Deathloop


Deathloop is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by Arkane Lyon and published by Bethesda Softworks. The player controls Colt Vahn, an assassin who must escape a time loop by killing eight targets known as visionaries before midnight each day. The story is set on an island named Blackreef. Each day is divided into morning, noon, afternoon, and evening; and moving between the island's four districts causes time to advance. Using Colt's arsenal of gear and powers, the player must identify the optimal way to kill all targets in one day.
Development of Deathloop began in 2018, originally as a smaller-scale project that allowed Arkane to experiment with new gameplay mechanics. The game was built on Arkane's previous works, such as Dishonored, introducing nonlinear gameplay and removing the morality system, enabling players to take risks without considering narrative repercussions. Arkane implemented asymmetrical multiplayer, an unused gameplay mechanic from its unreleased game The Crossing that enables a second player to control Julianna and hunt Colt. Films and television series like Groundhog Day and The Avengers inspired the story and aesthetics, while the Scottish Highlands and the Faroe Islands inspired the design of Blackreef.
Deathloop was released on 14 September 2021 for Windows PC and PlayStation 5, and for Xbox Series X and Series S on 20 September 2022. Although the story takes place in the Dishonored universe, Bethesda did not market it as a spin-off of that franchise because it has a distinct story and characters. Deathloop received generally positive reviews; critics praised its gameplay, structure, art direction, characters and story, but criticized its artificial intelligence. Many critics described Deathloop as original and regarded it as one of Arkane Studio's best games. It attracted more than five million players upon launch, and it was nominated for several end-of-year accolades, including Game of the Year at the Game Awards, D.I.C.E. Awards, and British Academy Games Awards.

Gameplay

Deathloop is set on an island called Blackreef. The player controls Colt, an assassin who is stuck in a time loop. Colt must eliminate eight targets called Visionaries across Blackreef before midnight; if one Visionary remains alive, the time loop will reset and undo Colt's work. Deathloop has a multiplayer mode in which the player can alternatively play as Julianna, a Visionary tasked with protecting the time loop and killing Colt. When the player takes this role, they enter a random player's game and may interfere with their play. Juliana has a unique ability named Masquerade that allows her to swap her appearance with any non-playable character, enabling her to blend in with crowds and stay concealed. If the player disables multiplayer, Julianna will be controlled by artificial intelligence.
The game has two types of missions: Visionaries Leads is the campaign's critical path and Arsenal Leads guide players to improved weapons and gear. Each day is divided into morning, noon, afternoon, and evening, and moving between the island's four districts causes time to advance. The routines of the people in a particular district vary depending on the time of day the player enters, and the player's actions in one district can affect routines in the others. Different times of day open alternative paths for players to explore. For instance, a room that is locked in the morning may be unlocked at night. Players must learn the patterns of Colt's targets and figure out the correct order in which to kill the targets. Because it was impossible for Colt to separately kill all Visionaries, he must manipulate events to assemble multiple Visionaries in one location so he can kill them in quick succession. There is only one correct order to kill all Visionaries in a single loop. The time loop in Deathloop is not timed;
players can freely explore each location to find clues and complete side objectives. A clue found by Colt may inform the player of their tasks in the next location, and intelligence collected in one loop can be used to player's advantages in the next loop. Players may need to spend multiple loops and revisit locations several times before they can identify the steps that are needed to assassinate all of their targets.

Combat

Deathloop is an immersive sim video game that is played from a first-person perspective. Players are presented with a large arsenal of tools, allowing them to choose how they want to approach their objectives. Each location in Deathloop is also a sandbox that provides alternative paths for players to reach their targets. Colt has access to firearms, melee weapons, and grenades that can be used to defeat enemies. Weapons are divided into several categories of rarity. More-common gear may frequently jam while rarer weapons are more powerful but more difficult to locate. Gunshots draw opponents in the vicinity to hunt down the player. Alternatively, players can use stealth tactics to silently evade their opponents, distract them by throwing bottles, or kill them with traps or suppressed firearms without being detected. By remaining concealed, players can eavesdrop on conversations between other characters, thus opening new gameplay opportunities. Players can use their hacking tool to disable security cameras, gun turrets and security doors to their advantage. They gain trinkets, which are divided into several tiers of rarity. Weapon trinkets improve a weapon's performance and handling, while character trinkets provide additional abilities such as allowing Colt to double jump, heal more quickly, or take less damage. Each weapon can be equipped with three weapon trinkets, while Colt can equip four trinkets.
Some Visionaries drop Slabs, mysterious tablets that grant the user special powers, when they are killed. Players can wield two of five Slabs at once. "Shift" allows Colt to teleport short distances; "Aether" briefly turns him invisible; "Nexus" links together enemies together so damage dealt to one enemy will be inflicted to all who are linked; "Havoc" significantly increases Colt's damage output while boosting his defense; and "Karnesis" enables Colt to lift and slam enemies on the ground. The "Goldenloop" update introduces a new ability named "Fugue", which allows Colt to slow and disorient targeted enemies. Slabs can be further upgraded for up-to four times by killing the Visionary who drops it in subsequent loops. Colt has an ability named "Reprise" that allows him to be revived twice in each location. If the player is killed three times in the same location, the loop will restart and Colt loses all of his weapons, trinkets, and slabs. To prevent this, Colt can infuse his gear with a resource named "Residuum" so they become permanent in his arsenal. Residuum can be collected by killing Visionaries and through caches that are found in each location. Collected Residuum cannot be carried over to the next loop. All gathered Residuum is dropped upon Colt's death, though players can recover them if they reach the location of Colt's most-recent death.

