Creeping death

Its been a long road, getting from there to here for Arkane Studios Deathloop. First announced at E3 2019 as a Sony PlayStation exclusive, the game was met with loads of praise and curiosity at what exactly type of game it was. To answer that question as plainly as possible, Deathloop is in fact a rogue-lite. Though the team has been dodgy on simply calling it as such, I understand why the developers might not have wanted to lead with that; the genre is getting quite crowded and it’s becoming harder and harder to stand out from the pack. While its core might be rooted in the rogue lite genre, I can assure you that this game does more than enough to stand out from all the others.

Deathloop starts off with the main protagonist in the game awaking on a beach. He has no idea where he is, who he is, or how he got here. A familiar scene in games to be sure, but its quickly apparent that this isn’t the first time our man has awoken in this fashion. Stumbling upon his ‘hackamajig’ (it’s really called that) he’s contacted by Julianna Blake who tells him that his name is Cole and does everything but tell him that he’s caught in a time loop, and the same day repeats over and over again. Of course, Cole doesn’t believe her until she kills him….and he wakes up on that beach…again. Once Cole accepts his plight he goes about trying to “break the loop” but also unravel who he is, what is going on and why does this crazy Julianna keep calling him.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PS5 (reviewed), PC
Price I’d Pay: $59.99

Deathloop does a great job of easing the player into the thick of things. The first few loops are all meant to be training and give Cole some of the basic tools that will become his arsenal in taking out the Visionaries and breaking the loop. He’s introduced to “Slabs” which give Cole his abilities similar to the mechanic seen in Arkane’s Dishonored. The first one he receives is Reprise, awarded the first time Cole successfully takes out Julianna. Reprise thankfully gives Cole three strikes during each loop, if killed he will instead be rewound back in time and receive a do over but if he should die three times, the loop will end and Cole will lose all his items and progress. Well Cole quickly decides he is not for this nonsense of losing stuff and in what will become common but always hilarious has a talk with Julianna about how he can keep stuff between loops, which leads to the last tutorial; Infusion.

What ends up being a double tutorial as Cole will also take out one of the Visionaries; the scientist behind the infusion process Wenjie, Infusion is the process that Cole will use to keep his weapons, trinkets and slabs from one loop to the next. As Cole makes his way through the various districts in Blackreef Island he’ll find objects with a telltale shimmer, these objects contain ‘Residuum’ and its with this currency that Cole can infuse his loadout and take it with him along the loops. As Cole moves through the world he will overhear conversations and find documents about his targets, and its with this information that he can begin to take out his targets and break the loop. Thankfully, the game does a great job of tracking all the pertinent details for Cole’s investigation; which is broken down into four main categories: Visionary Leads, Arsenal Leads, Discoveries and lastly Documents. Documents is the easiest to explain as its just a copy of any written information Cole finds in the world; if the player wants to re-read any of those this is the place to do it.

The other three categories are what’s going to drive the narrative and dictate Cole’s missions in the world. Visionary leads are just what they sound like; these are leads on the whereabouts of each visionary that Cole needs to eliminate. This will primarily be used when Cole makes a move on a visionary, each step will be updated that has been completed up to the elimination of the target. This is the meat of what Deathloop is about, after some witty repertoire with his girl Julianna and find documents in Wenji’s lab Cole realizes that in order to break the loop he has to kill all eight visionaries in a single loop. Well looking at the visionary leads it quickly becomes apparent that with a few exceptions most of them are separated for most of the day. What becomes the objective is the player must force situations to take out as many visionaries as possible at the same time. You see, Deathloop gives Cole and the player freedom as far as moving forward in time, Cole is given four time periods to chose from (morning, noon, afternoon and evening) and 4 districts to explore and its possible to start in the afternoon. But in doing so Cole will only be left with the evening before the loop is reset, it’s a risk vs reward system which works very well. It’s entirely possible to spend loops farming for weapons and trinkets as each of these falls in various quality ranging from the tried and true grey to orange scale. The player would just need to ensure that they have enough ‘Residuum’ to infuse any times they want to keep for the next run.

Exploration is a big part of the experience in Deathloop, much like Dishonored and even Prey before it success comes from searching levels thoroughly. Its even more important in Deathloop because the very nature of the experience is a mystery. Cole is searching for answers about everything from who he is, to why he knows how to kill and if the player isn’t thorough they will miss out on some things. But because in order to succeed Cole needs to get as many of his targets together as he can its likely that most hidden things will be found over the course of a normal playthrough but be sure and wonder off the beaten path.

The next type of lead that Cole will follow is the most fun and that’s the arsenal leads. These are the leads that will enable Cole to build his…..well his arsenal of other worldly abilities. As stated earlier, Cole will start off with reprise but in order to get the others he will have to take it from the body of the visionary that holds it or Julianna (more on that later). The player is given the freedom of going after any of the visionaries they want to get their slab, I choose to after Charlie who had the Shift slab; Shift enables Cole to teleport a short distance in front of him and I must say the whole ordeal of getting it from Charlie was a highlight. Charlie is the tech guy of the team, and is a giant nerd. He has turned his mansion into a giant sci-fi RPG complete with colored smoke and cardboard cutouts of cheesy aliens and heroic space men. It was quite an enjoyable jaunt through the themed mansion, listening as Charlie timidly explains Cole’s role as the invader in the RPG and his part in the ‘game’. It was all fun and games until he realized Cole was coming to kill him and take his power.

