Deathloop - Reviews & Discussion

Arkane's latest is just about out and according to a lot of reviews and buzz on social media, it seems to be doing something really special.

Reviews https://opencritic.com/game/10993/deathloop

The last thing I've watched about Deathloop was the part on UPF and I've grown real excited to get my hands on it tomorrow. I was pretty excited before already, but hearing praise about it from so many people I follow on Twitter definitely sealed the deal. I hope that this time it won't just be glowing reviews and that the game will actually also sell really well, because Arkane sure deserves to have a hit in their hands.

I don't know. After watching the reviews of ACG, Gmanlives, and Easy Allies, I'm still feeling really tepid on Deathloop. Something about it just seems so samey. I enjoy Arkane games as much as the next person, but their schtick has kind of worn thin for me at this point. More than anything, the complaints about the braindead AI have me really skeptical about the gameplay loop (heh). The dishonored games had a way of becoming routine once you nailed the stealth mechanics, and it seems that will be even more true here. I imagine I'll either get this on a deep sale, or hold off until it is on gamepass.

I preloaded it yesterday and just cannot wait for it to unlock. Happy to see positive reviews, but I was going to play it no matter what. I worry that it being PS5/PC could hurt sales a bit, especially since Sony can't keep up with demand for their console (for understandable reasons). Hopefully all of the positive chatter can help drive sales on PC though.

Either way, sounds like it's a no doubter if you're a fan of their previous games.

There’s no way I’m going to be able to wait for the Sony exclusivity window to end, huh.

I really want to play it but my only option at the moment is PC and I just don't know how it's going to run. I guess I can finally see how that famous Steam refund option works (or hopefully not!)

I was a little cold on it at first but hearing some people who are currently playing it say there are basically a lot of linear objectives to achieve in each loop and that you're not always going for the assassination attempt got me back onboard. Love Arkane games for their slow methodical nature and open ended design so hearing that there is a lot more to these loops than just going for the Hitman kill gives me hope this is a lot more like their previous games.

Kind of ironic that the first big AAA hit Microsoft gets and it's stuff as a PlayStation exclusive for an entire year. (Psychonauts 2 is amazing but it's not the same caliber of game)

I just watched a bit of it presented, and my attitude has been moved from little interest to; I do start to get it. It borrows on some of what Arkane has already done in previous games and puts it into a new rather imaginative setting. I know nothing of the story, just some of the mechanics and world, and it seems to mesh.

I'm thinking this may be a game I want.

I loved the dishonored series, but I'm not seeing anything at the same level as the clockwork mansion or stilton's house in this game. I'll wait a few months, looks promising, but not a day 1 buy for me.

If that's what's holding you back, stop worrying about it. As long as you're within the refund window, Steam makes it incredibly easy to get your money back. I've done it several times.

Mixed reviews on Steam because of permormance major issues.

Yeah. They're all convinced it's a Denuvo problem, but I don't see that confirmed anywhere and definitely don't trust random Steam reviewers to have any idea what they're talking about.

The best info I've seen is in this resetera thread which Alex from Digital Foundry has been posting in. Seems like confirmed problems with adaptive sync that can be partially mitigated by forcing 60Hz and vsync.

In any case, I'll be waiting a bit on this one.

I saw those Steam "reviews" and I haven't had an issue as of yet. Not saying issues can't exist, but I do know that the Steam community, especially for big games, is rarely all that trustworthy.

Anyway, I'm through my first total loop and really loving it so far!

I'm around 6 hours in and still really enjoying it. Haven't had any of the stuttering issues, but boy the game has some weird buggy stuff. One big one in particular, I got stuck in a in-game terminal menu and couldn't do literally anything and was forced to quite out entirely. Unfortunately this was after a rather lengthy fight that I had just completed, just about to head back and finish the loop. Now, because of the way this game saves, I get to do the whole level over again!

