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Arkane Deathloop - first-person action game from Arkane set on a time loop island

DalekFlay

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Eh? This looks like the opposite of roguelike. You die, the level restarts but you just keep playing.

We don't really know the specifics, but I certainly associate that idea with roguelikes. Or roguelites. Or whatever.

Edit: I'm not sure what's confusing here Zombra to be honest. Games like Rogue Legacy you go out, try to accomplish a thing, and if you die you start back over at the beginning but with whatever money/powers you found. This looks like you have 8 targets to kill and if you die you start over, but probably keep your powers and targets or something like that. We don't know the details yet, but that seems very plausible unless they directly said otherwise somewhere. Even if it just has no saves and starts you over, fuck that too.
 
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Child of Malkav

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Mooncrash (and Deathloop probably) is roguelite not roguelike. In a roguelite, even if you start over, some progress is being kept (in whatever form it is, powers, tools, areas unlocked etc.) In roguelike, when you start over, you start with nothing, have to redo all the progress again. Kinda like the difference between NG and NG+.
 

RoSoDude

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Bit more info. It looks like it will have a structure comparable to Mooncrash (though unknown if there will be any randomized elements on each loop).

https://blog.playstation.com/2020/06/11/deathloop-makes-its-console-debut-on-ps5-this-holiday/

Escape a cycling timeloop in Arkane Lyon’s new immersive first-person shooter.
It’s nighttime on Blackreef. Your current target: Aleksis Dorsey. Fortunately, the self-proclaimed “Alpha Wolf” is throwing an exclusive dinner party at his lavish mansion — and you aim to crash it. Welcome to Deathloop, Arkane Lyon’s new immersive first-person shooter coming to consoles exclusively for PlayStation 5 when it launches this holiday season. Deathloop will also be launching on PC at the same time. Trapped on an island stuck in a timeloop, you will fight, sneak, and sabotage your way past the members of the AEON Program – the island’s trigger-happy revelers who have put you on the top of their hitlist – on your mission to eliminate eight key targets in a single loop and end the “endless” cycle. But it won’t be easy, because you’ll also have to contend… with her.

Deathloop puts you in the role of Colt, a man with a unique problem. Every morning you wake up on the same beach with the same killer hangover, the subject of the same island-wide manhunt by the same entitled partyers. There’s only one way to free yourself from the loop, the island, and the cycle of slaughter: You’re gonna have to take out the eight people responsible for maintaining the loop. You’ve got to accomplish this nigh-impossible task before midnight, so you better get creative.

Each repeated day is an opportunity to learn, adapt, and solve the puzzle of Deathloop. It’s up to you how you go about this. You can tackle each loop at your own pace, and in any order you choose – selecting your missions, targets and explorations as you see fit. Arm yourself with a variety of devastating weapons and supernatural abilities to survive the AEON Program and break the loop. Take the knowledge you gain from each day to try different paths and playstyles as you navigate the treacherous backstreets and hidden lairs of Blackreef. Stay on your toes, rework your strategies and push forward, all the while compiling clues as to the inner workings of the island. And remember: If at first you don’t succeed… die, die again.

Colt Vs. Julianna
But the island’s inhabitants aren’t the only obstacles in your path. Deathloop is Arkane Lyon’s innovative take on an immersive multiplayer experience; a story-driven first-person shooter where your main antagonist might be another player. You’ll experience Deathloop’s main story as Colt, hunting down targets across the island as you try to break the loop. Meanwhile, another player might temporarily enter your story in the role of Julianna, a rival assassin with her own singular goal: Protect the loop by eliminating Colt. Of course, if you’re feeling particularly villainous, you can slip into the shoes of Julianna yourself, jumping into someone else’s Blackreef for a tense game of cat-and-mouse. (The multiplayer invasion element is completely optional, so you toggle it on or off as desired.)

For Game Director Dinga Bakaba, Arkane’s goal is to blur the line between single- 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.”

Exclusively on Consoles for PlayStation 5
With stunning and stylish environments, memorable combat encounters, and the freedom to tackle each mission at any pace and with any approach you choose, this is Arkane like you’ve never seen (or felt) it before, built with next-gen in mind. Deathloop is being developed for a new generation of hardware and will launch on console exclusively for PlayStation 5. Leveraging the PS5’s cutting-edge graphics and technology, like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, Deathloop will drop you into a spectacular and immersive world that only Arkane could provide.

