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

[DalekFlay]

The problem isn't that they can't be used in a stealth manner, the problem is that they are so damn op that the only reason to use them for stealth purposes is for players that do wanna massively gimp themselfves to play it like a stealth game.

That's literally not at all what you said... "the PC's powers are all designed for combat, not infiltration" you said... but okay, sure. Yes the game is very easy to finish, that is its main flaw. If you try and 100% ghost and get all the runes and shit it gets harder, and the sequel has a lot better enemy awareness to make stealth harder, but I still wouldn't call any of it really challenging. That's a bummer, but it has nothing to do with the game being designed around both stealth and combat, which is a hallmark of the genre as Bad Sector rightly points out. Most people not achievement hunting or 100%ing the game will stealth for a bit and then fight when caught or bored, and that's how the game plays best probably.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

This isn't combat taking a back seat, it is the game trying to accommodate multiple play styles. This means that other play styles wont be done in perfection, but immersive sims by their nature are not pure games

The difference between Deus Ex and Dishonored 1, is that in Deus Ex it's multiple playstyles were all meaninful.
The problem isn't that Dishonored allows for an agressive playstyle, the problem is that, unlike the stealth playstyle, it's clearly underveloped, unengaging, not challenging and after while boring.

It's the devs responsability to make sure the systems they add contribute meaningfully to their game and to test the player on his use of those systems.
Deus Ex might not have had as good of a combat system as other shooters of the time, but they were good enough. Their mechanics solid, their challenges fun, their contribution to the game positive.

And besides it makes sense for the enemies to not be able to keep up with you - you are supposed to essentially have superpowers, the enemies are regular humans and all they have going for them is their numbers.

Oh c'mon that's a poor excuse for bad game design.
Specially when you consider there's supernatural enemies in the game and even they can't hold their own against Corvo's powers. And even if there weren't any super-powered enemies they could've still fixed this by not giving the player such broken skills.

That's literally not at all what you said... "the PC's powers are all designed for combat, not infiltration" you said...

Actually I said:

the PC's powers and arsenal were fundamentally that of a pure action game, mostly meant for combat prowess rather than infiltration.

"mostly" being underlined here to note that while they can be used for infiltration their combat utility excels that stealth aspect.

 

[DalekFlay]

"mostly" being underlined here to note that while they can be used for infiltration their combat utility excels that stealth aspect.

Yeah but that's bullshit and objectively false. Here is Dishonored's power list:

Blink and Dark Vision, the stealth focus is obvious. Devouring swarm is more an offense power, but can be used to distract or remove bodies. Possession is very good for both, removes and distracts for stealth. Bend time should be obvious in stealth application. Windblast is offense only, yes. Vitality is mostly offense only, yes. Same for blood thirsty. Agility and shadow kill are both super stealth focused, to avoid areas and to stop bodies being left behind. Basic math here tells me there are 4 stealth focused powers, 3 combat focused powers and 3 that have good applications in both. So holy cow, it's almost like you're completely full of shit. Who would have thought.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Blink ... the stealth focus is obvious

So are the offensive capabilities.

Bend time should be obvious in stealth application.

You must have a limited imagination if you can't see how the agressive applications of stopping time outweigh their evasive ones.

Agility ... super stealth focused

Are you serioulsy telling me that you don't see the advantages and tactics that super fucking speed and inhuman leaps can give you during battle?
Yours must have been the most boring playthough of the game.

So if my math is correct here than that means there is only 2 powers strictly meant for stealth while the remaining 8 all have good to excellent combat use.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Why don't you guys talk about the powers you get in D2? Like Mesmerize, Domino, Doppelganger, Far Reach, Shadow Walk. They're pretty amazing and have both combat and stealth uses. Combined with Corvo's powers in NG+ it's just stupid. Not to mention all the upgrades.

 

[DalekFlay]

So if my math is correct here than that means there is only 2 powers strictly meant for stealth while the remaining 8 all have good to excellent combat use.

