For better and for worse, Arkane Studios has the ability to create critically-praised games that rarely reach the same level of financial success as many believe they should – case in point: the “Dishonored” franchise. Arkane, instead of giving into the easy road and creating something that goes against their method of inspired gameplay, they’ve continued in crafting games that are rather genre-bending including its latest digital experience.
Playing as a man with amnesia in a world where everyone is trying to kill him, “Deathloop” looks to turn the first-person shooting experience on its head featuring RPG elements, a plethora of powers & weapons, memorable characters, a story where time management is necessary, and a multiplayer mode where the protagonist must die. Having not been a big fan of the “Dishonored” games, I started “Deathloop” tepidly with the hope that it would grab me a lot better than its predecessors.
Did I Complete “Deathloop”?
The goal of protagonist Colt Vaughn (or antagonist, depending on what mode is being played) is rather simple: Break the time loop that causes him & everyone else on this island of Blackreef to repeat the same day over & over again. To go about breaking the loop, the player must discover how to kill all of the seven “Visionaries” before being able to confront Colt’s fellow cover star Julianna Blake so he can finish her off once & for all. The game does a good job of helping the player find paths to understanding both how to move Colt toward his goal’s success and what needs to be done to get some impressive loot.
While “Deathloop’s” main story presentation is pretty straight-forward in regards to mission objectives, there are a great many secrets in Blackreef that the player must really work hard to figure out (or look on the internet for answers) like finding a code that unlocks a potential Visionary rendezvous point by observing four unique pictures associated with cassette tapes. The trophy list is just as obnoxious in regards to pushing players to their limits. Rather easy & interesting trophies like turning a wolf mask-wearing Visionary into ground beef during his “comedy” routine are offset by complicated setups for rewards such as completing the long-winded mini-games known as “A Charlie Montague Game”.
There are also some luck-based trophies that will see players having to take out every version of the professor Wenjie Visionary on a map in less than ninety seconds, and executing three Visionaries during a dinner party before escaping without being spotted by any enemy including the huntress Julianna. After nearly twenty-five hours, I overcame all the challenges “Deathloop” had to offer, witnessed both endings, and even got some Colt kills as Julianna in the multiplayer mode to earn my eightieth platinum trophy.
Did “Deathloop” Live Up to the Hype?
Colt’s journey to break the time loop affecting Blackreef is one of great mystery and power with the latter being connected to Vaughn’s inventory. As per the norm with a FPS game, Colt can garner an array of weaponry – pistols, shotguns, rifles, and even a nail gun that works perfectly for stealth takedowns if someone can’t find a sub-machine gun sporting the “Suppressor” perk. These guns, not surprisingly, all feel and react differently when using them in the heat of battle with the Playstation 5’s controller playing a big role in the weapon’s presentation.
The Dualsense controller’s haptic feedback triggers allows for moments like charging up the aforementioned nail gun by slightly pressing on the pressurized right trigger before pushing it completely down to fire off what could be a one-hit-kill headshot. With pistols, the player can dual-wield and alternate from left to right trigger while blasting away enemies. The triggers will also lock when a gun rarely jams (something that is an issue with the lower-level guns and not the more rare weaponry). There is a rarity system when it comes to the weapons obtained with the better guns sporting better perks like damage boosting for successfully-landed shots in succession and a cloud of poisonous smoke being produced following every bullet.
The game’s “Trinket” system greatly complements Colt’s potential loadout before a mission. Trinkets are obtained through a variety of ways such as killing nameless, though highly dangerous enemies known as “Eternalists”, found by completing certain puzzles & side missions, and simply discovering Trinkets when searching through a map. Each weapon can hold three Trinkets at a time without the ability to stack Trinkets like having a pistol with two “Hellfire” Trinkets for quicker firing speed. The limitation of stacking doesn’t hinder Trinkets’ effectiveness in making weapons even deadlier including making struck enemies slow down to the point of staggering, or bullets becoming more powerful when shot from greater distances. Trinkets also play into Colt’s personal upgrades. With four slots, the player to add “Character Trinkets” that benefit Vaughn’s natural and supernatural abilities like boosting his health or double jumping.
