Arkane Studios has become in recent years one of those studios where you know that whatever they do, they will be able to offer a high quality product. The Dishonored franchise and the Prey reboot are the two great supporters of a studio that promises to become one of the most important members of Xbox Game Studios.
The French company has its own hallmark, which makes all its work recognizable thanks to three basic aspects: the design of its stages, the cohesion of the world and the immersion it produces in the player. Will you have been able to maintain these pillars with your new release? We tell you in our Deathloop analysis for PC.
Destroy the loop
After the aggressive marketing campaign carried out with the title, it is difficult that someone who follows the news does not know the plot of Deathloop, but if there is still someone left, we will tell you about it below.
In the new title from Arkane Studios we will play Colt, a person who is condemned to repeat the same day over and over again, whose goal will be neither more nor less than to escape. This is because we will be locked in an infinite loop created by a series of people who call themselves The Visionaries. This group, in their search for immortality, will try to kill us day after day and thus end our plans to get out of the loop.
These characters are of great importance in the development of the plot, since Colt can only end the loop by ending the 8 Visionaries that we meet in the title, so the destruction of the loop means his own death.
However, the truly differential of Deathloop is not our goal, but the way in which we achieve it. The title bases its narrative entirely on the repetition of our actions. Every time a day ends, we will return to the same point we were at the first time we played, but with one important difference: we will remember each and every detail that we discover throughout our games.
Precisely this repetition, contrary to what might come to be thought at first, is what manages to hook us as players. The work of the studio to try to weave all the narrative aspects is fantastic, forcing us to act as a kind of detectives to achieve our goal: kill all Visionaries in a single loop.
Deathloop divides each loop into four spaces of the day: morning, noon, afternoon, and night. The events that we experience will be completely different in each one of them, requiring the repetition of different spaces to discover all the mysteries that will lead us to end the loop, and it is precisely this aspect that we liked the most about Deathloop.
Normally, games that require repeating the same actions or missions over and over again tend to tire the player. In this sense, Deathloop unfolds wonderfully, achieving that each “Run” that we give, we continue discovering new information and experiencing different situations, achieving a sensation of variety that is difficult to expect given its plot.
Finally, it is important to highlight Julianna figure. Despite having to finish off The Visionaries, she will be the main antagonist of the title. The character will be able to enter our games, either controlled by the AI or by another player, with the aim of ending us, as if it were the game of cat and mouse. Although it could have been something that completely broke the difficulty of the title, the truth is that the feeling could not be more positive, adding variety to the games and a certain touch of tension, more characteristic of other genres.
Blackfree, an island with a life of its own
Precisely, this variety that we are talking about is possible thanks to Blackfree, the island where all the events of the title take place. Just as you would expect from Arkane, Deathloop level development is just fantastic. Not only because of how it is able to connect the different areas of the same level, but also because it is able to add variations at different points of the day that allow it to be equipped with a wide variety of situations.
In addition, to this we must add that we really feel that we are on an island that is alive. Depending on the time of day in which we are, the enemies will have some behavior patterns or others, something that continues to favor that feeling of variety throughout the different “Runs”.
But this is not the only thing, since as we progress through the plot and discover the secrets found in the different areas of the game, we will have access to spaces that we have not previously been able to visit, leaving a feeling in the player of that there is always something new to discover.
However, and despite the fact that everything related to level design is extraordinary, we have the feeling that Arkane could have been more ambitious with her approach, taking advantage of the technology present in the new generation consoles, and managing to offer a completely interconnected map, not being necessary to go to a menu at the end of each phase of the day to choose our new destination.
A known power
If the level design is a clear sign made in Arkane in Deathloop, its playable system is no less so. At the controls, the title reminds us of other previous works of the study, especially for the use of powers that will be familiar to lovers of the Dishonored franchise.
However, the playable sensations are totally satisfying. While it is true that this similarity makes the player think that it already sounds like what they are playing, the playable system behavior is commendable. The gunplay works like a charm, although yes, it suffers from an excessive auto-aiming effect when playing with a controller.
At this point you will wonder, if every time the day ends there is a complete restart, Does that mean we’ll lose all of our weapons when ending a loop? No, thanks to the use of waste. In Deathloop, the remainder is the bargaining chip that will allow you to keep the team you want when playing.
There will be different ways in which the player can get hold of this residue, such as extracting it from objects that we find in the different locations of the title. Nevertheless, the way in which we will achieve the most waste will be by ending a Visionary.
This will not only be important to get this element, but because this is how we will unlock the different powers of the title. As we have said, these will be perfectly recognizable by fans of the Arkane titles, as we will have Wink, a power that will allow us to teleport; Ether, which will grant us the possibility of making ourselves invisible; o Nexus, which after launching an imperceptible energy bomb will unify the fate of the enemies it reaches.
In addition, the game also has an improvement system that will allow us to obtain abilities such as resistance to toxic gas, a faster recovery of life or the possibility of executing a double jump; as well as others focused solely and exclusively on weapons, adding a higher rate of fire, a higher aiming speed or enhancing the damage inflicted. All this will be of great importance and adds another plus to that variety that we talked about previously.
Finally, it is also important talk about the weapons of the game. Arkane has added a plus here to what was seen in his previous works, offering a differential design. The game divides the different weapons (and upgrades) into rarities, granting certain special effects to the most unique weapons, which invites the player to want to get the best possible weaponry, something that is also important in the development of the plot.
A motley scene
Deathloop offers us an artistic section that, once again, reminds us of what was previously seen in Arkane’s works. However, the end result of is so good that it hardly turns this into a negative. The title has a wide artistic variety even at the same level, something that once again represents a point in favor in the design of levels of the title.
Graphically, the game is very demanding on PC. With a GTX 1070 we have been able to run the title at 1080p with an ultra setting, suffering the occasional drop in FPS, although maintaining 60 FPS most of the time.
However, if it is true that the game has reached the compatible platform with a series of performance problems, accusing excessive Stuttering at times. There have been several occasions in which when using an inhibitor the game has been running in slides for at least 5 minutes. Arkane has already said that he is working on a fix to this issue, but it currently affects the end game experience.
Finally, in the sound section, Deathloop has a fantastic Spanish dubbing. We really liked Colt and Julianna’s performance, giving the characters great charisma. As for its soundtrack, it serves in most cases as a mere accompaniment, although it has certain tracks that evoke the spy movies.
Conclusions
In playable terms, Deathloop is on many occasions more of the same than previously seen by Arkane Studios. However, we do not speak of it as something negative, since the title is capable of offering that extraordinary immersive experience that the studio has achieved with its other works.
In addition, if we add to that a perfectly woven plot, with a narrative that has managed to hook us and attract our attention throughout the development of its plot, we can’t do anything else to finish our analysis of Deathloop than to highly recommend the title not only to fans of Arkane Studios, but to all those who want to enjoy a great adventure.