Dude your original point was that most of the powers aren't useful for stealth. Now your point is most of them can have a combat use? You keep moving the goalposts so that you don't feel like an idiot. Stealth and combat are both fully viable options and the game is designed around using both, period. Find another complaint.

 

[Bad Sector]

The problem isn't that Dishonored allows for an agressive playstyle, the problem is that, unlike the stealth playstyle, it's clearly underveloped, unengaging, not challenging and after while boring.

This is clearly subjective, i'm not sure how to respond to descriptions such as "underdeveloped, unengaging, not challenging and boring". Personally i found the combat fun and if anything i remember people complaining about Dishonored's (i mean the first game) underdeveloped stealth powers.

Deus Ex might not have had as good of a combat system as other shooters of the time, but they were good enough. Their mechanics solid, their challenges fun, their contribution to the game positive.

Sure, but Deus Ex also has underdeveloped stealth - more so than Dishonored - but you can still play stealthy if you want. And what you describe about the systems also apply to Dishonored for me.

Oh c'mon that's a poor excuse for bad game design. Specially when you consider there's supernatural enemies in the game and even they can't hold their own against Corvo's powers. And even if there weren't any super-powered enemies they could've still fixed this by not giving the player such broken skills.

The game is a power fantasy, i think you are expecting from it to be something that it never tried to be. What you describe as "bad game design" is actually creating a believable game world for the goals the game has - if everyone has superpowers, then having superpowers isn't anything special. The supernatural enemies you meet later are supernatural because, like you, they are special (or anyway, tied to someone who is special). The others are just random regular guards who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong allegiances, there is nothing special about them.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Dude your original point was that most of the powers aren't useful for stealth. Now your point is most of them can have a combat use?

Can you fucking read?
I've explained my view on this to you 2 times already!

the PC's powers and arsenal were fundamentally that of a pure action game, mostly meant for combat prowess rather than infiltration.

The problem isn't that they can't be used in a stealth manner, the problem is that they are so damn op that the only reason to use them for stealth purposes is for players that do wanna massively gimp themselfves to play it like a stealth game.

"mostly" being underlined here to note that while they can be used for infiltration their combat utility excels that stealth aspect.

From the very begginning I said that the powers can be well used for stealth, but that most of them are so powerful that they make physical confrontations too easy.

Stealth and combat are both fully viable options and the game is designed around using both, period

You really haven't read anything I've been writing here.

The problem isn't that both playstyles are viable.
The problem is that combat is effortless (because the PC is too op and the game as no proper way to challenge him) and as a consequence unenganging.
And as such a detriment to the game's focus.

This is clearly subjective, i'm not sure how to respond to descriptions such as "underdeveloped, unengaging, not challenging and boring".

No it's really not, it's very simple.
Enemies pose no threat because they are completely powerless and cannot properly engage with you in combat.
Therefore the game is obviously underveloped and unengaging in all things combat related.
Because of the above and since it lacks any sort of challenge, the combat is ultimately boring.

Deus Ex also has underdeveloped stealth

How so?

The game is a power fantasy, i think you are expecting from it to be something that it never tried to be. What you describe as "bad game design" is actually creating a believable game world for the goals the game has - if everyone has superpowers, then having superpowers isn't anything special. The supernatural enemies you meet later are supernatural because, like you, they are special (or anyway, tied to someone who is special). The others are just random regular guards who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong allegiances, there is nothing special about them.

The "power fantasy" is also a poor excuse.
In fact it's the shitty excuse that's responsible for the fucktons of shit action games that we had to suffer since 2005.
Because the devs were all about that "awesome button" mentality, where entire mechanics existed just for the sake of being cool rather than having actual, meaningful contribution to the gameplay.

Just because Corvo is special doesn't mean he as to brake the game.
Again they could've simply made his powers more weak and "heavy" on him.
And also again, just because he's super-human doesn't mean enemies have to entirely powerless against him.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I don't want to get in a big argument over it but seems like that would be really disappointing. Why would you remove the main villain from the game?

