During today’s State of Play webcast, a longer Deathloop gameplay clip debuted, featuring a mission to track down and murder Aleksis “The Wolf” Dorsey.
The teaser shows off weaponry, talents, and gadgets, as well as some unexpectedly pleasant banter between the hero, Colt, and his adversary, Julianna. Things become a bit more interesting around halfway through the run when an alert sounds, indicating that another player has “invaded” the game and taken control of Julianna. Colt has an issue with this: When challenged with a man who’s basically Corvo Attano with a shotgun, AI-controlled foes go down rather easy, but squaring off against another player who doesn’t have to deal with them—whose sole aim is to discreetly track him down—is a whole new sort of problem.
The writing on the walls visible at various locations can give assistance or direction, according to Bethesda in a recent blog post, but such words can come across as fragmented or meaningless at times—though the more you discover about the island of Blackreef, the more sense they’ll make. Residuum is a chemical that may be gathered and used to permanently retain abilities and gear, so you don’t have to start over if and when you die.
And, contrary to popular belief, death is not as certain as it appears: Reprise, a skill that unlocks early in the game, allows you to “rewind” time a little when you die so you can try again. However, you can only die twice: if you die a third time, your day is over.
It’s familiar in a number of ways: Colt’s abilities are obviously quite similar to those in the Dishonored games, and the huge, chunky firearms are similar to a lot of the gear seen in Prey. The wide levels are also quite characteristic of Arkane games and should be a lot of fun to explore, especially without the limitations of Dishonored, which penalized excessively aggressive methods to problem-solving. But the narrative element is becoming more intriguing as well: there’s definitely more going on between Colt and Julianna than just “I kill you, you kill me.”
Deathloop will be released on September 14th. If you haven’t already, listen to Déjà Vu, the game’s fantastic, Bond-style theme song—a great complement for the game’s swinging ’60s backdrop.