It's not the worst thing in the world because it is literally the purpose of the game, but boy was it deflating as hell after what was a really intense and fun fight.

I've had some PC issues with it, thankfully none of the stuttering issue that seems very common but having raytracing on results in a crash 100% of the time I try to add or remove a trinket to a gun. Otherwise been loving it so far.

I played up to the point where you can start getting residium last night and had a pretty good time. The game's got styyyyyle for sure and I think the voice acting is great, particularly whoever is performing Colt and Juliana, and I've definitely been hooked into the story of the island and figuring out what's going on.

My one concern right now is the combat loop. On the one hand, I kind of appreciate that it's not the focus of the game and that they've simplified some of the mechanics (e.g. bodies now just disappear, you can melee kill while holding guns, etc.) to reduce the grind of moving through the levels repeatedly. On the other hand, I'm finding the combat super-easy and while I know it's early game, I'm a little concerned that the combat won't hold up very well once I've powered up. Based on where I am in the game now, I think there'd need to be a pretty big jump in difficulty to keep it even marginally challenging.

Oh I should probably make sure raytracing is off for me. Definitely seeing some of the microstutter.

Overall I think this game is amazing, though; just having a heck of a time with it. I think it seems a tad easy in terms of being able to run around and take on enemies in that you can lure people back to you through a doorway and mow them down with a shotgun) but I've been having a bit more challenge with the Visionaries, so that's good. I kind of wish there was an actual sniper rifle in the game but the Rapier seems more than competent enough for most purposes. Anyway the action is smooth and fun and I'm really enjoying it so far!

@rorie: I'm pretty sure there is a sniper rifle in there somewhere? I've seen one a few times in the different media released for the game. Maybe it just isn't available until later.

The game is fun but I don’t agree with the 10/10s it has been getting. I was very frustrated with the first two hours that is basically a handholding tutorial. The multiplayer is kinda lame. Both times I jumped into someone’s game I killed them three times very fast and it was over for them and me. Matchmaking is super slow(playing on ps5) Took at least 3 minutes to find each match in launch day. If I were to score it I’d probably go 7 or 8.

Hmm, perhaps! It definitely feels like there aren't that many weapon types, but I haven't explored super thoroughly. It feels like having a good Rapier and a good rapid-fire shotgun is kind of all you need for most situations. I haven't bothered with the nail handgun stuff because I'm finding it easier to just shoot everyone in the head.

@rorie: This game definitely is more forgiving with going loud than Dishonored, which I think is a nice change.

The first nail gun you get was also super-frustrating because it's so underpowered. Now that I have a purple one that can take down most folks in one headshot, I've been using it more.

@chaser324: Yeah it's definitely a refreshing change of pace from Dishonored. I usually played Dishonored as no-kill, no-detection runs but those got extremely challenging by the midpoint of DH2. I'm loving the fact that I can just murder everyone here without feeling too bad about it. If anything I think they may have not tweaked the AI enough to compensate for the power of the guns - if you find a vantage point with the Shift power early in a level you can start popping people off with a Rapier without ever really triggering a response if you're careful. It definitely feels like there could be a five-star-wanted level or something like GTA if they had wanted to make killing people less effective, but I'm kind of glad they let you just do your murderspree. I think if you had to be more subtle/quiet about stuff it might make playing through the loops a bit more tedious.

I'm still in the guided tutorial loop (I think... it's weird because there's an explicitly tutorially sequence at the start, but this section is super guided as well, so more of a two-torial?), but this game captured me instantly. The story has me intrigued, the mechanics all feel good as expected from Arkane, and while sometimes it feels almost *too* much like Dishonored, the familiarity does help with the huge mechanics dump at the start. I can't pass judgment this early on, but it starts off extremely strong.

