Deathloop Preview – Opening with a Bang

For a man with all the time in the world, Colt Vahn is very impatient with his current situation. However, I can’t say I blame him. It is trapped in a cycle of time. After playing 12 minutes and Deathloop consecutively, timeloops feel like one of the most annoying situations you can find yourself in.

Deathloop begins in half res, when Colt is killed by a mysterious woman named Julianna Blake. As soon as he comes out of the deadly wrapping, he wakes up on a strange beach not knowing who he is, where he is, or how he got there. He is understandably a bit shocked by the entire ordeal, as he has just been brutally stabbed to death.

Julianna soon gets in touch and explains to Colt her situation and, by extension, the rules of the game. He is on an island called Blackreef, where time is perpetually stagnant; people here live the same day over and over again, seemingly for the rest of eternity. Aside from being her killer, Colt has no idea who Julianna is or why she is talking to him. Julianna, on the other hand, knows Colt very well and is upset with him for something Colt doesn’t remember. She tells him that she will continually hunt him down, killing him whenever she gets a chance. Recognizing that this is not a way to live the rest of his life, Colt is committed to breaking free from the time cycle.

I got a chance to play through the opening section of Deathloop, as well as about five hours of the game’s history. Because Colt has no idea what’s going on, he places the protagonist on a level playing field as a player, conveniently allowing the game to load up front with tons of story that sets the world and the rules of Deathloop. Done wrong, this can be an exhausting way to start a story, as the player is inundated with more proper names than they know what to do with. Fortunately, the two main characters in Deathloop are immediately likeable. Colt fills the player’s substitute’s shoes well; he is constantly upset with the situation and never treats the game world as something to marvel at. He just wants to find out what to do and leave. Julianna is a great counterpart. She doesn’t want Colt to leave; she wants to keep killing him. Above Colt’s headphones, the duo’s constant banter brings liveliness to the characters, who are beautifully written and often hilarious.

It takes a bit of time to get through the Deathloop opening, but once you get loose on the island of Blackreef, the game’s clock-like puzzle structure begins to present itself. Colt learns that eight Visionaries live on the island. If he can kill all eight in one day, he will break the cycle of time. If it fails, they come back the next day when the cycle repeats, which means you have to start from scratch.

Deathloop is developed by Arkane Studios. If you’ve played and liked games created by Arkane, like the Dishonored or Prey series, Deathloop will instantly be familiar to you. It is an immersive simulation. Blackreef is an expansive and deep world that we encourage you to explore, experiment and adapt to your play style using various powers and weapons. You can go silently or loudly, discover multiple paths to any given goal, and use items within the game world in unique and creative ways. No matter what you do, most of the time, the game will react to your actions. If you haven’t enjoyed previous Arkane games, I’m not sure Deathloop will convince you; it is largely more of that specific style of experience. But if you’re into Arkane’s previous production, Deathloop has the makings of a great entry in the studio’s portfolio.

Blackreef is divided into four major districts, each with its own clues, access to Visionaries, and unique stories that progress through the main plot or serve as secondary content. Each district has its own unique style, from a large city center hosting a massive party to an extensive research station near the coast, and going at different times of the day changes everything from who and what is available to where they patrol. the guards. You can choose to explore a district at four times of the day: morning, noon, afternoon, or night. At the end of the day, everything restarts, but you can keep the knowledge you gained from one loop to the next, which means you don’t have to start over. Fortunately, this is a welcome feature that makes the game much more gamer-engaging and less punishing than other titles adjacent to timed or roguelike games.

During my time with Deathloop, I didn’t progress too far through the story to see how many Visionaries I could defeat. However, playing Blackreef at different times of the day presented fun and unique challenges that made me try new approaches each time I visited a level. For example, discovering a potential customer in one district at night may open an opportunity in a different district in the afternoon, and so on.

Tracking leads on Blackreef quickly became my favorite part of playing Deathloop. The kill and power-ups are great too, but with limited time with the game, I’ve just been exploring, watching the world open up and my chances change over the course of a day. An embargo agreement from publisher Sony forbids me to speak too deeply about the details, but I will say that once I gathered enough in the world to find and access my first goal, it was immensely satisfying and felt like the end. he had justified the means. It takes a while to get to the bottom of any mystery in Deathloop, and based on first impressions, the game does a good job of paying your time with fun new ways to play. I’ve already started dreaming of new ways to approach goals and targets; I can’t wait to play more to see if my plans work.

I couldn’t see the online components of Deathloop. At various points in the game, Julianna hunts Colt and the two have a shootout. The catch in Deathloop is that Julianna is played by a real person who has entered your game. Sadly, she wasn’t in my preview, so aside from a scripted fight with Julianna meant to serve as a mechanic’s tutorial, I can’t really speak to how well it works or whether it’s fun to have someone infiltrate your game.

After about five hours with Deathloop, its combination of solid characters, interesting story threads, and a solid overview of the immersive simulation genre has me immensely interested in playing more. The time limit of one day and the crux of learning how to kill eight different targets within that time frame, a complex experience, to say the least, creates a satisfying puzzle. We’ll see if all that will pay off in the end. But Deathloop starts out strong and I love playing, experimenting and seeing more of his strange world.