Deathloop: Preview of the wacky time loop fireworks

Deathloop

Time warp mechanics seem to be a big issue in 2021. We don't know whether this is because game developers are also annoyed by the current situation and want a time before or after Corona. The fact that titles like Returnal, 12 Minutes and Deathloop are all released this year is still striking. During a two-hour digital preview event by Arkane Lyon, the developers responded briefly and crisply with the words "absolute coincidence" and a mischievous grin. This grin from Game Director Dinga Bakaba and Art Director Sébastian Mitton ran through the entire presentation of their new work Deathloop for an understandable reason.

Deathloop in the preview

1 Loops = Knowledge, Knowledge = Power 2 Make your friends' life hell 3 More rogue-lite than rogue-like 4 Dishonored with big guns 5 Island of dreams 6 Four months of fine-tuning The first-person action game already looks damn good and convinces with innovative Ideas. In addition to 60 minutes of new gameplay scenes, the two charming French gave us deeper insights into the story and the special idea behind Deathloop.

Recommended editorial content At this point you will find external content from [PLATTFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on "Load all external content": Load all external content I consent to external content being displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy . External content More on this in our data protection declaration. We do our best to explain the world of the action cracker to you. But even experienced game editors still had a few question marks over their heads after the gameplay presentation. That doesn't always have to be a good sign, but after the presentation everyone agreed: Deathloop (buy now / € 50.99) has hit potential. Fortunately, after the moving images, the two developers diligently answered questions from the trade press in a Q&A session.

Loops = Knowledge, Knowledge = Power

In itself, the island looks like paradise : Party, gambling and no laws. But for our protagonist Colt, Blackreef is more like a prison. Source: Bethesda Software On the mysterious island of Blackreef, we take on the role of the memory loss assassin Colt. This is caught in a time loop and condemned to relive the same day over and over again. To break the loop, he has to gather information to take out eight targets - all in a single day. The developers call the story itself a killer puzzle campaign. Should our character ever give up the spoon, he will wake up again and again on Blackreef Beach. In each run, however, we get more tips and hints and thus get closer to our goals.

The world of Deathloop promises to be extremely varied. On the one hand there are beaches and mountains, on the other hand there are lively small towns.

Source: Bethesda Software The island is divided into four different areas: The Complex, Updaam, Fristad Rock and Karl's Bay. We can also enter each of these areas at one of four different times of the day. In the morning, at noon, in the afternoon and in the evening. Every scene changes enormously depending on when we enter it. In the evening, for example, different areas can be explored than in the morning. In addition, our opponents and targets also change depending on the time of day. How long we stay in these areas is entirely up to us. If that all sounds difficult, let's get to the absolute game changer: This is called Julianna Blake. A rival assassin who wants to hit our character to protect the loop.

Make your friends life hell

Assassin Julianna Blake wants to stop us at all costs and will Do not do this just once. Source: Bethesda Software Deathloop can be played through completely in single player mode and does not even set the online requirement that is almost expected nowadays. Antagonist Julianna already has her own skills, strengths and weapons as an NPC and will probably kill us more than once. However, if you want, you can play the entire campaign in 1v1 against a friend or a completely stranger. "Invasion Multiplayer" is what the developers call this mode, which has already been used in this way in games such as Watchdogs, but was by no means as complex. Of course, we can also turn the tables and make life extremely difficult for our friend as Julianna. However, the developers still left some questions about how this PvP mode works exactly and how high the probability is that the main protagonists will meet in the areas. However, there should be a constant connection between the two assassins, whether online or offline.

More rogue-lite than rogue-like

Which genre actually best suits Deathloop? It's extremely hard to say, because Arkane has always been known for giving players as much freedom as possible in terms of approach. Regardless of whether it is Prey or the Dishonored franchise, the games from the French development studio have always been difficult to categorize. The rabbit runs similarly with Deathloop. When asked whether the makers would describe their new work as rogue-like, we get a clear, negative answer. This means that we will not completely lose our weapons, skills and tips after a failed loop, but can keep them or pick them up again on our corpse. The question of the time in which Deathloop takes place turns out to be just as difficult. On the one hand, the game world offers a harmonious 60s look, on the other hand, the characters and weapons look more futuristic. The term retro-future probably fits the setting best. The world of Deathloop is not only crazy and mysterious, but also beautiful to look at. Both outdoor and indoor areas shine with a wealth of details. Source: Bethesda Software

Dishonored with big guns

There is a large arsenal of weapons in Deathloop. Some can also be equipped with both hands.

