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"Plus it's really satisfying kicking that crappy guitar player in Karl's Bay off the ledge." Yes. Yes it is. You can hear him from miles around, but it took me ages to find out where he was. Now I make sure to pay him a visit every time I'm there.
It just felt different, y'know? I think it was the AI. In dishonored, every enemy felt like a person for the most part. A person only capable of saying a few lines, but it still felt like they had a realistic ability to sense you. The enemies in this game are so brain-dead you can walk right past them, until you do get spotted, in which case they are capable of seeing through both walls and invisibility.
I didn't mind the ai. What annoyed me was the hand-holding. There was a lot you could accomplish in the game by exploring on your own, but you'd always run into a spot that made no sense and required the game to spell out exactly what to do, ruining the fun.
While I appreciate some points, I take issue with 2: 1. Comparing Deathloop to Dishonored and Prey without accounting for their intentional differences. Though immersive sims are some of my favourite games, I sometimes feel those games' systems take a lot of time at the front end before the game becomes very satisfying at the back end. They are heavy time investments - Prey in particular. Deathloop condenses this formula in shorter bursts so that players can enjoy that "back end" immersive quality more quickly. This aspect makes Deathloop distinct from Prey and Dishonored. Sometimes I would love the satisfaction of an immersive sim, but don't have the 5 or so hours to invest before getting to the deeper interplay of systems - I may only have an hour or two. Deathloop provides me this short-burst Arkane gameplay loop, making it a very valuable member of the Arkane collection. 2. The Marvel quipping. You suggest Arkane ought to take greater inspiration for the dialogue from 60's Bond films, but those films (and many other Bond films) are stuffed with quips. Bond himself was a quip dispenser before the serious Daniel Craig era. So I don't quite understand your argument there.
I enjoy the begining and middle of games like Prey more so than the end. Everything is new and I'm never sure if things will work. Then things start to click and that's great too.
If you watch NoClips documentary on the development of Prey the devs said they feel like Prey has too many complex systems for gamers. That might be the reason why Deathloop feels toned down in some ways. This is what they said for anyone interested. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kXLxaKrcFZ0.html
Hmm…mixed feelings about that. Mostly sadness and rage. The latter, that they took away such amazing systems for the percentage of the player base, that probably didn’t even finish prey.
It did? Prey felt relatively simple to me. Or maybe that was because I played it with map markers on? But other than that it felt more fulfilling than deathloop that's for sure.
It’s a niche game from a niche studio that has a habit of producing niche genre games is the unfortunate truth of it. The Arkane fans wanted something deeper left unsatisfied, the casual fans turned off by the premise and gameplay, the hardcore fans turned off by the handholding. The definition of trying to please everyone and only mildly appeasing the few who accept the game on it’s own terms Love Cole though, he’s great.
I suspect that WolfEye is intentionally delaying their Weird West release so as not to be too close to Deathloop's release, plus polish it up further so why not?
Great video, I 100% agree with you on preferring more routes to break the look rather than including PVP. It's such a weird decision that feels like it could really affect the games replayability, hopefully they can make some meaningful changes with future updates/dlc
I've been replaying this game for the second time and I've noticed a few things. 1. the art style and the music are on point. they're magnificent. there's a moment in the afternoon when they're having a concert in Updaam, I found myself just jamming with them, I genuinely forgot it was a game. 2. the concept of "invasions" completely falls through, though. Human opponents are not consistent due to skills or latency problems, and the AI just sucks balls. You rarely get an interesting "PvP" moment. 3. The replayability is meh. There's only one solution, so the second time things are obvious. 4. I think I'd have preferred a more introspective game about Frank. The man's been trapped in a time loop for hundreds of years, he's been struggling to break the loop for so long that he actually forgot about it. They could have implemented a system where based on certain actions and gameplay styles(?), Frank's personality changes. You could see that other versions of him were desperate and depressed, I wish I could have also experienced that. 5. the levelling, weapons, trinkets, etc. don't really matter in the game. Frank is so overpowered from the start you really don't need any of that. The gameplay style is first and foremost defined by which slabs the player picks. Overall, it's still a very enjoyable game, but some aspects of it could have been made better. I wonder if releasing a 1/4 of an indie-like game would have been better instead of Deathloop. Smaller games can take greater risks, they could have played around with various elements to see what works and what doesn't without risking tens/hundreds(?) of millions of dollars. Had they done that, it'd have become obvious from the start that the PvP system doesn't work well. sry for the wall of text.
Deathloop somehow has such a unique style and characterization that I love and stays in my memory every time. From a point of an artist, is amazing to see. Now, the gameplay has some serious flaws and it has a lot of potential to be great but it fails. A member of Arkane Lyon said in an interview that the original view and versions of Deathloop were much greater and complex than now, but after some Testing Rounds, the results were so bad saying that the game was too complicated and hard to understand that they started to handhold the player and ended up with what we have today. I would love to play the original view of this game. I love it. But I can't overview the flaws.
