Deathloop is a stylish, immersive shooter stuck in a time-loop

Deathloop is an “immersive first-person shooter” by Arkane Studios, the same folks that brought us the excellent Dishonored games.

But if you already watched the gameplay reveal trailer, I bet you easily figured that out. Deathloop looks very much like Dishonored, and to tell you the truth – I’m more than OK with that.

Deathloop puts you in the role of Colt, a man stuck in a time loop. Every morning he wakes up on the same beach with the same hangover. And every morning, an entire island full of killers is waiting to put him down.

The only way to break the loop, is to assassinate eight targets before midnight without getting killed.

Luckily, you have all the time in the world to try and pull off this impossible mission. You can explore the island, memorize shortcuts, and arm yourself with devastating weapons and supernatural abilities. Try different approaches and play styles until you finally find the best way to take out every target.

It’s still unclear at this point if there’s a ticking clock element, and the loop resets after you play for a set amount of time (like in The Outer Wilds) or if the loop only resets if you die.

“Easy” I hear you say (really? That sounds easy to you? I’m already counting the ways things can go horribly wrong). But no, killing all your target in one loop isn’t as “simple” as that. You still have to contend with Julianna. Julianna is a master assassin and the main antagonist of our story. Her one purpose is to maintain the loop, and the best way to do that is to kill Cole. As many times as it takes. The twist is that Julianna might be another player.

Deathloop is actually a multiplayer game. You’ll experience the story through the eyes of Cole, but at any moment, another player can invade your game and take control of Julianna, similar to how it works in Dark Souls. Naturally, you can also slip into someone else’s game and take the role of Julianna yourself. Don’t worry, though – if you want to play alone, you can turn off the multiplayer invasion option.

On the official PlayStation blog, game director Dinga Bakaba says the purpose of this mechanic is to blur the lines between single-player and multiplayer. “The focus is on the campaign and the story,” he says. “And that campaign can be played with Julianna controlled only by the AI, or – and this is our recommendation – by a mix of A.I. and random players to experience the range of unpredictability and chaos that Julianna is capable of.”

I’m intrigued to see this multiplayer mechanic in action. Hopefully, we know more about Deathloop soon, before its Holiday 2020 release on PC and PlayStation 5.