There’s still a consequence to death – as you’ll lose all of your in-game currency that enables you to retain weapons and upgrades once a new time loop begins – but such a punishment never felt unfair. I personally find the permadeath of roguelikes disheartening and frustrating, seeing all my hard work disappear after one fatal mistake, but Deathloop avoids this issue entirely. And since your memory is the one thing that isn’t reversed at the end of the day, you can carry on your detective work at the start of the next time loop, ensuring your progression is never really lost after death. In order to influence your targets, you must first gather intel about them by snooping on emails, documents and voice messages. It’s a smart way of utilizing the time loop mechanic, turning Deathloop into a rubix cube-style puzzle rather than just a straight-up shooter. This means you’ll need to alter your targets’ behaviour patterns, coercing them to converge in one area for a more time-efficient assisnation. This is made even more complex by the fact you can only visit one of the four locations at each time interval, making it impossible to assassinate two different characters during the evening if they’re not in the same hub world. Fail to eliminate even one of those characters before the clock strikes twelve, then time will be reset and resurrect everyone you previously slaughtered. The main objective of Deathloop is to end the time loop by assassinating eight targets before the end of the day. Death never feels unfair, despite returning you to the start.The Dishonored special abilities are a joy to use.The time loop mechanic allows for some domino-effect creativity.Add some Dishonored-flavoured stealth, slick first-person shooter action and an optional multiplayer element that allows players to invade your game and thwart your progress, and you’ve got yourself one of the most unique AAA games ever made and among the best experiences that 2021 has to offer. But in truth, Deathloop is more akin to the likes of Hitman, with its four small hub worlds feeling like creative playgrounds of mass destruction that demand repeated visits to uncover every secret.Įach hub world can also be visited at various times of day – morning, noon, afternoon and evening – giving the player the opportunity to meddle with the timeline for some ‘butterfly effect’ shenanigans.

Such a concept will inevitably invite comparisons to games from the roguelike genre such as Hades and Returnal, with death seeing you return right to the start. Whether he outlasts the 24 hours or is bludgeoned to death by the various hostile inhabitants on the island, Colt always wakes up on the same beach, on the same morning, with time reversing everything but his memory. But Arkane Studios has ripped up the rulebook for Deathloop, creating one of the most innovative big-budget games I’ve ever played.īy using a time loop mechanic plucked straight out of Groundhog Day, Deathloop sees leading character Colt trapped in a perpetual cycle. Most AAA single-player games play it safe by sticking to a tried-and-tested blueprint, whether that’s an enormous open-world to explore or a linear story that could rival Hollywood. Release date: Available on 14 September.

Deathloop game review