But nothing is more impressive in Colt’s repertoire than “Slabs”. Slabs are special abilities afforded to Colt when he either defeats a Visionary or Julianna when the latter goes on the hunt. The variety of Slabs isn’t impressive in number, but definitely in presentation like the “Aether” Slab that temporarily turns Colt invisible. “Shift” will see Colt teleport in short distances, while “Nexus” clouds an enemy when struck that makes said enemy more susceptible to damage. Repeatedly overcoming Visionaries and Julianna will reward players with Slab upgrades that better said abilities. For example, with an “Influence” upgrade, the Nexus Slab’s natural effect will connect nearby enemies to one another that, when shot, will all suffer damage. The only non-upgradable Slab – “Reprise” – is Colt’s ability to respawn twice before dying – giving the player a chance to learn from their mistakes (or not get too upset when an enemy snipes Colt from out of nowhere). Changing Slabs and their upgrades becomes an imperative, yet enjoyable part of setting up Colt for another day.
Also in Colt’s arsenal is a machete perfect for cutting down enemies with stealth takedowns or a hasty decapitation when his gun runs out of ammo and the player is surrounded. The game’s stealth system really shines when the player is mixing, say, the Aether Slab sporting “Ghost” and “Erase” upgrades with a “Creeping Death” character Trinket that makes Vaughn practically silent when crouch walking and attacking; though doing stealth the old fashioned way of simply walking through a map and observing enemy patterns before going in for the kills works just as well.
Colt is given four grenades at the start of every map that may be thrown or set as mines with the latter being able to be picked up if the player sees fit. Colt’s most impressive tool is his “Hackamajig” – a remote that allows Vaughn to turn turrets in his favor, shut down security sensors, and create sound distractions by turning on radios & alarms. Hacking a turret and placing it at an entry point while moving through the nearby mansion works exceptionally well in stopping potential alerted enemies; adding another layer of stealth.
Though the game’s setting resets after a day of work, it doesn’t feature an actual clock; just four time frames: Morning, Noon, Afternoon, and Evening. After a couple of hours and early mission completion, the player is given the chance to spend “Residuum” collected from shiny objects randomly scattered throughout every map, killed Visionaries, and even from Colt when he’s forced to respawn. Spent Residuum infuses items to Colt permanently including his weapons, Slabs, and Trinkets. Players can also “sacrifice” said items for Residuum to infuse other items, or just let the loop take them. The amount of duplicate Trinkets and Slab upgrades the player will most likely attain allows for Colt to never want for the currency; making it rather easier to have the loadout of a gamer’s dream no matter the circumstances.
As noted, there are four time frames associated with the four maps available. Depending on the time frame will mean both a different look for each map and how the enemies are scattered, as well as certain blockades and openings. For example, the “Updaam” map is pretty much enemy-free in the Morning, but full of dangerous foes at night to correlate with a party happening at the mansion that is completely shut off from entering during the other three times of day. “Deathloop” doesn’t have a difficulty setting, sporting an adaptive difficulty option where enemies become more heavily-armed when Colt kills the Visionaries associated with said map and time frame multiple times.
Though the Eternalists have better weapons, they pretty much act the same from beginning to end in terms of intelligence; being easy fodder for stealth takedowns and quickly forgetting Colt’s routes when chasing him (this also applies to Visionaries). Really the only thing that makes Eternalists more difficult later in the game is their apparent super hearing and an ability to see through walls when Colt is sneaking around both visibly or invisibly.
Really the only difficult enemy is Julianna herself. Through an invasion system, players can take on other gamers who control Julianna. While players can turn off human-controlled Juliannas coming into their sessions, Blake will still invade a map even when the player is in “Single Player Mode” in her effort to hunt Colt down. Both the human-controlled and AI-handled Julianna sport Slabs and Trinkets just like Colt with the latter randomizing depending on the scenario. A majority of the time, AI Juliannas are a nuisance that are easily swatted away if the player can spot them and rush her with machete strikes, sneak up on her while invisible, or snipe her while she nonchalantly moves across a rooftop.
It doesn’t take long for players to have the ability to play as Julianna in the “Protect the Loop” mode. Invading someone’s game as Julianna unveils her unique Slab to transform into another Eternalist (a method that usually doesn’t help as player will most assuredly act like no other Eternalist on the map; making the player an easy, obvious target). Player-controlled Juliannas level up thanks to experience points attained after completing certain challenges during an invasion such as lasting ten minutes or actually killing Colt all three times. Leveling up Julianna presents her randomized Trinkets for herself & her randomly-gained weapons, Slab upgrades, and even unique costumes for herself and Colt. Unlike Colt, Julianna only has one life and no respawns; meaning one wrong move is game over in “Protect the Loop” for a Julianna player while really adding an extra layer of tension to a session.