Definitely needs patching, though. On PS5, I was surprised to have two huge mid-gameplay hitches that I thought were going to crash the game. Some minor to moderate graphical glitching as well in a couple of sections (it was very noticeable in the tutorial area, there's one spot where the effect on the water changes drastically as you move the camera, like something is culling way too early). I'm also not convinced that the raytracing is working properly, unless the effect is ultra subtle here... a lot of the lighting feels sort of flat.

I've always been put off by the Arkane games in the past, I just never got into the "immersive sim" aspects of Bioshock in favor of brute force powers and plain FPS gameplay, and the idea of combining a first person perspective with stealth sounds absolutely insane to me. That being said, there was recently a ridiculous deal on PSN for the full Arkane collection (Dishonored 1, 2 and Prey with all DLC) for about $30 (appears to have gone back up this week for PS+ subscribers as well) so I decided to bite the bullet even though I'm never a backlog guy...but now reading all these impressions (and watching Vinny play after Brad over on Nextlander) makes it sound like this was the Arkane game for me...

I do find myself wondering if this will be the sort of game that gets a ton of post-release support, though, so I think I'm gonna hold off and still try to crack some time in my schedule for one of these games at the very least before I succumb to the hype and dive into a developer I've always held at arm's length.

If they do any sort of DLC, my guess is that it will be smaller standalone campaigns like they've done with in their other recent games. The main "loop" here feels too tightly constructed for them to insert any major changes into it.

But there's no harm in playing through some of their other games first. Dishonored 2 and Prey are both fantastic games.

@shagge: The first two hours is a handholding tutorial. I found it really frustrating. But once your through that it gets much better.

How often have you guys been dealing with invasions? So far about 6 hours in, outside of the tutorial one, I have yet to see Julianna come into my game at all.

@rorie said:

There's a quest/lead for an epic level sniper rifle in Updaam in the afternoon cycle. You'll get the lead automatically once you enter the area. Despite being the highest quality, I find it . . . not that good? It fires super-slowly and there's an odd delay once you pull the trigger. Makes it hard to hit anything that isn't standing perfectly still.

I didn't mind it, but now that I'm in the game proper, it really all comes together beautifully. Haven't had any weird issues since my last post, either. (also, to update on that post, I think the raytracing *is* working, as I caught some reflections that looked too good to be baked in, the art style is just deceivingly simple)

She popped up in the MIDDLE of a fight with another Visionary and it was an awesome and tense experience that was fairly challenging (although there was health EVERYWHERE)....this was at night during my first proper loop outside of the tutorial loop. How far into it are you loop-wise?

Anyway, unfortunately, the above was the example I gave in my previous post where it soft locked on me after I finished and I lost everything I did in that loop. Which is a huge bummer because she dropped a sweet upgrade to one of my slabs and now I have no idea if she'll invade again this time around or not.

I think I'm at essentially about 2 and 3 quarters loops into the game now, so far i've got 4 slabs and 1 upgrade and have fully figured out how to get 2 specific visionaries in one map at one time of day.

I liked basically everything around the gameplay from the start, like I usually do with Arkane's games. Playing it was fine too, but like for many others, it took me getting past the tutorializing to really start connecting with it. I'm definitely looking forwards to how it'll all come together by the end.

It's wild to me how just because of the games repetitive premise, it turned me being bummed out by a glitched out situation where I had to replay a level into a super satisfying situation (I went into a level knowing what I didn't know before and went from extended boss fight to a one hit assassination). It's literally just video games, but goddamn if the games presentation and putting that forefront makes it all the more enjoyable.

It's a really great game. Also, any opinions here on the multiplayer? I have zero interest, personally, but I'm still curious.

The more time I put into this game, the more I love it. The way the different aspects of the design and setup interact and layer on top of each other is incredibly fun to explore and think about, I just don't know if Arkane has managed to craft a gameplay experience where most people are going to be willing or able to fully appreciate that stuff.

