Review – DEATHLOOP

Courtesy of the fine folks at Bethesda and Arkane, I’ve been spending a few infinitely-looping days checking out DEATHLOOP. This time-bending adventure takes you through the island of Blackreef, with the signature Arkane style allowing you to approach the adventure in your own way. Find the full video review and common-sense parent’s guide just here, and keep reading for our full written review below.

The Basics

DEATHLOOP is a new IP from Arkane, with a strong blend of shooting and sneaking allowing you to approach each area pretty much as you like. You play as Colt, a man with absolutely no memory, waking up on the shores of Blackreef. You’ll soon find a weaving web of intrigue on the island, and that you are trapped inside a single day doomed to repeat history for just about forever.

For reasons which we’ll not get into just here to let you enjoy the story, you’ll need to break the loop, and get the hell out of there. To do so, you’ll need to assassinate eight key targets in one day, each of which comes with their own unique powers. As well as breaking the loop you can also opt to crash other players’ party and assassinate them in their gameplay, similar to dark souls, as well as having other players invade your own campaign adventure.

There is a lot to discover on Blackreef and taking your memories with you into each new day, you’ll need to find clues which allow you to take out each of the 8 visionaries before the day resets and starts anew. Clues found late at night may well help you the next morning, as each area and character changes through the day. Each new loop allows you to learn from the previous, gaining further headway and providing hints to let you access new areas and of course eventually get out of the constantly repeating day.

Parent’s Eye View

DEATHLOOP is rated by PEGI at 18 and above, and by the ESRB at a mature 17+. This one contains a lot of shooting, and a good deal of up close one on one melee assassinations. In addition, there’s a huge amount of language in the title, drugs references and a whole lot more. In addition, while you can turn it to friends only or completely off, there is an option for other players to invade your game space, assassinating you and protecting the loop. Overall, this is definitely one I would say to keep to the older generation.

Accessibility

In terms of accessibility, DEATHLOOP is getting a rating of high-level. This is one which will needs, and fully deserves, a good amount of play time to collect all of the information and items you’ll need to finish the game. Sadly there aren’t any difficulty options, and while it’s not the most tricky title I’ve played, it’s certainly not the easiest either. While voice acting is great, there’s a fair amount of reading required also, and you’ll need to pay close attention to follow a complex and time-bending story.

The Run Down

Visuals – Good: I’m playing here on a build utilising a Ryzen 5 3600 and RTX 3060, and things look pretty bloody fabulous most of the time. Landscapes are verging on the beautiful, but the title is drawn back from great to good through lack of detail and limited animations during the up close and personal executions.

Audio – Great: While animations may get a little repetitive, I’m surprised at how little I’ve been annoyed by repetitive audio during the constantly repeating day of Black Reef. The voice acting is absolutely superb and packed with humour.

Narrative – Good: There is a solid narrative here, and it;s one I’ve found enjoyable and engaging overall. The failings may well be on my part here, but due to the nature of the title the only issues I’ve had with narrative have been a lack of understanding at times. Imagine if the film Tenet was a video game and you might be getting close, great story but sometimes hard to follow

Replay – Great: If I could give a mark above great for this I would, as the replay is absolutely outstanding. Within the single player, there are a huge number of ways to approach each level, and you’ll need to live, die, repeat a lot if you want to discover all of the clues Black Reef has to offer. On top of that, multiplayer allows you to invade other players spaces (as well as having them invade yours if you want) to protect the loop adding yet another layer to this onion of a title.

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The Verdict

Overall the Pixel Bandits Live, Die, Repeat Level for DEATHLOOP is Grab It. This is a strong contender and one which will likely be up in my top games of the year. I’m in love with the repeating groundhog-day style mechanic, and the fact that arkane have managed to make an entirely fresh IP which still undoubtedly still contains every bit of their DNA