Source: Bethesda Software The shooter passages predominated in the gameplay material shown. But anyone who knows Arkane knows that stealth sections shouldn't be neglected either. After all, the Dishonored series is one of the best stealth games in recent years. Unfortunately, we weren't able to lend a hand at the event and get an impression of the controls. At first glance, however, the different ratchets seem very varied. In addition to handguns, submachine guns, rifles and shotguns, there will also be a good number of wacky gadgets, such as a silenced nail gun. The weapon handling also makes a realistic impression and you can feel the force of firing the bullets just by looking at it. The cracking sound in firefights also sounds extremely powerful and realistic. Especially with the DualSense controller of the PlayStation 5 you will have a lot of fun with Deathloop according to the developers. We have already seen six of these supernatural powers in the scenes shown. With "Reprise" our character can turn back time twice after he has already died. The loop does not start again until the third death. By using "Shift", we can quickly teleport ourselves out of the danger area in tricky situations or surprise enemies by ambushing us. The ability "Aether" works in a very similar way, with which Colt becomes invisible to certain enemy types for a short time. With "Havoc" we absorb damage and convert it into a powerful power attack. The last two known skills can be combined well. "Karnesis" lets us toss our opponents through the air and with "Nexus" we connect three people who share the same fate from this point on: If one dies, everyone dies.

On Blackreef, there doesn't seem to be any friendships for to give us. Fine society is clearly only after two things: party and our death. Source: Bethesda Software In addition, we can find items on the complete map of Blackreef that further improve our psychic abilities and our guns. With a few exceptions, these are classic improvements such as reduced weapon recoil, quieter steps and a reduction in fall damage. Deathloop isn't exactly stingy with brutality. That doesn't mean that the blood flows en masse, but when our opponents, or even ourselves, have the machete stuck in our back or stomach, it hurts just to watch. At the same time, however, the title also relies on humor. The dialogues and actions of the two main protagonists definitely caused a few laughs during the gameplay presentation.

Island of dreams

As already mentioned, the style of the retro future World of Deathloop looks impressive. If we pay attention to the details, the beautiful light effects and a number of reflections are immediately positive. Thanks to the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the DualSense controller, encounters with other characters should also feel more real and captivating than in similar titles. Deathloop will get a completely German voice output until the release in September. For fans of the original scoring, we can confirm that the English dubbing works well.

Four months of fine-tuning

Does Colt feel something is being watched? But first we have to get rid of the annoying attackers. Source: Bethesda Software With Deathloop, Arkane Lyon could succeed in another great adventure after Dishonored and Prey. The developer studio has enough time until the release on September 14th to solve the problems that exist despite all the praise. So the AI ​​in the demo didn't seem really clever every now and then. For example, certain NPCs did not notice that some of their colleagues not too far away were suddenly thrown through the air. Others ran into our spheres of their own free will instead of looking for cover. The question of long-term motivation has also not yet been clarified. Does Deathloop manage to make the runs of the time loops so varied that the players don't get bored after several visits to the same areas? As already mentioned, these areas are supposed to change a lot again and again, but we cannot yet assess how this will affect after several hours of play.

Does the ultra-fast gameplay of the title also work if an inexperienced player uses the mouse and Keyboard or gamepad lend a hand? What is the motivation of the game when we slip into the role of Julianna? So a few questions are still open and without a hint and given the fact that a demo always only shows the chocolate side of a product one way or another, one should still be careful with all praise. Our first impression is positive in any case and we are confident that an innovative, wacky title for PC and PS5 could await us with Deathloop on September 14th.