With Deathloop Arkane combines the learnings of Dishonored and Prey, and delivers a groundbreaking open-approach timeloop shooter, where information is the most valuable resource.

I was already able to have a look at Deathloop in our Preview of the game and it was fairly apparent how much anticipation we all had regarding it. With the game being out, us able to play it and major publications giving glowing reviews, I think it is fair to say that the wait was worth it!

Premise

Deathloop is set in an alternate version of the 1970s that embodies the distinct visions of the future popular at the time in a stark contrast to Dishonored's dark world and not at all representative of our own world and past.

Gameplay wise it is an open-approach, first-person mix of a variety of genres such as stealth, hacking, special powers usage and assassination, all flowing into the gameplay loop of a single rewinding day in which you can both experiment with tools and manipulate your targets, the ‘Visionaries’, with the ultimate goal of having one large murder party and breaking out of the ‘loop’.

All this is happening on the Isle of Blackreef, a paradise in lawlessness and debauchery. A time loop grips the island, so the events of the day which are split into four stages - morning, noon, afternoon and Night - have no influence on the next. At the stroke of midnight everything is reset and the violent partying begins anew.

The Visionaries, your targets, live here on Blackreef; a cold, dark and desolate island on which these hot spots of 1960s fashion, architecture, and technology mentioned previously stand out like beacons of atmosphere. Very much as intended, I think.

You awaken every morning on its icy shores as Colt Vahn, a consistently humorous and foul mouthed former soldier now turned assassin whose amnesia prevents him from knowing where he came from, how he got there, or even for how long he’s been stuck in the rewind.

Gameplay

What follows this premise is gameplay that is by all means a reapplication of what Arkane is known for, there is a lot of things at play here that we have already seen in other games of theirs such as Dishonored or Prey, but they make this happen in a stylish, considerate and most importantly, very fun way.

My biggest surprise was that there's no ticking clock snapping at your heels throughout the 24 hour day, while you try to end the loop by taking out all your targets before the day resets and you end up at the uninviting shore of Blackreef once again.

Arkanes' smartest decision in my mind was to split Deathloops 24 hour day into four time periods – morning, noon, afternoon, and night – and you can remain in each of them for as long as you’d like.

On top of that you choose one of the Islands four unique districts to visit in each of these periods, and you can take your time to thoroughly explore this current combination of time and location. You see each of them will have a myriad of unique events happening only in this district and at this time.

And seemingly everything contributes to helping you solve the overarching puzzle of how to assassinate the 8 Visionaries by the time you are done with the night phase. To do this you get a variety of tools to work with.

At first, I was not able to get Dishonored with extra guns and gadgets, akin to a classic Bond movie, out of my head.

One of the first tools Colt gets his hands on is a wireless hacking device for use against security sensors and automated turrets for example. Followed closely by an explosive that can be morphed into a tripwire, a landmine or a grenade.

Then there is a steadily growing supply of Firearms which all have a unique twist and special ability attached to them. Among them for example are the Pepper Mill, a sputtering machine gun that feels appropriately inaccurate but is still very much effective at close to medium range, and The Fourpounder, an accurate pistol that fires with the force of a cannon, albeit quite slowly. The feeling of all these weapons is very different and satisfying.

But that's not all! You'll have much more fun if you combine all this with the use of Slabs, magical abilities taken from Visionaries you have eliminated.

Slabs

Although you're restricted in the number of slabs (and weapons for that matter) you can take into one single day, having to make that choice brings a deep sense of decision making and replayability to the gameplay loop. You can of course pick up new weapons and slabs, let's say, when you kill another visionary, but the dropped ones will be unavailable for the rest of the day.

In any case, slabs can be used in combination with your weapons and the environment to approach situations in unique and interestingly beneficial ways, and all of these approaches feel viable no matter if you choose to go guns blazing or stealthy. Multiple powers can also be combined.

Pairing the teleportation ability (named Shift), with the invisibility of Aether, for example, allows you to observe enemy paths without detection by gaining access to higher ground while invisible. From there they can be strategically picked off with, for example, the silent Nail Gun.

Progression

Let's say one of these plans fails though and Colt does bite the dust: Do not worry too much, certain key developments stay with you and within the world.

Warning: Minor Spoilers

Firstly there is your expanding journal of events you have witnessed. Those are things like mission objectives and passwords, which are conveniently preserved in your journal and autofilled whenever you come to a relevant door; and there are many locked doors...

If you've killed a Visionary, you can also retain their particular weapons, Slabs and trinkets (which are smaller equipables that grant minor benefits to Colt) between runs by infusing them with the ingame currency known as "Residium" which you find throughout Blackreef. I have never been wanting for that by the way, the resource is generously spread around.

Then there are Slab mods, which are gained by killing the owner of the Slab, usually one of the Visionaries, over and over - a clever way to incentivise revisiting certain time and place combinations and try murdering a Visionary again with a different set of powers or information at your disposal for another upgrade to his Slab.

Ultimately, the combat system does not need the traditional XP grind or extensive ability trees, or many other systems that have become standard over the last decade. Arkane is famous for this and they have built a robust and diverse enough system here that will keep you engaged and experimenting, while still gaining progress for the entirety of the gameplay duration which for me was around 20 hours.

System Requirements

Unfortunately as with many of Arkane’s titles, it is advisable to play Deathloop with a relatively beefy PC.

Recommended (1080p. 60 fps, high settings):

• OS : 64 bit Windows 10 version 1909 or higher
• Processor : Intel Core i7-9700K @ 3.60GHz or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
• Memory : 16 GB
• Graphics : Nvidia RTX 2060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8GB)
• DirectX : Version 12
• Storage : 30 GB available space (SSD)

You might have played a lot of games before that felt a little bit like Deathloop. Recent ones that bring a similar experience to the table are heavyweights like Hitman, Outer Wilds and Wolfenstein for example, it is by no means to be taken negatively, Deathloop does what they do very well.

But never has there been anything that brings together so many interesting ideas and combines them into such a strong open world to create something so absurdly unique and yet so fun to play around in.

Verdict

Its looping day, doomed to repeat until you manage to bring together and assassinate your eight targets, is a sandbox for satisfying gunplay, organic investigation of the world, fun experimentation, and even a unique multiplayer component that has you on the edge of your seat should you choose to enable it.

I would rate this game a 9/10

Developers Arkane are experienced enough with their systems that they can weave them together in a way now that we get some groundbreaking new titles out of the process.

And you can get this Gem right here on Voidu!