Unfortunately, it got sort of middling to high reviews. A lot of people saying there isn’t much there. I held off on Deathloop until I was talked into getting Returnal, another one of those, “This is a cool concept, but not complete” type games. When I was looking for Returnal, I found someone selling both games for $30. Seemed like a deal.
Deathloop sat on my shelf for almost a year before I actually installed it. I was waiting for Indiana Jones to come out on the PS5 and had nothing in particular to play, so I popped it in to see what it was about.
I loved it. It felt like a fresh concept on environmental puzzles. There are four major areas, four times of day, which means there are 16 distinct setups to solve the puzzles.
I didn’t realize it at first, but the environments change so much depending on what time of day you go to them. I know that’s sort of the point of Deathloop, but the first few times you do it, there’s subtle changes. “I don’t remember that crashed car last time, but maybe?” Then you start to realize that certain buildings are only unlocked at certain times of day. Then you might find a safe that you don’t have a combination to, but then you return later in the day to that same place and there’s a note about stealing the contents and running off on a boat, and then you realize if you go to another area during the afternoon when there’s snow and ice, the person crashed the boat and you can find the safe code.
The visionaries are all the worst people you could imagine. You find this out not only through notes left around the island, but audiologs for some sort of interview series where you get to hear them talk about how great they are.
Think about Groundhog day, the movie, not the rodent. Bill Murray starts going insane after a few days. Now think about that concept except with super geniuses with major egos and unlimited funding. They do exactly what you would expect. Build lasers, set off huge explosives, do a lot of drugs.
Gameplay was fun too. There were maybe six different types of guns, but probably 20 or so mods you could add to them to make them a little different. I do wish there were more options or at least more slots. You got to carry three guns with you. Generally I’d carry a short range silent gun (pistol with suppressor or nail gun), long range (sniper rifle with explosive bullets), and some sort of shits getting real gun. (Usually the laser, but sometimes a shotgun) Having one more slot would’ve given me more flexibility because once you triggered everyone in an area, the gun fight was difficult to do with this setup.
There were these sort of Jedi powers which I didn't use all that often, but when I did, they were fun. Things like invisibility, linked enemies together so if one died, they all did. I didn't find the need to use these much until I got to the end game where I was infiltrating the large party at the end of the day.
Some of the dialogue sort of fell into a similar vibe of the last Borderlands where it’s almost too internet talky/Guardians of the Galaxy. Grates on you sometimes. But beyond the dialogue, mostly between the protagonist and antagonist, there’s an interesting story of family and time loops.
There was a mode in the game where you could invade someone else's game and ruin their fun. This also had some unlocks for costumes locked behind this mode. Unfortunately, by the time I played the game, no one else was. I sat for a couple minutes looking for a game to join and couldn’t find one.
Overall, lot of fun to be had with Deathloop as long as you keep your expectations in check. This is not Starfield, this is not Dishonored, this is not Elder Scrolls. This is its own experiment that I found interesting to poke at.
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