That last bit would seem to imply it's a PS5 exclusive, but I think it's just weasel words to imply it's a PS5 exclusive for consoles, while PC releases on the same day as indicated here:

 

Zombra

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Kinda too bad that the multiplayer will have to suck. The only people who will play as Julianna will be ultra competitive no-lifers who live to ruin games for others, and it will never occur to them to have any kind of matchmaking system besides "random matchups lol". Ah well, still looks fun so far.
 

toro

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Read a brief RPS article on this and it looks fascinating. Sort of Hitman-like where you're replaying a level to get the perfect run, only instead of it just being "load game", trying again is woven into the setting and systems. Single player with optional PVP incursions, far out. Also battle royale type settings turn me on. A lot for me to like here it seems.

More gameplay for you.

 

Terenty

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If it's one giant map meticulously crafted ala Dishonored 2 levels and you have to kill 8 targets in one go then it could be kinda cool. Playing it over and over again, learning enemies, path, abilities etc and then executing a perfect run killing all 8 targets and finishing the game.

Like a puzzle, for example, killing one target changes the behaviour and location of the second target, but if you killed the second one first on your next run it would change how you approach the first target etc. that kind of thing

But if its just different maps for different targets like in Dishonored than meh
 

DalekFlay

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Mooncrash (and Deathloop probably) is roguelite not roguelike. In a roguelite, even if you start over, some progress is being kept (in whatever form it is, powers, tools, areas unlocked etc.) In roguelike, when you start over, you start with nothing, have to redo all the progress again. Kinda like the difference between NG and NG+.

These aren't terms with Webster definitions, but fair enough explanation of the consensus. I said "like, lite, whatever" because I don't like the genre and therefore don't know or care about the particular semantic argument about which it might be. I think it's obviously in that spirit though, which is the important part.

But Dishonored has guns :?

Dishonored with automatic guns? Haha. I was just referencing the Oblivion/Fallout 3 meme.
 

Zombra

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[Roguelike etc.] aren't terms with Webster definitions, but fair enough explanation of the consensus. I said "like, lite, whatever" because I don't like the genre and therefore don't know or care about the particular semantic argument about which it might be. I think it's obviously in that spirit though, which is the important part.
It's still weird to me. To me, the defining characteristic of roguelike games is that if you are defeated, it's game over, lose everything, no reloads, back to square one. This is a "fail forward" type of game where you are continually building towards better results. There wouldn't even be any point in loading a save since you don't lose anything when you fail. Again, this game appears to be the exact opposite of a roguelike, in mechanics, in spirit, however you want to frame it. I'm trying to figure out exactly what it is that you don't like about "the genre". I can't even tell what you think the genre is. Not trying to be a dick - I really have no idea what you're talking about.
 

DalekFlay

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It's still weird to me. To me, the defining characteristic of roguelike games is that if you are defeated, it's game over, lose everything, no reloads, back to square one. This is a "fail forward" type of game where you are continually building towards better results. There wouldn't even be any point in loading a save since you don't lose anything when you fail. I'm trying to figure out exactly what it is that you don't like about "the genre". I can't even tell what you think the genre is. Not trying to be a dick, I really have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm talking about games like Mooncrash and Rogue Legacy and a thousand other indie games on Steam lately. I don't care enough about the genre to know where roguelike ends and roguelite begins, and didn't think I had to precisely define it to say I don't like any of it. This shouldn't be hard to grasp at this point so I don't know what to tell ya.

"I love Arkane but don't like roguewhatthefuckever mechanics, so we'll see"... opinion complete. Processing next opinion.
 

orcinator

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They expect the player to die, but I wonder if the game will be actually difficult or if it'll be akin to something like Shadow of Mordor where you have features involving taking revenge on enemies but you never die.
Didn't see anything but weak looking human enemies so I doubt it will be good even if they don't advertise the fact you can beat the game without using the mechanics they give you as a feature.
 

Zombra

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I'm talking about games like Mooncrash and Rogue Legacy
Neither of which I have played - I wish someone could just explain what mechanics make them "roguelike" despite not using the fundamental design point of roguelike games: game over means game over.

I guess we've arrived at a place where "what is roguelike" is as meaningless as "what is RPG" ... if so, I recommend discontinuation of talking points like "I dislike roguelikes" since it doesn't actually mean anything any more.
 

DalekFlay

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Neither of which I have played - I wish someone could just explain what mechanics make them "roguelike" despite not using the fundamental design point of roguelike games: game over means game over.

I guess we've arrived at a place where "what is roguelike" is as meaningless as "what is RPG" ... if so, I recommend discontinuation of talking points like "I dislike roguelikes" since it doesn't actually mean anything any more.

I dunno man, ask the literal hundreds of indie developers, thousands of journalists and millions of gamers who use the term for games like that. As someone who isn't a fan of them, all I can do is refer to them as marketed/discussed in general.
 