The difficulty is a good example. They've created four different maps with four different variations based on time of day, and then those variations can also be affected by certain actions you take early on in a loop. All of which are variables that can ripple out and affect how you approach your objectives on other maps at other times. They also had to account for the fact that at any moment during your time on a map, your game can seamlessly shift into a match of cat and mouse with a powerful human or AI controlled hunter. On top of that, there's the concept of "loop strain", where enemies get tougher and meaner the more you succeed in offing Visionaries. This can lead to encounters being incredibly punishing, which then may lead you to hunting down new weapons or paths, or farming trinkets and upgrades to improve your chances all while the game continues to adjust the difficulty as you play.

Or at least, that's the idea. I think it's entirely possible to follow the objective markers, breeze through the solutions, and then double back to completely steamroll the entire loop in a dozen hours. There's also various bugs and glitches present at launch, some tedious mechanics or tasks, and some hit or miss PVP experiences that can bring the whole thing down. There's also the tutorial section, which... I think once you get through it, you understand why it is the way it is, but being there for the first time can be a bit of a slog.

Other than that, I think the voice work is top notch. Colt and Julianna are obvious standouts, but I think even the incidental NPC dialogue is great.

I really liked this game. I have thoughts:

I'm about 80% sure it's the dishonored universe moved into a more modern era. And it's not due to the pistol scene, though that helps. There is no references to real world locations or culture that I can see, the emblems for the "Army of the Motherland" and the general nihilistic vibe all make me fairly sure this sharing a globe with Dunwall.

Also, that ending, all of them, I'm not a fan. I felt this deserved a better wrapup. It was an appropriate one but not particularly satisfying and really abrupt. The story scenes all seemed to have people talking over each other too, which I thought was a glitch, but it match the lip sync. I noticed this in past arcane games and also the Metro series, where the acting seems fine but rushed, like they don't want to let there be any space between sentences and it just sounds weird.

These things said, I still really, really like this game.

It's fun as hell, the puzzles for secret stuff was just on that edge of smart but viable to figure out. The lore is teased out at a nice pace to keep it interesting. The guns are chonky and feel great. Everyone should play it.

I've just wrapped it up. I think this game rules for the middle 10-12 hours.

The start is a bit too slow and I felt like I already had a pretty solid idea of how the game was going to play out before I finished the tutorial section. Also, some of the slabs you get (and the subsequent upgrades) really expand the ways you can play the game. So until you have all those abilities you do feel a bit limited.

My only complaint about the gameplay is that you are restricted to bringing two slabs with you on each excursion meaning that I tended to stick with the ones that I felt would be most useful in most situations (blink and whatever the stealth one is called) and I didn't get to use the others much at all. This is partially due to the way I play games so I can't blame the game too much but it would be nice if you could bring an extra 1 or 2 (i.e by sacrificing one of your gun or grenade slots).

Story-wise I like the set up and the characters but almost all of the story is told through incidental dialogue or audio logs/text pickups. I know this works for some people but I think it's a bit shitty to have important story beats be completely missable unless you are scouring every room for little bits of paper.

The end is super abrupt and not really helped by the fact that, due to the nature of the game, you have already played 99% of the content involved. I find it bizarre that Juliana literally asks Colt to ask her questions about the nature of the loop etc. and he refuses. Also the twist that Juliana is your daughter is just sort of dropped out there and then never really explored further, I get the feeling that wasn't originally intended to be part of the plot and was added later on given how little it is discussed after its revealed

With all that being said, the core "loop" (if you'll pardon the pun) is very unique and I think this will probably top my personal GOTY list.

Hate to say it but the more I play this game the more I dislike it. I just think loop games aren't for me. Get really bored of them really fast.

I've gotta agree with this. I was afraid I'd dislike it because I hated the loop mechanic in The Outer Wilds and I generally hate roguelike/restart-the-whole-game mechanics, but also I've loved all of Arkane's stuff in the past and I think they're one of, if not the, best AAA devs currently making stuff. And also no one else seems to be able to put out immersive sims that are at least somewhat profitable.

