Deathloop will allow players to take control of Colt, an assassin tasked with taking out eight targets (known as Visionaries) on the island of Blackreef before midnight. The catch - if he is unsuccessful or ultimately dies in the process, Colt will be transported back to the start of the night, and all of his work from previous assassination attempts will be undone.
Deathloop is the next video game to come from French developer Arkane Studios, famous for its work on the Dishonored series. Unlike Dishonored, where takedowns were carefully calculated operations, Deathloop’s action can be incredibly fast and slick. Brutal attacks are carried out in quick succession as players strive to achieve their goal.
Based on the previews shown so far, Deathloop looks ready to pack a punch. Here is everything that we know about it so far, including release date, gameplay, and story details.
Deathloop Release Date & Platforms
Originally revealed at E3 in 2019, Deathloop has faced some delays over the last couple of years. While Arkane had intended to release the game during the 2020 holiday period, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the studio to push the game’s launch back into 2021. It is currently scheduled to release as a timed PlayStation 5 and PC exclusive on September 14, 2021.
Deathloop Plot & Story Details
Deathloop’s story takes place solely on the island of Blackreef. As the game’s name suggests, a bloody and violent repeating time loop is the main feature of Arkane’s next action-adventure title. As each new cycle starts in Deathloop, everyone on the island will lose their memories of the previous loop, except for one – Julianna.
Julianna is Colt’s nemesis in Deathloop. While the history between these two has not been divulged yet, there is clearly more between them than first meets the eye. Julianna is determined to kill Colt. However, what she does not know (at least at first) is that as the game starts, Colt too begins to retain his memories from the previous cycle. While Julianna may have the upper hand originally, Colt soon starts closing that gap, and is able to use his newly obtained knowledge to his advantage. It is not yet clear what exactly has caused Colt to begin retaining memories of the previous cycles in Deathloop, however.
There are also mysterious messages scattered around Deathloop's Blackreef map. These messages may be jumbled and confusing at first, but as the player engages with the game more and more, they will begin to make more sense to Colt, as he progresses through the many cycles in time. During July’s State of Play, a new trailer for Deathloop was revealed, showing off a section of gameplay that sees Colt take on one of his assassination targets – Alexis “The Wolf” Dorsey. During this mission, snippets of conversation between Colt and Julianna hint at something sinister happening if Colt does indeed manage to end the time loop.
Deathloop Gameplay & Trailer
The gameplay for Deathloop will embrace the time-bending nature of its story. As players progress, they will obtain new powers from the Visionaries and Eternalists that Colt kills. Kills will also allow Colt to upgrade his pre-existing powers. One such ability that has been shown is the Karnesis ability. This enables Colt to manipulate the energy around a person and toss them around with a supernatural force as though they were dust on the wind.
Thankfully, at the start of each new cycle, players will not lose all of their weapons and skills. As the game progresses, players will collect Residuum. When Residuum has been unlocked, players will be able to spend this precious resource to save abilities and gear. However, any unspent Residuum will be dropped after Colt dies during the game. An extended gameplay walkthrough trailer for Deathloop can be found here:
As for Colt’s death, it may not be as final each time as it may first seem. Another mechanic or resource is the Reprise ability. Using Reprise will allow players to rewind time for only Colt in Deathloop, meaning that any enemies already defeated in that loop will remain dead with each use. However, Reprise can only be used twice. If a player dies for a third time during a cycle, everything will reset as usual.
Reprise can be refilled by killing Julianna, making her an obvious target in each cycle. Julianna herself will enter a player’s game, either being controlled by an AI or another player, and will do anything she can to stop Colt reaching his final goal. Ahead of its September 14 release, this is everything known about Deathloop so far.
Source: Bethesda Studios/YouTube