There are technical issues not only with “Protect the Loop” mode, but the game in general. In regards to the PVP mode, players are slaves to their opponent’s and even their own internet connection quality due to lacking dedicated servers. This will undoubtedly make for sessions featuring jittery opponents and even moments like the game pulling Julianna backward repeatedly until she is in the line of a turret’s fire. Also in regards to “Protect the Loop” is the long wait times when searching for a session to invade. Depending on what happens after finding a game, Julianna could last two minutes or twenty minutes with the latter moment happening when it seems the opponent’s Colt hasn’t spawned or the adversary is away from the controller (or camping out until Julianna goes away).
While the story is enjoyable for the little bit that is shown (most of the plot being driven by Colt discovering clues as to how he can break the loop and situate Visionaries into certain positions for death), a majority of the lore’s information is provided through notes, transcribed communications through e-mail, and even recorded journals. In truth, the game’s plot hinges on the interactions between Colt and Julianna whose banter goes from playful, to vitriolic, to downright hilarious depending on the scenario including Blake sympathizing with a fellow Visionary Colt just turned to ash by setting off a believed fake rocket. It’s sad the Visionaries aren’t given more of a showcase as every major voice actor handles their character masterfully. This great voice acting is helped by a subtle, though stellar soundtrack including the ear candy that is the menu music.
Another issue has to be connected to said notes & informative writings including codes and pathways for prizes and unlocking certain routes. One key feature that shows up is a delivery booth. The only way to access this booth is by attaining a specific code that is unique to a player’s game (no codes for unlocking objects are alike from game to game, just their locations). This delivery booth’s code is located on a whiteboard in a part of the “Fristad Shore” map that’s only open at Noon – a code that’s so unremarkably placed it’s incredibly easy to miss.
Some of the more straightforward, though unassumingly intricate puzzles lack gratifying rewards. “The Complex” map allows for a player to attain a pure piece of Residuum that can be transformed into a Trinket after grabbing a crank, unlocking the pure Residuum container, running through a barrage of gunfire while, hopefully, the Residuum container doesn’t get hit, and placing it in another machine. Depending on when the player completes said puzzle the Trinket will be just one of a dozen similar Trinkets the gamer picked up by simply killing an Eternalist hours ago.
Beyond the previously mentioned technical issues with “Protect the Loop” mode and poor AI implementation are graphical glitches including enemies stuck in an animation loop before suddenly collapsing into the world, and even some puzzle pieces or hints not showing up; resulting in a restart to fix said issue. A consistent bug for a lot of people playing on PS5 have witnessed sees the menu getting stuck between time phases. Another issue is Slab upgrades disappearing during a loop. If a player picks up a new Slab while automatically exchanging it for the currently equipped Slab, the previously equipped Slab’s upgrades will vanish from Colt’s inventory until the player completes an entire loop. This means if the player is taking part in a very specific line of missions and doesn’t want to lose progress to regain their infused Slab upgrades they will have to go without until the loop resets; and if the upgrade isn’t infused it’s lost until the player gets it again – a terrible implementation for sure.
In truth, “Deathloop” is less “rouge-lite” in nature than it is a different take on the “MetroidVania” style of games experienced for decades. Thanks to some glaring flaws including unremarkable rewards for certain puzzles, disappointing AI, a PVP mode that is hindered by potential connectivity issues, and a story and its characters that are more told than shown, “Deathloop” is in no way a masterpiece. Thankfully, the implementation of Slabs, tight gunplay & stealth mechanics, and a lack of forcing the player to wait to become a brutal force on the battlefield makes “Deathloop” a mostly pleasant experience from start to finish.
Should You Play “Deathloop”?
So similar to Arkane’s seventh & eighth generation offerings, gamers will either love “Deathloop” for its frenetic gameplay, marvelous voice acting, and impressive map designs; or hate it due to the game’s lacking narrative presentation, underwhelming reward system during its latter half, and a PVP mode that suffers from no dedicated servers & will most likely wane from players dropping out in a few months. Being a jack of all trades and master of none really does hurt “Deathloop’s” replay value and the more a player loops, the more it feels like the secrets were better staying hidden.
“Deathloop” is, undoubtedly, a must-play game thanks to its uniqueness in regards to the environmental presentation and its familiar gameplay. “Deathloop’s” flaws, however, also encourages gamers to wait for a while until the game is on a slight sale unless someone is desperate for PVP action where you end up getting shot to death by a Colt jumping around like the ground is lava, or you’re able to chop down an invading Julianna when her player thinks they have you close to failure.