...but I just can't do the loop thing. I feel like nothing I do in the game actually matters. I already know and understand the "you gain knowledge of the world and mechanics every time!" idea, but that doesn't work for me. Sorry, I have already seen Updaam in the morning, I don't need to see it every time I die or after every fourth area change, especially if nothing about the game is different. I'll gladly replay games I've finished, but not replay the same area over and over when trying to progress.

I'm glad Arkane finally appears to have a proper hit on their hands, but unfortunately this one ain't for me.

@taylorwmartin said:

Unfortunately, this is me as well. I was into it at first, but I've been finding myself turning on the game hard. A few things are behind this:

* I really don't like the menus. The inventory system is a bit of a mess. I find it really hard to determine what I have infused, what I don't, and what trinkets are equipped on what weapon. It was fine at first, but as you start picking up more and more junk, it just becomes unmanageable.

* It is becoming more and more apparent that there is only one way to complete the loop. I hope I'm wrong, but if that's true it's a bummer.

* Going along with the above, the game relies on the illusion of open-endednes when in reality it's pretty rigid about how it wants you to do things. Once that illusion gets broken, the game kind of falls apart. For example, opening the switches to get into the Horizon bunkers. Since it's only a three-digit code, I initially tried to just brute force it by trying every number, but nothing works. Turns out that it only works if you have found the note telling you the code.

* There's a lot of little ways in which their ideas don't quite come off. Like how Aleksis is supposed to be in disguise and you are supposed to try a bunch of different things to get him to expose himself. However, if you have subtitles on, it will identify him by name when he is speaking, which renders identifying him completely trivial.

It seems cool and I hope people enjoy it, but it also seems like utterly not my thing.

Hit credits earlier this weekend. I really loved the entire experience. My only complaint is that the very end feels a little abrupt and anticlimactic.

I can echo a lot of the sentiment on here that it is fun, and great in many ways, but also fairly mediocre in others. All I can add is my gripe with how it handles puzzles in the game. I think it doesn't clearly communicate when you can solve a puzzle in the game. Since it's a time loop game, you can miss steps early on, rendering the puzzle incompletable. Or you can stumble across what seems like a puzzle, but gotten to it too early to solve it. I just find the puzzle solving frustrating because I never know if I can't solve it because I'm dumb and not looking at the problem the right way, or if I am just there at the wrong time and am wasting my time.

@doctorodds: Same here at first. But then you just visit the same spot earlier, or later, in the timeloop and all will be revealed. I find it extremely rewarding and fun to check out the clues. I hardly bothered with the Visionaries yet and only have two slabs. 6 hours in or so.

Yeah, this bit sort of sucks. I feel like it would be easily solved if clues that related to the same puzzle were grouped together in the discoveries tab so you could see if you were missing any steps. The main one I had an issue with was the pact of smoke puzzle in Updaam.

I found the game to be incredibly over-rated. The combat is absolutely trivial as it takes all of 3 loops to get the best guns and trinkets in the game and the AI is capable of nothing more than shooting a stationary target. It only gets worse as you complete your build and now I have silent steps, silent weapons, and more energy I can endlessly teleport while one-shotting things in the head with a magically silent gun. Takes me all of 3minutes to kill every single enemy in a level (except for the ones where they magically respawn if you walk too far away).

The actual game is linear as hell and can be completed in under 10 hours if you don't get distracted. And man, is getting distracted a waste of time. The main game is quite simple requiring very little actual problem solving as everything is carefully laid out for you. On the contrary, there are some more sophisticated puzzles that require clever solutions even moving objects limited to one map to another through creative means. The rewards for these elaborate puzzles? Usually just a purple mod or two. Hell, I did one puzzle that takes 3 full loops to complete and the reward was just a joke. Oh look, there's a bondage room in here. Get it? Bondage? Like... the sex thing? Isn't that just HILLARIOUS!?!?!?! Oh don't worry, there's also a single purple trinket on the table. Sure, basic AI enemies drop 3-5 trinkets and you already have every single trinket in the game but, here, have another copy of "You can hack stuff from far away"

The game runs out of Julianna dialogue 5 loops or so in and she literally tells you "I'm out of things to say so bye" and just doesn't talk anymore. Colt clicks his earpiece EVERY SINGLE TIME HE SPAWNS regardless.