Not even speaking for myself necessarily, I'd have to play it and see. A lot of people will fucking hate than random AI "griefing" though.

Yeah. As mentioned above, it seems like multiplayer "invaders" won't feel like anything but griefers. (If I play this, I'll probably try multiplayer once or twice and then be like 'fuck these pros') But an AI enemy that roams could be awesome.

She'll probably play like a more persistent Mr. X as an AI (and a Dickwraith as a human). I don't think it can be considered griefing when the objective of her character is to kill the hero. Besides the game can't be too hard if it's designed with the pursuit in mind, disabling her outright would probably result in a mediocre fps.

 

[DalekFlay]

You really haven't read anything I've been writing here.

The problem isn't that both playstyles are viable.
The problem is that combat is effortless (because the PC is too op and the game as no proper way to challenge him) and as a consequence unenganging.
And as such a detriment to the game's focus.

I'm not having the same argument with you that Bad Sector is, man. I replied to this:

The problem with Dishonored was that the game was designed to be played like a stealth game, but the PC's powers and arsenal were fundamentally that of a pure action game, mostly meant for combat prowess rather than infiltration.

Which is still a silly and false statement, no matter how much you want to dance around it. It's also a statement you basically just contradicted yourself. The powers were split pretty evenly, the game was very obviously designed for both methods of play, and if anything infiltration is a main focus.

Yes the game is too easy, I said that myself multiple times.

 

[Bad Sector]

No it's really not, it's very simple.
Enemies pose no threat because they are completely powerless and cannot properly engage with you in combat.

The enemies have means to engage in combat - they can use melee attacks for close encounters and pistols for distant encounters. In addition they are in higher numbers. Later you also get harder enemies (e.g. tallboys) but even the base guards are able to attack you.

But regardless, these do not mean that the game was meant to be played stealthy nor that combat took a back seat.

Therefore the game is obviously underveloped and unengaging in all things combat related.

That "therefore" does not follow, the only "therefore" that would apply is that the game's combat can be easy, which i wouldn't disagree with as i never argued that the game is hard. What i'm arguing is that being easy does not mean combat took a back seat which in turn doesn't mean that the game was designed to be played stealthy.

Also...

Because of the above and since it lacks any sort of challenge, the combat is ultimately boring

...this is the subjective part.

Deus Ex also has underdeveloped stealth

How so?

Even compared to Thief or Dishonored, Deus Ex lack some mechanics like being able to judge your visibility (be it via something like Thief's light gem or Dishonored's bolts) while the enemies can see you from afar (if you are not crouching) with barely any feedback (be it audio like in Thief or again the bolts in Dishonored) which make visibility checks feel a bit random. Also, IIRC the vast majority of enemies do not react to dead bodies, though it has been many years since i tried to play the game stealthy (i do not really enjoy that sort of playstyle myself) so i might be wrong here.

The "power fantasy" is also a poor excuse.

I'm not sure how it is an excuse, it is what the game is - you are playing as one of the very rare people who got special superpowers in a world where almost nobody has such superpowers. This is nothing but power fantasy. If you play with a direct combat approach you are a meat grinder (something that i at least found fun).

Just because Corvo is special doesn't mean he as to brake the game.
Again they could've simply made his powers more weak and "heavy" on him.
And also again, just because he's super-human doesn't mean enemies have to entirely powerless against him.

Yes, the game could have been harder, i have no disagreement here (...nor agreement though, it isn't really something i considered when i was playing the game). As i wrote above, where i disagree is that the game being easy implies that combat wasn't a priority which in turn means that the game was meant to be played stealthy. Remember that this was my original argument in this thread, not the game's difficulty. I mean, even if we go with idea that the game's combat isn't great (though personally i had no issue with it, but again, subjective) it still doesn't mean that Dishonored was meant to be played stealthy - it just means that its combat isn't that great (and at the same time you still have others with similar complaints about the game's stealth approaches).