DeepOcean

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It seems interesting, there are positives that I'm interested, dying has real consequences now, being stealthy is more important because if you are in combat, you dont only need to deal with the Ai, the invading player can know where you are making easier for him to keep track of you; there is a reason to keep playing after finishing the game by invading other players, so you can replay the game with another perspective of placing traps and preparing ambushes for other players;this seems to have the great Dishonored level design.

Of course, this could end up on a mess of cheater campers with aim hacks shooting you through walls killing you over and over and over or Bethesda trying to force their Big Brother anti-cheat malware that never stops and can stop you from using your system to stop that mess.
 

AW8

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
On one hand, it plays just like Dishonored which is a bit silly. They can call that teleport power whatever they want, it's obviously Blink with new visual effects.

On the other hand, it plays just like Dishonored and seem to follow the same design philosophy which is a great thing. I also welcome any experimental alternative to the old "load a savegame when you die" mechanic.
 

Zombra

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I dunno man, ask the literal hundreds of indie developers, thousands of journalists and millions of gamers who use the term for games like that. As someone who isn't a fan of them, all I can do is refer to them as marketed/discussed in general.
Jesus christ. GAMES LIKE WHAT? Can't you just say "I don't like games with jumping puzzles" or whatever? The whole point is that the label is meaningless. WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHEN YOU USE THAT MEANINGLESS LABEL.

If you can point me to ONE article that says what you mean, that will also suffice. But don't just say "look up RPGs, then you'll know what RPG is". Not helping.
 

DeepOcean

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Roguelikes: RPGs with a big focus on survival, simulation, procedural generation and emergent gameplay with permadeath, mostly done with ASCII graphics.

Roguelites: Games that take inspiration from a particular aspect of roguelikes, mostly permadeath and procedural generation and make them casual friendly to sell better on Steam.
 

RoSoDude

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Mooncrash (and Deathloop probably) is roguelite not roguelike. In a roguelite, even if you start over, some progress is being kept (in whatever form it is, powers, tools, areas unlocked etc.) In roguelike, when you start over, you start with nothing, have to redo all the progress again. Kinda like the difference between NG and NG+.

Correct about the distinction, but not entirely the reasoning. Roguelikes are games that play like Rogue or NetHack -- procedural turn-based dungeon crawler RPGs on a tile grid with permadeath. There are a huge number of games that fit this strict definition, so I don't see why we shouldn't just let them have their own distinct genre. The surging popularity of games that borrow elements from roguelikes, principally the procedural and permadeath elements, points to a broader genre of "roguelites" which can be hybridized with other styles of gameplay (top down shooter, side scroller beat 'em up, real-time tactics, etc.). Having meta progression that persists on death would indeed disqualify a game from being described as a roguelike, but it's only one of many potential disqualifying factors. See also the Berlin Interpretation and this classification chart (which is a bit too derisive of hybrid games but gets the point across):

PrSq9lo.png
I used to agree with the more flexible definition of roguelike that people have come to use, but I've recently changed my view. I think it's pretty bullshit that you can have a sizeable and active community of people developing pure roguelike games, then suddenly Binding of Isaac and FTL burst onto the scene and they're just supposed to get on board with an enormous widening of the term to include all manner of games that don't share their core gameplay. "Roguelite" is an apt catch-all, or we could describe something like Deathloop as being e.g. a hybrid FPS with roguelike elements. Anything else and we're just gleefully tearing down useful lexicon to chase trends.
 

Zombra

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Roguelikes: RPGs with a big focus on survival, simulation, procedural generation and emergent gameplay with permadeath, mostly done with ASCII graphics.
Roguelites: Games that take inspiration from a particular aspect of roguelikes, mostly permadeath and procedural generation and make them casual friendly to sell better on Steam.
So, nothing like this game or anything implied about this game. Got it.
 

DalekFlay

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So, nothing like this game or anything implied about this game. Got it.

People way before me have said this seems like a roguelite or whatever you want to call it. When you die you go back to begining, but you keep some aspects of your progress like a skill unlock or quest objective. This game looks like that, as you're in a deathloop and have skills and 8 targets to kill, so the suspicion by me and many others is that it plays like these "roguelites" where you start over after every death but keep whatever skills you unlocked and targets you assassinated. Mooncrash is this type of game as well. If you don't want to call these "roguelites" then don't fucking call them roguelites, I don't care, but pretty much everyone does now from developers to media types to players. Whatever made up word you want to call them, all I'm saying is I'm not into that genre but love Arkane so we'll see what happens. That simple statement shouldn't feel like pushing out a square turd.
 

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