And then, the multiplayer. OMG is it bad. Completely unplayable on the garbage peer to peer system. I've played 20 games and I'd say MAYBE 3 didn't have lag. Its an absolute joke. You won't notice it playing as Colt since your host but try playing Jules just to shoot a stationary Colt 3 times in the head with none of the shots registering and then poof hes behind you with a knife cuz actually you rubberbanded back and he was never where you saw him to begin with.

Oh, and the story. Not the place for spoilers but the answer to everything is.... everything.

Is it aliens? Ancient magic? Mind Powers? Scientific Breakthroughs? Yes. But also no. But also who fucking knows because we aren't actually going to explain anything beyond the absolute basics.

Lots of cool ideas, neat until you get deep enough to see the myriad of flaws. A 7/10 at best.

@justin258: I just did a post shitting all over this game but I will say your concerns aren't really an issue here. You almost never lose anything in this game after the tutorial. There's very little of value you'd actually care about losing anyway. The levels are actually different depending on time of day, completely different buildings open, enemy placement, puzzle options, etc etc. Its basically 12 different levels with a handful of reused streets and buildings. If anything, my biggest complaint is that it's supposed to be a time loop game but it really isn't. You set a load out within like 3 loops and then use that for the rest of the game because its SO. FUCKING. EASY.

@dareitus: I think some of that choice is to counter Julianna showing up. I think the game would be too aggravating with Dishonored level difficulty in a level AND the chance of a competent player hunting them.

The more time goes on, the more I feel like this game may be headed for a Bioshock Infinite type of scenario, where glowing critical reviews prompt a harsh refusal from players who find it lacking in varying ways.

I kind of feel bad for Arkane, but at the same time... I can't completely disagree with a lot of the criticism I keep seeing, even if I enjoy what Deathloop is going for. I guess we'll see how it all shakes out down the line.

@mindbullet: The Bioshock Infinite backlash was mostly due to the narrative aspect of the game as critical essays that explored themes within video games were coming into vogue. I think everyone universally agreed that it was the best playing one of those even if the combat was still nothing to write home about.

@mindbullet: My thoughts on the game are still kind of muddled at this point, but I'm starting to feel that Deathloop is an attempt to address some (very valid) criticisms of Arkane's prior titles, but in making the effort they might have over-corrected in a lot of respects. For example, while not having a lethal/non-lethal morality distinction and not needing to hide bodies speeds up the pace of play, it also exposes a lot of the weaknesses in the AI and encounters largely end up being trivial. And while the areas are smaller and don't require nearly as much tedious backtracking as say, Prey, I also find the environments the least cohesive and memorable of the Arkane titles.

So it's kind of a mixed bag for me. I think Arkane games work best when they're structured a bit like a magic trick. You've got the big reveal, but that reveal has to be surrounded by a lot of misdirection so you don't necessarily see how things are being set up. And while I would say that the magic trick they're trying to pull of with Deathloop is in theory very cool, the misdirection surrounding that trick isn't very polished. There are too many instances where you can see behind the curtain, as it were.

Just want to say that I was super skeptical about this game, and bounced of Dishonored HARD, but I am loving it. The loop framing really serves the mechanics well.

Bioshock Infinite sold 11m it did really well at release and continued to sell over time, and has a really high user score on Steam. The backlash doesn't reflect reality.

Irrational Games created a strong narrative hook in all their games which brings in a lot of people who don't play immersive sims, along with their visually striking environments.

Arkane create amazingly intricate environments/levels, but as much as I love Talos 1 it isn't Rapture.