 

[Raskens]

Even compared to Thief or Dishonored, Deus Ex lack some mechanics like being able to judge your visibility (be it via something like Thief's light gem or Dishonored's bolts) while the enemies can see you from afar (if you are not crouching) with barely any feedback (be it audio like in Thief or again the bolts in Dishonored) which make visibility checks feel a bit random. Also, IIRC the vast majority of enemies do not react to dead bodies, though it has been many years since i tried to play the game stealthy (i do not really enjoy that sort of playstyle myself) so i might be wrong here.

While I agree that DX AI can be very sporadic in it's behaviour I do think that the same issue exists in Dishonored, and especially Dishonored 2. For example I felt the guards headturning followed no pattern, and in D2 I reloaded a save a couple of times, and yes the guards head were sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right. I never confirmed it in the first game. In addition to this the distance and the angles the AI could notice you also felt inconsistent.

What do you mean with bolts btw?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

how about that game deathloop guys

 

[Citizen]

More like deathpoop lmao

 

[Bad Sector]

While I agree that DX AI can be very sporadic in it's behaviour I do think that the same issue exists in Dishonored, and especially Dishonored 2. For example I felt the guards head turning followed no pattern

Note that i wasn't referring to the behavior of the enemies (i do not think randomness in behavior like where to turn or whatever is a bad thing), i was referring to how the game feels when it performs visibility checks - unlike Dishonored and Thief you have no indication about these checks at all.

What do you mean with bolts btw?

The lightning bolts over the enemy heads (or towards their direction if they are not in your FOV)... they're not called bolts in the game and i do not remember how they're actually called - which makes it very hard to find actual screenshots with them, but here is quick sketch from memory:

That bolt fills as an enemy is starting to notice you.

 

[vortex]

To ramp up difficulty in Deathloop and Dishonored 3, they should add intimidating enemies, more powerful than player is, once they notice you you're dead. You could can kill them if you come from behind or attack from above. That way sneaking will be more valuable and important.

 

[Raskens]

i was referring to how the game feels when it performs visibility checks - unlike Dishonored and Thief you have no indication

No indication at all is an exaggeration. If a guard notices you in Deus Ex he will sharply rotate towards you, and you can also hear the guard do this. But I do agree that guards signaling their awareness isn't as good in Deus Ex (especially from a distance as you noted above) as in Dishonored and Thief. Even if you turn off the bolts in Dishonored (which I did), it's probably clearer than in Deus Ex.

 

[DalekFlay]

To ramp up difficulty in Deathloop and Dishonored 3, they should add intimidating enemies, more powerful than player is, once they notice you you're dead. You could can kill them if you come from behind or attack from above. That way sneaking will be more valuable and important.

I think Dishonored 2 improved the stealth difficulty about as much as I'd probably want. Guards notice you very quickly in that game on the harder modes, and getting 100% ghost will obtaining items is pretty rough at times. Combat is still pretty easy because the powers are so... well, powerful. They have to find a way to reign those in a bit while still making you feel like a super assassin, which isn't the easiest thing in the world I guess.

 

[Bad Sector]

No indication at all is an exaggeration. If a guard notices you in Deus Ex he will sharply rotate towards you, and you can also hear the guard do this. But I do agree that guards signaling their awareness isn't as good in Deus Ex (especially from a distance as you noted above) as in Dishonored and Thief. Even if you turn off the bolts in Dishonored (which I did), it's probably clearer than in Deus Ex.

Yeah but this assumes you are looking at the guard and are close by (to hear), but sadly the times i remember this being a PITA back when i played Deus Ex and tried to be stealthy was when the guards noticed me from 1km away and all i saw were a few pixels moving towards my direction (exaggerating a bit for emphasis - of my annoyance) :-P.

 

[samuraigaiden]

I just learned Raphaël Colantonio and Julien Roby left Arkane after Prey released. Here's hoping the studio stays on track and keeps churning out top quality games.

