Deathloop is the latest upcoming game from Arkane Studios, the creators of Dishonored. At first glance, the new title resembles Dishonored and its sequel in many ways, from its first-person perspective to its combination of special powers and traditional weapons, and even elements of its art style.
However, Deathloop will have a multiplayer aspect, the details of which have yet to be revealed. Here’s everything known about Deathloop’s multiplayer gameplay so far, and some of the biggest questions Arkane needs to answer about the game’s multiplayer experience.
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The story of Deathloop follows assassin Colt “The Captain,” as he tries to take out eight targets in a single day while stuck on Blackreef, a mysterious island stuck in a time loop. Colt finds that it’s impossible to take out all of his targets by going down his list, making the knowledge he's gained from previous loops vital as he tries to manipulate his targets into being in the same place at the same time.
For example, in the “Two Birds One Stone” Deathloop gameplay trailer, Colt describes preventing a scientist’s breakthrough. Colt interrupts the scientist's process in order to make sure that same scientist attends a party that night, instead of losing himself in his studies and blowing off the invitation. That party is run by another one of Colt’s targets, allowing him to save valuable time in killing both targets, and ultimately closer to freeing himself from Blackreef’s cycle.
So far, Arkane has implied that Colt’s targets are unaware of previous time loops, while Colt is somehow able to use the knowledge he's gained in previous loops to get the upper-hand. There’s another character, however, who also appears to retain knowledge from old loops, and will stop at nothing to prevent Colt from destroying the loop.
Juliana “Jules” Blake is Deathloop’s antagonist and second playable character. She is not one of Colt’s eight targets, but adds an additional layer to the game as she hunts down Colt during his own hunts. Players will have the option to have Jules entirely controlled by AI, but the game’s multiplayer mode gives control of Jules to another player, allowing them to hop into other player’s sessions to prevent them from breaking Blackreef’s time loop. There are few other games with quite the same dynamic between its singleplayer and multiplayer aspects, and as a result Deathloop raises some questions.
To start, it remains unclear what the experience of playing Jules will be like. Colt has the potential to be an extremely immersive player character in Deathloop – few games could boast that every in-game death and restart is in fact a part of the main character’s direct experience. Unless the time loop is broken, playing as Colt always seemingly ends in one of two ways, being killed or running out of time. Being killed also naturally resets the time loop, as Colt is not conscious during the remaining hours of the day.
If the player is Jules and kills Colt, however, it doesn’t follow that the island would just reset. Playing as Jules may ultimately prove to be a less immersive experience in Deathloop's gameplay, potentially throwing players into others' games each time they kill a version of Colt with little explanation. Presumably if Colt’s player kills Jules, the remainder of that loop will be singleplayer, though that has also yet to be confirmed.
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Arkane Studios will also have to be very careful in its handling of Jules’ role. The job of the second player could result in griefing, especially if experienced players are able to camp out at key locations or otherwise abuse unfair advantage. The multiplayer aspect of Deathloop has the potential to be very frustrating, with one player given the exclusive job of preventing the other from progressing through the game’s campaign. There are a few ways Arkane could limit that possibility. Jules players might spawn in different areas each time they appear, or could have some other tasks to complete during their loop to diversify the places the two players bump into each other.
One of the most exciting aspects of Deathloop’s multiplayer is the idea that players could start predicting Jules’ movements, just as they predict the movements of their eight targets. However, unless the Colt player is always paired with the same Jules player, it’s hard to see how that would be possible. It’s also similarly unclear how a Colt and Jules player could be paired without also resetting the Jules player’s game each time Colt is killed, which seems unlikely. That would require Jules players to wait far longer to restart their game compared to Colt players.
On the other hand, Deathloop’s time loop multiplayer has the opportunity to add a true thrill-of-the-hunt aspect to the game. That would likely be hard to emulate with the Jules AI option, though players can choose to set the upcoming title to singleplayer and have Jules replaced by a computer opponent regardless. Part of the game’s biggest challenge, however, is that the world itself appears to essentially exist from the perspective of Colt – it resets from the Colt player’s perspective when the character dies.
There isn’t a clear way to align the perspectives of the Colt player and the Jules player, at least so far. Instead, it seems more likely that Colt players will find themselves matched with many different Jules, with a new one each time they fail to assassinate all eight of their targets.
If executed well, however, Jules' unpredictability could be the key to the character's success. If Deathloop's Jules is the one unpredictable element on the island, Deathloop’s campaign could have far greater longevity than if Jules was an AI opponent instead. However, Deathloop will also need to explain many of the more technical details about Deathloop’s multiplayer before many fans feel confident in its unique blend of singleplayer and multiplayer experiences.
Deathloop releases on May 21, 2021 for PC and PlayStation 5.
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