
The banter they have is lighthearted, but it's also pretty one-note.
After hearing the same profanity-filled joking yet again,
it all starts to blur together and gets easy to tune out.
Deathloop absolutely has its issues,
but none of them ultimately get in the way of the experience the game is trying to provide.
There is so much delicious freedom available
that you really feel as though you get to form your own identity in the game.
It's a point that's made abundantly clear
as you study the various playstyles of the people who invade you
as well as the ones you invade.
Arkane has built a reputation on making smart games
that play as well as they're designed,
and Deathloop is only further evidence of that fact.
Final score: 8 out of 10.
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