Deathloop is Arkane Studios' upcoming stealth-shooter set in a time loop. Protagonist Colt wakes up every day and tries to take down the eight "Visionaries" controlling a time loop on a mysterious island named Black Reef. In order for Colt to kill all of his targets, he must lean about how the day's events play out and manipulate his targets into being at the same places at the same times.
To make matters worse, Colt is being hunted down by one of the Visionaries, Deathloop's other playable character Jules Blake. Before fans can dive into Deathloop this September, however, there are some great games with similar themes to keep them content.
Dishonored
Set in the upper political echelons of a strained steampunk empire, the Dishonored games have players take on the role of assassins given abilities by a mysterious being known only as the Outsider. Also made by Arkane, the Dishonored series will clearly have a big influence on the studio's upcoming game. Deathloop will even bring back some Dishonored abilities. For players who are looking to get a feel for Deathloop's combat and artstyle, a playthrough of the Dishonored games is likely the closest thing they'll find.
Majora's Mask
Majora's Mask is an undeniable giant of time loop storytelling in video games. Thrown into a strange new setting known as Termina, Link is faced with the end of the world as the moon itself slowly crashes down to earth. Equipped with the Ocarina of Time, Link has to reset the doomsday clock before every three days are up. In each loop, he must make progress through the world and uncover the mystery behind Majora's Mask. The clock is always ticking, and it's hard to imagine the developer behind Deathloop embarked upon designing a time loop-based game without considering this Legend of Zelda classic first.
Elsinore
Elsinore may not have the same action-focus or fast pacing as Deathloop. Quite the opposite - this point-and-click adventure puts players in the role of Ophelia from Hamlet as she tries to prevent the deaths of almost everyone in Elsinore Castle. Before the tragedy of Hamlet comes to a head at the end of a four-day time loop, Ophelia must talk to the different residents of the castle and manipulate events to prevent the events of the play from unfolding. Many supposed solutions lead to unforeseen consequences that end in the same events as the play, and the game has 13 unique endings aside from Ophelia's death, which resets the loop.
Braid
Bridging the gap between 2000's Majora's Mask and 2019's Elsinore is 2008's Braid, a puzzle-platformer that played heavily with time manipulation mechanics. Players take on the role of Tim, who, as in many platformers, is tasked with saving a princess. As Tim travels through different worlds he must work with different time mechanics. In one world, for example, Tim is able to reverse time, while in another time progresses and reverses based on Tim's location along the horizontal axis of the level. The game also has one of the best video game twist endings, which has generated theories about the story's meaning that range from it being about nostalgia to the invention of the nuclear bomb.
The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is a sprawling postmodern interactive comedy-drama disguised as walking simulator. This first-person games drops players into the shoes of voiceless video game protagonist Stanley as a narrator explains to him that he is a button-pushing office employee who must do as he's told. When Stanley's monitor goes blank one day, he decides to head out into the rest of the office.
As he does so, Stanley can choose to obey the voiceover instructions, or to try and forge his own path as The Stanley Parable's narrator struggles to get the narrative back on track. This game may not explicitly be about a time loop, but exploring its world scratches the surface of some of the potential themes Deathloop could explore.
Deathloop is launching September 14 for PC and PlayStation 5.