Deathloop Review: ‘Magical multiplayer with alarmingly unintelligent AI’

DEATHLOOP REVIEW FOR PC AND PS5.

With Deathloop, developer Arkane Studios clearly aims to incorporate lessons learned from Dishonored, Prey, and earlier games with a new invasion element that adds multiplayer to the mix. It’s this latter element that I was most interested in playing and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s the game’s standout feature. I’ve waited a week since the game’s launch to write this review, putting in the hours with the general public to properly assess how invasions play out.

Same story, different day

I love time travel stories and Deathloop perfectly captures the chaos that can ensue when temporal fabrics are fiddled with. In this instance, there’s an island that’s stuck in a loop, repeating the day over and over again.

It’s up to the player, who’s put in the shoes of the wonderfully-voiced Colt, to stop the loop. Ending the cycle means taking out eight targets all on the same day. These enemies are situated on different levels and appear at different times, so it’s initially impossible to take them all out.

Colt must work to gather information about each target and use that against them. These reconnaissance missions take up the bulk of the playthrough and they are, unfortunately, not very interesting from a gameplay perspective. You warp in, grab whatever you need, and then warp out. There are no difficulty settings, either, so you quickly learn that enemies pose very little threat.

Armed with the new intel, Colt is able to coordinate his murders. The pay-off is great, as you retread familiar ground to move effortlessly between missions, knowing where everyone will be and exactly what is going to happen. This culminates in a memorable finale, though I was hoping for something unexpected to throw Colt through one final loop. Sadly, it ends when you think it will end, and I saw the credits roll after 12 hours.

Go loud and be proud!

To aid Colt on his mission to wipe out the eight Visionaries causing the island to loop continuously, he has an arsenal of weapons and abilities. Weapons can be collected from all enemies and abilities are taken from the boss encounters. There are also Trinkets that bestow Colt himself with additional buffs. These can all be “Infused” so that they can keep them between loops.

Unfortunately, I quickly found my go-to loadout that I was happy to plow through the game with and I found no reason to upgrade. I happily let the loop discard new loot without a second thought, as filtering through the inventory takes too long. I only really cared about the ability upgrades, especially for invisibility, dash, and damage reduction. Everything else seemed more like a sidegrade.

If the enemies provided a bigger challenge I would have cared more about micromanaging the equipment I used, but its artificial intelligence is alarmingly unintelligent. While it’s a joy to dance around the AI and know their patrol patterns, making me feel like the King of Time Travel, I never felt at risk of dying by their hands. Colt almost immediately gets the “Reprise” ability, which essentially gives him three lives. It’s like a mandatory easy mode and removes any tension.

While stealth is an option, the game doesn’t shame you for choosing to run and gun. I remember when Dishonored made me feel like a failure when the enemy was alerted. Deathloop does no such thing, instead giving you the tools to go on a rampage and eradicate entire levels of enemies.

“Eradicate entire levels of enemies” might sound impressive, but the truth is that the levels aren’t very big. There are only four main areas in total and they are smaller than I was expecting. Considering how many times players are going to be revisiting them, there’s too little there. With that said, for those interested in the lore and reading their video games instead of playing them, Arkane has included a bunch of letters, diaries, and whatnot that help to shape the world.

Performance

The levels might be small, but they at least look pretty good. On PS5 there are three different visual modes. Players can choose between a 60 FPS target for smoothness or higher fidelity visuals but at a lower frame rate.

I stuck with the 60 FPS performance mode. The game still looks good and the frame rate is mostly solid. I did notice drops when moving quickly through a level and when Julianna was invading, but these hiccups were few and far between. It plays nicely on PS5, though I know PC players have been experiencing issues that Arkane recently acknowledged.

Multiplayer to die for

Where Deathloop truly shines is its multiplayer. It’s a simple idea: Julianna, a Visionary hellbent on preventing Colt from stopping the loop, invades the level and tries to eliminate you. With the game set to “Online,” and assuming the playerbase remains populated, this will often be a real-world player.

The occasions where Julianna invaded were easily the highlights of my playthrough. It’s a game of cat and mouse, and avoiding or hunting her down is a true thrill. Her powers aren’t as good as Colt’s and she only has one life, but she can disguise herself and see Colt’s position when other enemies spot him.

Even when I lose the fight, I find invasions so thrilling that I’ve become addicted. I now load into a map and hunt down Julianna as quickly as possible. Or, I play as Julianna and aim to rapidly dispatch Colt with brutal aggression. It’s so much fun and I encourage everyone who plays this game to set it to “Online” and avoid single-player, which drastically waters down the experience and ruins the magic.

Speedy. #PS5Share, #DEATHLOOP pic.twitter.com/gm2Gnauo71

— Mack Ashworth (@GamingWithMack) September 19, 2021

The multiplayer is not perfect, though, and I’ve noticed a few cracks in the week since launch. First, matchmaking times can be very long. When you consider that this is when the game should be at its peak player count, that’s pretty worrying. There’s no cross-play support, either, so the player pools are already kneecapped. Xbox players will have a better time when the game comes out on Xbox Series X|S, as it’s to be featured in the Xbox Game Pass, but PC and PS5 players have no such solution.

My next concern is the overpowered execution moves. These are OP in single-player, too, but it’s during Colt and Julianna fights where the issue is most prevalent. Jumping over either character allows for a quick instant kill. These executions from above and the front should be disabled when the characters have been spotted.

My other main concern is the antennae location. There is only one location on each map, so encounters often play out the same, and not in a good way. I can use the antennae location and knowledge that Julianna will spawn near it to achieve ridiculously aggressive plays as seen in the above tweet.

Deathloop Review: The final verdict

At its best, Deathloop successfully captures the essence of those time-travel movies where the protagonist moves with suave confidence as they know where every enemy will be and how to flawlessly execute their plan.

In order to avoid the tedium organically produced by playing the same level over and over, Arkane has implemented a truly magical multiplayer component, one that has the potential to offer top-tier multiplayer moments. Unfortunately, the weak recon missions made too easy by the lack of challenge from AI enemies, the small number of maps that are quickly mastered, and the limited variety in gameplay burdened by uninspired upgrades, ultimately prevent Deathloop from reaching the highest of highs.

With online multiplayer enabled and embraced, however, it becomes easier to overlook the weak points and Deathloop comes out on the other side as a compelling lesson in how intimate multiplayer can greatly enhance the single-player formula.

Deathloop was reviewed on PS5 with code provided by the publisher.