 

[vortex]

1. island is divided into several districts
2. your goal is to find “the golden loop,” a way to complete this eight-target puzzle.
3. Colt and Juliana have a vast set of abilities and weapons that they can access, which they share for story reasons, but each has a few specificities and one of Julianna’s is a power we call masquerade,” he says. “Masquerade allows you to take the appearance of any character on the island, any of the NPCs. You can play a mind game on Colt and make some kind of ambush.

https://www.gameinformer.com/preview/2020/07/10/answers-to-our-biggest-questions

Deathloop
Answers To Our Biggest Questions

Arkane has made a name for itself with the gameplay freedom, creative abilities, and detailed worlds in the Dishonored and Prey franchises. Now Arkane Lyon is working on a new IP called Deathloop, bringing together the studio's strengths with some new twists. The first-person shooter tasks you with eliminating eight targets in a single day to break a time loop. But beware! A rival assassin, who can optionally be a PVP opponent, also hunts you. Deathloop was announced at E3 2019, and we got our first look at the gameplay in action recently. However, there’s still a lot we don’t know about this intriguing sci-fi experience. We recently sat down with Arkane Lyon to get some clarity on what to expect.

Spoiler

On What’s Different From Past Games
If you watched the gameplay trailer, it was easy to see the echoes of Arkane’s previous properties, especially Dishonored. When asked about what’s being carried over from previous games and how Deathloop will have its own identity, game director Dinga Bakaba didn’t shy away from the familiarity. “Something we are bringing back that we care a lot about is the flexibility of the gameplay, the flexibility of the worlds - the player being able to sneak past situations or go in action-heavy to find creative and intuitive solutions to challenges,” he says. “We care about world-building and placing players in a world with a lot of interesting lore elements and little stories to uncover. There are also some abilities that we have in the game that you might have seen in the gameplay reveal that do resemble some that we had in the past.”

While it looks like Deathloop is speaking to the studio’s strengths, Bakaba also assured us there’s plenty of new lifeblood. “This project was really started on the premise of doing something different, to experiment with different concepts after eight years of doing Dishonored, he explains.

“I would say the story is more player-driven than [anything] we ever did before. You can do things in almost any order. That’s something new for us. The time loop itself is something very different in terms of the structure of the game and how you approach, for instance, dying in the game. And lastly, I would say another key element that is new is the multiplayer elements. Colt is trapped in a one-day time loop and in order to escape, he has to kill eight targets before the end of the day. One of those targets actually can be played by another player. The fact that the main antagonist of the game called Julianna can be played by another player is also one of the key novelties on display here.”

On How Arkane Keeps The Time-Loop Structure Engaging
Deathloop centers on its Groundhog Day-like structure; if you die before reaching the end of the day (or fail to meet certain objectives), you relive it until you beat all eight targets. But how does that stay interesting for a player beyond the challenge? Loops invite repetition, and that’s not always fun in games. We asked Bakaba how the structure stays engaging for the long haul.

“The story progresses along with your actions and the knowledge that you piece together about the events,” he explains. “It's something that progresses iteratively, but as it progresses, the world resets. You're really trying to solve this impossible situation by learning more about your targets and the place, and once you know something, it’s knowledge you can act upon.” Bakaba uses the example of finding the code for a safe that holds important information, but it’s located in another district and can only be accessed in the morning. Obviously, you’d have to wait for the day to start anew to unearth those details and use that information.

The island is divided into several districts. By entering them at different times of the day, you see different events and routines. “Depending on where you are, different things happen,” Bakaba says. “Just exploring all the permutations of those districts through the day is something that's exciting to do. And then starts the experimentation: But what if I do this? What happens then? Can I prevent this character from dying? Oh, wait a minute, I killed that character, but he was digging a hole, what if I don't kill him and come back in the afternoon and then maybe this opens the passageway to something else. It is really about this clockwork; pushing a domino here, pushing a domino there, and then seeing the ripple effects.”