Synopsis

Setting

Deathloop is set in an alternate world resembling the 1960s; it takes place over a single, repeating day on the subarctic island of Blackreef that was first charted in 1931, Blackreef was originally home to a small fishing settlement and a military base where experiments on local temporal anomalies were conducted. It is now owned by the AEON Program, which the scientist Egor Serling founded to use the island's unique properties to gain immortality by living in an infinite time loop. Serling attracted eight other eccentric, talented individuals to his cause, the Visionaries, and scores of fanatical followers called Eternalists dedicated to serving them. Thanks to the time loop, members of the AEON Program are able to hold a never-ending party where they can do anything they desire without fear of consequences because the loop resets at midnight and restores everyone to their original state with no memories of the previous day.
The Visionaries Colt Vahn and Julianna Blake are disrupting the natural flow of the loop. Julianna is immune to the time loop's memory erasure; every day, she alerts all of Blackreef's inhabitants that Colt has betrayed the AEON Program and wants to break the loop, causing everyone to hunt him. Colt also develops the ability to retain his memories from previous days, and is able to learn the behaviors and patterns of the Visionaries and Eternalists. To break the loop, Colt must kill all eight of the other Visionaries, including Julianna, in one day because the loop requires only one of them to remain alive at midnight to reset again. The director, Dinga Bakaba, confirmed Deathloop exists in the same universe as the Dishonored series, in the far future of the events of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, and both the Dishonored series and Deathloop include references to one another.

Plot

Waking from a dream in which he is murdered by an unknown woman, Colt Vahn is hungover on a beach with no memories of himself or his location. He receives guidance from messages and meetings with alternative versions of himself, instructing him to break the time loop in which he is trapped. To do this, he must kill all eight Visionaries before the time loop resets itself at the end of the day. Julianna Blake warns the Visionaries and their followers, the Eternalists, of Colt's plan, and calls for him to be hunted. Julianna taunts Colt to try and break the loop, although she works to stop him. Colt finds, unlike the other inhabitants of the island, he has gained the ability to retain his memories across loops, allowing him to better plan and prepare for his goal of breaking the loop. He learns Julianna also appears to retain her memories across loops.
While Colt devises a plan to kill seven of the Visionaries, Julianna remains elusive, choosing to hide in the antenna of Stabilizer Core, the structure that powers Blackreef's time loops. The only way to reach the Core is to use an abandoned military rocket airplane. Colt investigates old bunkers across the island. He learns he was a member of Operation Horizon, the original military expedition to Blackreef decades earlier, but was accidentally sent into the future by an experiment that went awry. Colt joined the AEON Program in hope of finding a way to return to the past and reunite with his girlfriend Lila. As a consequence of being sent to the future, he discovers Julianna is his daughter. Colt activates the rocket plane and reaches the Core, where he confronts Julianna. Julianna says things started to go wrong when Colt, having had second thoughts about the AEON Program, started killing her in every loop to free her from it. Julianna grew to hate Colt and began to retaliate, culminating in her hunting him in every loop. Julianna presents Colt with a choice; kill her, break the loop and suffer an uncertain future, or spare her so they can continue living eternally through the loops.
  • If Colt chooses to kill Julianna and himself to break the loop, he wakes up on the beach — now a strange apocalyptic landscape — with Julianna holding him at gunpoint. She decides to spare him and departs, leaving him to face the uncertain future alone. The Goldenloop update expands on this ending, showing all of the Visionaries and Eternalists also waking to find the loop broken.
  • If Colt chooses to kill Julianna but refuses to kill himself, the loop resets as normal.
  • If Colt chooses to spare Julianna, they reconcile and cooperate to hunt the other inhabitants of Blackreef for fun.