Warning!! The following contains spoilers for Deathloop, available September 14th for PlayStation 5 and PC.
At first glance, Arkane Studios Deathloop appears to be a simple shooter. However, there is more beneath the surface. The game's main mechanic and central plot point is that the world is living in one constant loop of a single day. While this gives a reason for the player to be able to survive being killed and give them a goal to complete it also affects the world-building and the character's interactions.
The loop, as it is called in-game, essentially resets the entire world after each day. When this happens everyone who has died at any point will return to life with faint memories of what has transpired before. However this is not the case for Julianna and Cole, the two main characters, who often fully remember the events of each loop. This relationship combined with the others on display help to flesh out the world in many ways.
One of the most important aspects of the game is the relationship between Julianna and Cole. While it would be easy to make their entire relationship purely antagonistic, the time loop mechanic allows the developers to create a much more nuanced situation. Julianna knows Cole, even with his amnesia at the beginning of the game, and knows how he has acted in each loop. She constantly contacts the player and mentions prior events, but also jokes with him. Even if the player can kill her she rarely holds a grudge. This also allows her to be a mouthpiece for the developers to inform the player of the world and some of the prior events. Cole himself feels a connection to Julianna and constantly tries to reason with her in an attempt to stop the cycle. Similarly, the other main villains in the game help to inform cole of the events and their history, each of them knows him and has dealt with him in the past. However, their memories are not as good as the two main leads and they must constantly leave messages to themselves and each other to try and remind themselves of what has happened. This allows the game to inform the player of the world naturally and makes it all more streamlined.
The main fodder enemies of the game, known as the Eternals, also have some memories of the prior events and will comment upon it. Cole can sneak past most of them hear them speaking about their lives, but also about how they view the loop. However, more interesting situations appear in combat. The Eternals will comment upon various things when fighting Cole but it is often made apparent that they remember killing him before or being killed by him in another loop. They won't only comment on the loop but also refer to other mechanics in the game. For instance, if the player's gun jams while in a shootout, the Eternals will often comment upon it as though this has happened before. This all helps to build the world and make it seem more like the event has had a huge effect on the characters.
The game making use of its mechanics to help the world also helps the player to feel more intuned with events. Often games will have their mechanics have little impact on the story or will not be commented upon. This often makes the events feel disconnected from the power of the characters. Deathloop makes sure that everything that occurs is a part of the world and helps to make the powers and events feel like a singular entity. The use of amnesia in the beginning also helps the player to fit into Cole's shoes better, yet the use of the floating words and certain other events help to show that Cole has existed in the past and helps to explain how the multiverse of a constant loop can function. All of these help to keep the player invested in what can be a complicated set of theories and make them fun to explore.
Deathloop has a great chance to introduce players to its world and has taken the right steps to do so. Hopefully, the smaller details are noticed by the players and they take the time to explore them further. While there is plenty to do in the main game there are some great opportunities for more content down the road that explore the relationships between the characters more. The loop offers players many different avenues to explore the world and take down their targets.
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