Arkane Studios has built an impressive reputation for itself, regularly putting out high-quality titles like the Dishonored series and the Prey reboot. Arkane's latest game is the PS5 console exclusive Deathloop, and it's a Game of the Year contender that's as good, if not better than the studio's best games.
In Deathloop, an assassin named Colt finds himself stuck in a time loop on Blackreef Island, which constantly replays the same day. Colt's goal is to kill the leaders on the island, known as the Visionaries, but the twist is that he's being hunted down at the same time. A rival assassin named Julianna is out for blood, relentlessly pursuing Colt and killing him repeatedly as he does everything he can to try closing the loop.
Julianna and Colt have entertaining conversations, with Deathloop using the DualSense controller's speaker to great effect as the two banter with each other. Both characters have great personalities and amusing dialogue, with their relationship standing out as the highlight of Deathloop's story. The Visionaries aren't terribly memorable and the narrative doesn't really do anything exciting, but the Colt and Julianna dynamic is intriguing enough and the gameplay is so high quality that most players likely won't care about the lacking story. But what makes the rivalry between Colt and Julianna especially interesting is that she is not simply an NPC. On the contrary, Julianna is controlled by another player who is invading Colt's game.
Deathloop's Julianna invasions are a revelation that pushes the game to the next level. The Deathloop Julianna invasions take an already fun single-player first-person adventure and inject it with a healthy dose of adrenaline that can only come from competitive multiplayer games. Players will feel a rush of dread, excitement, and panic whenever the notification pops up on the screen that Juliana is "on the hunt." The battles with Julianna are equally intense and hilarious, leading to watercooler moments that will undoubtedly result in endless streamer clips and compilation videos.
When a player-controlled Julianna invades a game of Deathloop, Colt has no real idea of where she may be hiding. The person playing Colt has two different ways that they can get out of the Julianna confrontation alive. One way is to hack her antenna and escape through the tunnels, and the other is to fight Julianna head-on and kill her. Julianna has a serious tactical advantage as none of the enemies in the level will attack her, but since Colt has multiple lives and she only has one, it balances itself out.
On paper, it sounds like the Julianna invasions could be annoying and disruptive, but Colt's multiple lives ensure that they rarely are. There are definitely high stakes moments when players will wish that Julianna hasn't invaded, but the invasion mechanic usually makes everything a lot more exciting. Players have the choice of turning player-controlled Julianna invasions off, but Deathloop is much more fun with it switched on.
Colt's three lives and the game's relatively small maps ensure that these Deathloop invasions never become frustrating. There will likely be times when players hit a setback thanks to an invading Julianna killing them and making them lose all of their residuum (Deathloop's in-game currency), but it doesn't take too long to get right back on track.
Of course, Deathloop players can also play as Julianna and do some invading of their own. The meat of the game is Colt's adventure, but playing as Julianna has plenty of thrills as well, and it utilizes a completely different progression system. Instead of collecting residuum and spending points to keep equipment like Colt has to do, Julianna earns experience, levels, gear, and abilities by performing well when hunting down Colt and getting creative with the way she kills him. Playing as Julianna isn't quite as fun as playing as Colt, but it's still fun enough to give Deathloop a boost in replay value.
Basically, Deathloop takes game mechanics from traditional roguelikes, keeping the cool things about them while stripping away what makes them less accessible to the more casual crowd. Players have to deal with PvP invasions like in Dark Souls, but they have multiple attempts to fight back their invader instead of one. Deathloop players have to return to their fallen bodies to regain their residuum when they die, but Colt typically has three lives to get that done, as opposed to Dark Souls where there's only one chance to regain one's lost souls. Finishing a day means starting over from "scratch" like in a roguelike, but Colt can spend residuum to unlock permanent upgrades that make each run that much easier.
Some may even find Deathloop a touch too easy. After players acquire Deathloop's Aether slab, which lets Colt turn invisible, they can abuse it to get out of nearly every sticky situation they may find themselves in, including confrontations with player-controlled Juliannas. Slab upgrades make Colt's abilities even more overpowered, and combine that with an ever-growing arsenal of increasingly powerful weapons and soon players will find themselves to be virtually unstoppable.
Enemy AI is also notably stupid, with enemies sometimes found walking mindlessly into doors and rarely ever being a threat. Players can easily pick them off one by one with silenced weapons and wipe out the entire level without breaking much of a sweat. Making too much noise and getting overwhelmed won't end well for Colt, but Deathloop makes it easy to play the game the stealthy way. It's not out to punish players, but rather let them live out a power fantasy by giving them incredible powers and letting them run loose throughout Blackreef's four main levels.
Blackreef Island consists of four stages that have all kinds of interiors to explore along with plenty of outside space. And while this may not seem like a lot, it's worth pointing out that each area has four variants - one for each cycle of the day. Deathloop's time loop features a Morning section, a Noon section, an Afternoon section, and finally, an Evening section, at which point everything starts over and players find themselves back in the Morning.
It's interesting to see how Deathloop's levels change from one time of day to the next. For example, it may be snowing in one area during a specific time of day, or there may be a party going on that Colt can crash. Certain rooms are only accessible at certain times of day, and so players will have to spend many days exploring each area for loot and clues on how to accomplish Colt's ultimate goal, which is to kill all of the Visionaries and break the loop.
One might think that this would all get overwhelming, but Deathloop keeps track of all the important details for the player, and so there's always a clear goal to strive for and there's no need to write anything down. The game automatically remembers passwords and codes that Colt collects, and it tells players exactly where the next objective is and what time of the day it needs to be for them to complete that objective. Some might find this a little hand-holdy and it goes back to Deathloop being a bit too easy, but the alternative would've likely left a lot of people confused and frustrated.
Even though the game lets players know when they've figured out how to confront a Visionary and the method they can use to kill them, there's still plenty of room for experimentation. By studying Deathloop's Visionaries, players can learn secret ways to kill them that they may never have thought of before. It's fun figuring out how best to use Colt's abilities to get rid of each Visionary as efficiently as possible.
Deathloop pulls off the time loop gimmick extremely well, though there is one downside to it. Since the day is constantly resetting, Deathloop players will find themselves having to repeat the tedious sections of the game, which can hurt its pacing. Players can try to make these repeated sections more entertaining by using different weapons and abilities, but it can still get old. It's something that's unavoidable with Deathloop's time loop, though the positives of the premise certainly outweigh the negatives.
Deathloop is one of the best games of 2021 and one of the best PS5 console exclusives so far. Arkane has hit it out of the park yet again, with the PS5 getting yet another must-have title for its growing library of exclusive games. Deathloop may be too easy and there's definitely some tedium tied to the time loop, but most of the time players will be having so much fun that they'll easily be able to overlook its few shortcomings.
Deathloop launches September 14 for PC and PS5. Game Rant was provided with a PS5 code for this review.