The games industry has had quite the year. While major releases have been relatively spread out due to complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the games that have landed on store shelves have been heavy hitters, with the likes of Resident Evil Village, Hitman 3, and plenty more earning high marks with critics. The most recent to debut is Deathloop, an FPS game from Dishonored developer Arkane.
Of course, calling Deathloop a successor to Dishonored is underselling it – a lot. Deathloop doesn’t just take the foundational concepts from Dishonored and other Arkane games and build on them, it fine-tunes them to the point of perfection. Players will have a surreal sense of familiarity when they first start exploring Deathloop’s Blackreef, but that feeling quickly melts into unbridled joy as they hack and slash their way through its challenges.
Building a Better Dishonored
Far and away the most notable game that Arkane has released, Dishonored is one of Deathloop’s defining influences. Not only do the two look similar, but they also have a distinct similar feel to them too. Swinging the machete feels like slashing away with Corvo’s sword, running through Blackreef’s streets feels like making a daring escape from city guards, and Colt – Deathloop’s protagonist – might as well have the Mark of the Outsider on his hand when using his Slag abilities.
Coupled together, one could be forgiven for thinking that Deathloop is just a Dishonored clone. But it’s evident that Arkane has used its years of experience on the Dishonored games to fine-tune Deathloop, making the game feel more fluid overall, and the protagonist a bit more versatile. It’s that iterative learning that has made Deathloop special, so special, in fact, that even those that didn’t like the Dishonored games ought to give it a try.
Quite simply, combat is more fun in Deathloop than it ever was in Dishonored. There’s a similar suite of abilities for players to use, but there’s a more diverse offering of weapons to back those abilities up. Dishonored was always punishing for those that wanted to dive right into combat, and while Deathloop is certainly more difficult when players opt for the “loud” route, it’s better at giving the player the freedom to charge right in.
Dishonored, traditionally, was about giving players the freedom to find a stealthy solution to their problem. On the other hand, Deathloop is about finding any solution possible, and better yet, chaining those solutions together into one final, perfect day. It’s a type of puzzle that doesn’t appear frequently in games, especially contemporary ones. But Deathloop does it in a way that is simultaneously challenging and approachable.
A World With Flavor
One of the most appealing aspects of Deathloop is its visual presentation. The game is gorgeous in its own right, offering stunning vistas and beautiful architecture. However, it’s not just those elements that make it a standout. Deathloop has style, perhaps more style than any other game released this year. It has a spy movie soundtrack, creative character design, and enough diversity between its areas to keep things feeling interesting.
Arkane’s other games aren’t lacking creative visuals. While Dishonored was drab and grey, the world also had a unique style for a character design that helped separate it from the other games releasing during the era. Prey’s enemy designs felt like horror proper horor movie villains that one would expect to find in Alien, and the interior of the space station broke from tradition with its presentation. But Deathloop still manages to take the crown.
Those that haven’t been invested in Arkane games in the past might want to give Deathloop a try. While the game still adopts some of Arkane’s structure and mechanics, it’s been refined so well here that even those that are easily distracted will find something to love.
Deathloop is available now for PC and PS5.