Bakaba also confirmed there is “no such thing as a perfect day,” meaning there will be some slight variations and differences each time a day resets. For instance, maybe a character wears a different color shirt, eats something different for breakfast, or begins the day in a different mood. The main events are always the same, but little details may change. “[The experience is] more about what the player is throwing into this and how they’re making it change. So there is all this exploration and then experimentation, you know, trying different things and taking a different approach.” Bakaba spoke about giving players more agency to either avoid certain challenges until they’re ready or just discovering different ways to approach things that might offer new or better results.

At the end of the day, your goal is to find “the golden loop,” a way to complete this eight-target puzzle. How many times players repeat days before they find it will vary. “How you get to that knowledge is really freeform,” he explains. “Even though this is about Colt being on the clock to take out the targets before midnight, we didn’t want the experience to be a race, so time in that sense is a bit abstracted. If you want to spend all your time in one district and read every note before you go on to the next day, you’re welcome to do that. I am sure some players will try to make a super-optimized version of the campaign where they take fewer loops to be able to complete the game. I think that would be interesting to see what speedrunners do with this game.”

On Creating Cool Weapons And How Progression Works
Arkane has a flair with creating nifty abilities and weapons that open up different ways to pursue situations. That’s not changing here. In fact, one of the big things the studio was excited for creating a first-person shooter and creating interesting guns.

“This is the first first-person shooter we are doing since two of our projects, Return to Ravenholm and The Crossing, never shipped,” Bakaba says. “So it’s been a long time and we just wanted to make really big guns that really look awesome and have those nice toys for the player. Our approach here was to go for an arsenal that was accessible, so I would see it and immediately be able to say, ‘Okay, that's a shotgun, that's a precise pistol, that’s an automated assault rifle.’ We wanted to have those tent poles of first-person shooters, but give them their own vibe visually in terms of gameplay. We also wanted to make a few little bit crazier weapons.” Bakaba pointed to one of the guns we saw in the trailer as a good example, where you can use two guns that shoot two bullets, but can combine them into a full rifle that fires off four bullets in one burst. “It's a nice weapon, it's stylish, it allows us to do those cool animations when you combine the gun. It’s one of my favorites.”

As for abilities, Bakaba said to expect some familiar ones from Arkane’s previous work, pointing to the shift ability, which functions similarly to Dishonored’s Blink, where you’re teleported to an area nearby. A new one he shared was Julianna’s signature ability. “Colt and Juliana have a vast set of abilities and weapons that they can access, which they share for story reasons, but each has a few specificities and one of Julianna’s is a power we call masquerade,” he says. “Masquerade allows you to take the appearance of any character on the island, any of the NPCs. You can play a mind game on Colt and make some kind of ambush. There is a number of things you can do with this power and we think it will be very exciting to see what players will do with it, especially the kinds of mind games and the kind of surprises that will arise from this.” Bakaba reiterated the abilities always make sense for the character and reflect their personality in some way.

One part that especially has us curious is how progression works in a game where you’re literally starting each day anew. “When you're playing through the campaign, especially in the beginning, it's a time loop, right? So anything that you pick up whenever the day resets is gone," Bakaba says. "You have to really deal with the fact that this is a time loop. But somewhere in the story, there is something important that happens, and Colt finds some kind of loophole, so to speak, and he's able to keep some of those abilities across loops. From then on, the progression becomes a bit closer to what you'd expect from a modern action/RPG, where you can unlock those abilities. So, it's interesting because we go through this phase where we're really subject to the rules of the time loop, and then more and more, we start breaking those rules and Colt starts taking ownership of this world.”