The freedom that Deathloop gives in these districts is really second to none, you are free to go about the task of infiltrating the mansion however the player decides. After trying a few goes at stealth, this reviewer gave up and went guns blazing which was a mistake. Without the proper build, Cole will be cut down quickly. He has to find health pickups in order to heal, and it often times felt like the enemies were all trained deadeye snipers with their accuracy. Needless to say, Cole and I didn’t find much success that time. But after a while I developed my perfect play style, which is a mix of stealth and loud. Some of which is helped by the spottiness of the AI, numerous times Cole was able to blow up a grenade to kill some baddies in a room, but outside the open door where 4 other people were no on even stirred. Or when standing next to each other Cole “silently” impales one guard and his buddy doesn’t even turn to look at the fact that he screamed and is now dead…of course he soon met the same fate but you get my point. At times the AI is questionable, but at others its reactive and searches an area as one would expect from this type of game.

Graphically it’s nice to see another game that was made for next-gen on the PS5 not be afraid to flex its muscle. The world of Deathloop is truly a sight to behold, as long as you don’t look to far out over the landscape. While the graphics in the district’s décor, the varied enemies and weapons and abilities all look very good up close, when you start to look at some of the vistas that the island offers it becomes muddy. Looking at the hills in the distance you can see it become blocky, and some of the textures are muddled in various colors. It’s never enough to dampen the fun to be had, but if someone is looking to take lots of cool scenic pictures this might not be the game for it. Cole, Julianna and the rest of the main cast are all very detailed and wonderfully modeled. Jackets and hair flow in the wind, skin and clothing textures can look real in certain situations. And for those that were wondering Deathloop comes with 3 graphical settings on PS5: Performance (which is dynamic 4K scaling, the usually 60fps with no extra bells and whistles), Visual Quality (Dynamic 4K, graphics prioritized, no raytracing and 60 fps with drops) and lastly Raytracing (Dynamic 4K scaling, high graphic fidelity, raytracing and 30 fps). After spending time with each mode my personal preference is performance mode. The visual quality mode is ok until you start using various abilities and then the drops are very noticeable. Choice is the name of the game here folks, not just in how you play the game but in how you see it as well so do whatever feels right for you.

Out of all the questions that have been asked about the game the one that is usually at the top is what is Julianna’s role? Julianna Blake is a bad mutha -shut yo mouth. Seriously she is a bad mamajama and while I won’t go too deep into her motivations as I have no desire to spoil this amazing story; I will say that for the most part she functions like Cole. In a lot of ways, she is a reminder of his old life, a shadow if you will. Cole’s overall gameplay is akin to Corvo in Dishonored while Julianna’s playstyle takes a page from Arkane’s other award-winning game Prey’s book. When starting up Deathloop players are prompted to “Break the Loop” with Cole or “Protect the Loop” with Julianna. While I was only able to get one match in as Julianna because the game isn’t officially released yet I wasn’t able to spend as much time with her as I would have liked. However, the time I was able to play as her I enjoyed very much, especially the difference in her playstyle. Julianna’s kit is built around mimicry, she is able to mimic anyone including Cole. So, since her objective is to protect the loop she can only spawn in when a Cole player is in a district with a visionary. Regardless if Cole had planned on killing them this time or not, if there is one in his present location then there is chance Julianna will spawn.

My experience as Julianna went as follows: She was spawned in near a radio receiver that the player I was invading was headed towards. Since Julianna is every much the assassin as Cole she can handle weapons, trinkets and slabs as well. Initially She spawned in with a grenade, her mimic device and an epic gun that looks like a pistol but shoots like a cannon. After navigating the environment and setting up some traps, I branch out and start to look for Cole when just as I turn the corner he appears and shoots me in the face and I lose. Not my proudest moment I assure you, but I was able to try out Julianna in a limited capacity. I am not sure if she defeats Cole, if that’s how she earns slabs and trinkets because all of the enemies of Cole are friends of Julianna so she can’t kill them for loot. But the game does tell you that Cole can get trinkets, weapons and slabs for defeating Julianna. I mean if turnabout is fair play then this would work in the reverse as well, right? I had no real latency issues in the brief time I invaded that other player. But for those that do not want to be invaded, the game does in fact have a single player toggle which will prevent you from being invaded by another player. Julianna will still talk to and taunt Cole, as she is important to the story but you wont face her with another player controlling her.

Personally, as a black man in the gaming space this game meant a lot. I am always happy to be able to see myself in this medium that I love and Deathloop not only has one but TWO people of color which is amazing. Not only that but the character of both Cole and Julianna is so very cool, and very much a homage to those blaxploitation heroes from the past like Pam Grier’s Foxy Brown or Richard Roundtree’s Shaft just to name a few. The entire game just oozes that coolness that can only be achieved from the décor and colors from the 60’s and 70’s, with the music inspired by scores found in James Bond films. But making Julianna such a strong, fierce woman of color is HUGE and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention just how wonderful she is in this game. My 10-year-old daughter joined me for most of my playthrough because she loved Julianna so much; she was angry every time I had to take her out (but laughed at me when Julianna would win). Ozioma Akagha who voices Julianna and Jason E. Kelly who is the voice of Colt both did an absolutely astonishing job bringing these characters to life. Much more than just grunts or laughs, they both show real emotion throughout the story and really helped to drive this game. Deathloop is a fantastic game and worth the price of admission, my hope is that it is not left by the wayside due to its exclusivity and the sub sequential buyout of publisher Bethesda by Microsoft. I know a lot of fans feel they need to be on one side of this or the other, but I am here to tell you that Deathloop is a great game and worthy of a playthrough wherever you choose to experience it. Deathloop is probably one of the best examples of really blending those rogue-lite elements into an otherworldly and excellent story, freedom of choice, tight controls and a delightful cast of characters all wrapped in a beautiful package.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.