Introduction

Deathloop is a first-person roguelite shooter made by Arkane Games (Dishonoured devs).(Roguelite is a sub-genre of roguelikes, it plays largely similar but is generally more forgiving) It is about the protagonist, Colt, being trapped in a continuous loop of the same day. If you die you wake up at the start of the day, if you get to the end of the day without dying you wake up at the start of the day. The only way out of the loop is to kill 8 “visionaries” (bosses) all in the same day. But one of the more forgiving aspects of the game is that you get 2 lives, unlike most roguelites which give you one. The game has four maps and four times of day; morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. Each time of day can be played at your leisure since there's no time limit, you simply choose to exit the map when you’re done and that moves the day along. Each map also plays differently given the time of day and has different events. 

 

Story - 8/10

The story is pretty engaging, the main character and the villain are by far the standout characters with a great back and forth dynamic. The visionaries are fun and have unique personalities. But the main story lacks depth and reason as to why the loop really exists and what happened in the real world that lead to the creation of the loop. A lot of the story is uncovered through log hunting in the world which can be fun, but at a point you just want to play the game and not read every page you come across. But overall I really liked the story and the characters, I just found it secondary to the extremely fun gameplay. 

 

Gameplay - 9/10

As any great game should be the gameplay is the star of the show. It plays almost exactly like a dishonoured game which for most people is a great thing, but it’s been modernised slightly with varying weapon types and power-ups. The game provides enough unique abilities to allow the player to play however they want. The stealth is well done, although maybe too easy given the brain dead AI, but still really fun. Guns blazing is really satisfying given how well made the guns are and how well they work with the power abilities. And you can mix and match and find you’re own way to play the game. While I wished there was more gun variety, I was happy with the quality of the guns there were. But the guns are secondary to the abilities. The abilities are what make the game so fun. They allow you to play however you want with a lot of style and finesse. 

 

Graphics / Audio - 9/10

The game looked great graphically on the PS5. It has a unique look to it which is really beautiful. The only issues were minor frame drops and the occasional texture issue. Other than that its one of the best looking games so far on the PS5. Because the style of the world was so beautiful it meant that the dishonoured style graphics (with a lot more colour) really stood out. 

The sound design is also just great. It felt fully immersive and detailed. 

 

Performance / UI - 7/10

This is where the game falls slightly short. Throughout my playthrough of the game, the entire game crashed about 2 or 3 times. Luckily the runs I was on weren’t massively important and it did back up to the last time of day that had an autosave, so the entire run wasn’t lost. There were minor graphical and frame issues at times. But the biggest performance issue came from what could’ve been one of the best features of the game. That’s the PVP invasion mechanic. This acted as a multiplayer version of the game where instead of playing as the protagonist, you play as the antagonist and work against colt. You are able to invade other players timelines online and try and stop them from breaking the loop. I still had a lot of fun when playing this game mode but I had constant connection issues when in a game which made it really difficult to play, plus finding a game took absurdly long. I ended up waiting about 5-10 minutes to find a game each time (sometimes more), which when you add it up you could end up spending more time waiting to join games than you do in the actual game. I think this was a great idea but just poorly executed, but I’m sure over time with updates it should get resolved, but there’s the likelihood that most people will have completed the game by then and not felt the need to go back. But if they plan to do DLCs and expansions then they could draw more people back into the multiplayer. 

 

Fun Factor - 10/10

Overall I had an amazing time playing this game, although the game’s shortcomings were obvious and needed to be talked about it didn’t stop me from having a really fun time playing this game. This is probably the most fun I have had in a game since Ghost of Tsushima was first released. Which is saying a lot for me. I didn’t find myself getting annoyed at the shortcomings and issues I just wanted to get on with the game. In 2021 we have been starved of great games and I can honestly say this is a great game that a lot of people needed. The video game community needs to support big studios taking risks with games like this, otherwise, we will be stuck with games like COD re-releasing the same game with a new skin every year. 

 

Overall Score - 8.5/10

 

Conclusion 

 

The beauty of Deathloop comes from learning more about the world and the bosses in each loop. Whereas in most roguelites you play through a run and gain permanent upgrades and abilities and such to make yourself stronger for the next run, in Deathloop the goal of most runs is to gain information. Information about the visionaries and the changes in locations in the different times of the day. But it still has classic roguelite traits like being able to keep guns and abilities through different loops. Deathloop is a unique roguelite by Arkane Studios with great gameplay, and an incredible fun factor, but falls slightly short when it comes to enemy AI and a few performance issues. My only real issue with the game is that it was too easy. Deathloop could’ve benefited massively from a few difficulty options because although I thoroughly enjoyed my whole experience playing Deathloop I never felt particularly challenged by it. But at the end of the day, Deathloop will still be high on my list for the best games of 2021.