On How The Story Is Told And The Assassins' Unique Relationship
The story takes you to the island of Blackreef, a mysterious, chaotic place stuck in an eternal time loop. For the inhabitants, the island is a never-ending party and breathtaking wonderland. For Colt, it’s a prison – a world ruled by decadence where the delinquents keep him captive while their party never stops. Colt must find answers to why the time loop exists and discover a way to break it, but that’s only scratching the surface of this sci-fi tale. “In all of our games, we've been trying to toy with the concept that the world is much bigger than what you see,” Bakaba teased.

Bakaba said Arkane wanted a really focused experience, so expect something more on the order of Prey’s space station. “We are telling much less of a linear story than we did in something like Dishonored, where you would go from one place to the other and have emotional beats along the way that we could control like a blocking cutscene,” he says. “Here, the player will really piece together the story at their own pace. And there are a number of narrative design elements that go into supporting that; there's non-linearity and the fact that we have multiplayer components”

Bakaba teased there’s an element here they can’t talk about, but one he could mention was the relationship between Colt and Julianna. These two are at odds. Colt desperately wants to break the time loop, since it’s not the best day for him playing on repeat. Julianna will do everything in her power to keep it going, as she sees this as the ultimate playground with no consequences. Colt and Juilianna’s rival relationship is a core element of the narrative, as she’s the main person you’re conversing with during the adventure.

“They talk with each other very often during the story, which is a bit reactive based on what you just did, where you are, and with what you've uncovered with the narrative up until now, Bakaba says. “It’s a relationship that is built. Trying to draw a comparison, it's something like you would get in something like Firewatch where you're very often on the radio with Delilah and you have this relationship growing and taking left turns.”

Bakaba said it’s a more freeform narrative, and while Arkane certainly has some new tools for how it’s telling Deathloop’s story, it also brings in its signature environmental storytelling that invites exploration to uncover Blackreef’s deeper mysteries. “I think it's the most player-driven narrative that we've done in a game until now,” he says.”

On What The Eight Different Targets Bring To The Table
Deathloop has its own cool, retro, ‘60s-inspired world, and it’s safe to say interesting people inhabit it. But what makes these eight targets special? More importantly, how do they impact the gameplay and environments we visit?

Bakaba said the team will talk more about this at a later date, but he did divulge a bit about the first target named Alexis, who was shown off in trailers. “One thing I’ll say about him is he’s not a very likable character, and he’s hosting this crazy party at night where everyone is dressed as a wolf,” he says. “There’s this strict dress code to the party and figuring out which one is Alexis is definitely part of the challenge in how you approach the mission, especially the first time when you don’t have any clues.”

Bakaba didn’t go into specifics about the rest of the cast, but he did leave us with this on what to expect: “The only thing I can say is that we really try to have a diverse cast of targets. They are all part of a group called The Visionaries. They are the people that are responsible for the time loop - the physical anchors of the phenomenon. That's why they have to die. We have targets that have different views and different beliefs about the events.

"One of them might be seeing all of this as something more spiritual, or even religious to an extent. One of them will be more about seeing all this endeavor as a scientific experiment. For another one of them, it’s a moral thing, where the time loop is the only way we can be free because there is no consequence. They all have different reasons for kickstarting this whole crazy program together. As we do in our games, the environments in which you find them is really a reflection of who they are and what they bring to the program.”

As you can see, Deathloop has plenty of mysteries to uncover, and we can't wait to see what's in store. Hopefully, we'll learn more in the coming months before release, but our chat certainly left us more intrigued. What do you think so far?

 

[DalekFlay]

The last Dishonored had that power too, but obviously it offers more interesting applications when it's the enemy hunting you.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[orcinator]

To ramp up difficulty in Deathloop and Dishonored 3, they should add intimidating enemies, more powerful than player is, once they notice you you're dead. You could can kill them if you come from behind or attack from above. That way sneaking will be more valuable and important.

Optimistic but unlikely, Arkane is so enamored with the idea of a player making their own difficulty(by abstaining from using any of the interesting mechanics) they're now relying on a second player to make their next game difficult.

 

[kangaxx]

Worth keeping an eye on IMO. At least it's a different concept and they've made good games in the past.