Deathloop is Arkane's upcoming assassination game with a twist. The player character Colt is stuck on the island of Blackreef, which itself is stuck in a recurring time loop orchestrated by a group of sinister scientists and socialites known as the Visionaries. To break the loop and have a hope of making his way home, Colt must assassinate all eight Visionaries before the loop resets.
Most fans of assassination games will undoubtedly have heard of Hitman. Despite being in the same genre, there are some key differences between the designs of Hitman and Deathloop, but also some interesting similarities.
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Some games have morality systems which reflect the player's choices throughout. If Corvo or Emily cuts down everyone in their path in Arkane's stealth-assassination series Dishonored, for example, they will generate Chaos, which in-turn can lead to the "bad ending." Both the Hitman series and Deathloop avoid systems that limit the player's options, allowing the player to immerse themselves as a truly pragmatic and cut-throat assassin.
Both Hitman and Deathloop have aspects of stealth and up-front violence, but choosing between them isn't a moral choice. Instead, at different points violence will help the player achieve their goals, while in other cases stealth is the more sensible route. Colt may not be as cold-blooded at Agent 47, but the time loop allows him some moral leeway. Colt can kill as many people as he likes in a loop where he's just trying to learn more about the loop. This will give the player the chance to explore a more diverse playstyle than Dishonored's Chaos system, which tended to pigeon hole them into either stealth or violence exclusively.
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The Hitman series usually divides its chapters into distinct levels, each with their own secrets to find that will allow the player to reach their goal. In one sense, this is a difference between Hitman and Deathloop, which only takes place on Blackreef. However, exploring a location looking for every possible avenue of attack will be familiar to Hitman fans, even if Deathloop only sticks to one spot. Blackreef could be one ginormous Hitman level, and like the Hitman games players will have to rely on stealth, violence, and eavesdropping as they try to piece together the setting's location and figure out how to achieve their ends.
Like Hitman, Deathloop's targets will have their own routines that the player can observe, only those routines will be guaranteed to repeat in-full because of the time loop. In the "Two Birds One Stone" Deathloop trailer, for example, the player is shown to trick one target into visiting a party with another target by destroying the first target's research, leading him to drown his sorrow in drink. This allows for both targets to be taken out at the same time.
Based on what has been revealed so far in the Deathloop trailers, the game will also share some similarities with Hitman's lighter moments. Hitman has some famously funny missions, like Agent 47 dressing up as a clown to perform a hit in Hitman: Blood Money. Deathloop's tone seems similarly cartoonish to some of these Hitman moments, if more consistently applied.
Deathloop, unlike Hitman, is a first-person shooter, has the option of multiplayer in the main campaign, and will allow Colt to use powers similar to the abilities from Dishonored. However, when it comes to exploring its locations, learning the lives of its inhabitants, manipulating them, and striking with deadly efficiency, fans of Hitman may be pleasantly surprised when Deathloop hits the shelves later this year.
Deathloop launches September 14 for PC and PlayStation 5.