I can't put into words just how much I hate this game's art style. The blend of cartoony and realistic just doesn't gel for me at all. The UI and effects are abhorrent too. It tries way too hard.
I feel like I'm the only person who's played Arkane's previous games and considers Deathloop a worthy addition. One thing I will say is that where previous titles have incentivised stealth, this one wants you to get loud with your guns and creative with your powers. The voiced protagonist(s) are also somewhat new, D2 had Corvo and Emily voiced but rarely during gameplay. The voice acting is great, there's real chemistry between Colt and Juliana, and the Sixties aesthetic is fantastic. I'll agree the PvP wasn't really necessary. Cool concept, meh in practice.
@@ZeroFKSgivin na it’s pretty damn good. As the creator of this videos says, one it gets going, it really gets going. Mix the satisfaction you get when you discover puzzles that you solve on your own with the lack of hand holding, and that lightbulb goes off when you’re playing. The PVP is really fun and becomes a fun cat and mouse. And the fact that the systems work flawlessly for players on both sides at the same time is an achievement in itself.
I loved it until the last couple of hours, where I felt the handholding went to far. Still from a gameplay perspective, it's my favourite arkane game. Going to replay Dishonored 2 again just to confirm this isn't recency bias
Yea it’s so hands off with so many other aspects like how to turn off Fias reactor or disarming Franks fireworks and that you can completely choose the wrong one of the 4 options if you didn’t read and have to retry the whole loop, that I didn’t mind the having them guide me on the final loop.
I can sum up what I hate about Deathloop in two words: 1) Waypoints 2) Textlogs This game presented itself like it was going to be a cerebral puzzle involving exploration and deduction with plenty of gunplay in between. That's why I bought it. Instead what I got was a handholded chore list from waypoint to waypont. Go to waypoint. Click on every single fucking piece of paper. Go to next waypoint. Oh no another fucking code. Now go to next waypoint. Oh no, now you have to come back to this same spot at another time of day. Over and over. The game gives you plenty of alternatove methods to accomplish objectives, but sometimes the damn quest won't trigger the next step unless you do things the exact specific way the game wants you to, and sometimes that specific way is completely unintuitive. Example: I already figured out how to single out Aleksis with the beer. But the game wanted me to figure out the obtuse dj pad puzzle before it would call the quest complete. It's disappointing because all the elements are there for the phenomenal game we wanted. Awesome story - but told through the stupidest way possible, disjointed text and audio logs. Detailed environmental clues - but they don't matter because the game will just spell out what they mean. Gorgeous, complex levels - but the game just points exactly where to go. Clever puzzles - ruined because of unintuitive factors that require the aforementioned handholding. Fun gunplay - but the ai. Playing Deathloop should have been a thrill but it ended up being a test of patience through the absurd design choices.
Yeah this game is great but my expectations were higher due to their past games. However I don't complain about this game getting 10's from critics because Arkane is the only AAA studio that makes immersive sims right now, even Eidos Montreal is now making GotG game, so to see bigger immersive sims in future, this needs to sell well.
I really enjoy this game, but the invasion mechanic makes the difficulty beyond swingy. Sometimes you'll get curbstomped, sometimes you'll get the bot and it's laughably easy. For a game that seems designed to engender experimentation it feels really incongruent.
I'm so surprised no single review touches on the most FUNDAMENTAL PREMISE of Deathloop: the *actual fucking loop*. According to the game director it was designed to allow players to build confidence, as derived from the Dishonored series with all the elaborate setups. Start stealthy, then gradually turn into a coordinated killing machine. In reality they failed at this miserably because the game is piss easy on every difficulty. The whole premise doesn't work.
Wow the health and magic bars look to be lifted directly from Dishonored. Is that supposed to be their trademark now, a Dutch-angled life and mana bar?
Solo for UNCLE, Get Smart, there are many spy films and shows from the 60s and 70s that are full of humour and important characters playing off of each other. The problem isn't the quips or the humorous aspects in the dialogues per se, it's the quality of implementation which is a problem, so to speak.
It seems like a lot of people who loved Arkane's previous work end up not getting as much out of Deathloop as they were expecting. "Arkane lite" is how I've heard it referred to on more than one occasion, and I can understand why. It has depth, for sure, but doesn't seem to give players the degree of agency and environmental interaction that we've historically seen in other Arkane titles. I don't doubt that it's a solid game, but those calling it a masterpiece seem very willing to ignore obvious flaws like those you mention here, and forget how much of what it does has been done before and better by Arkane and others.
I ended up putting almost 50 hours into this game, despite having no desire to play it, whatsoever, when I saw the gameplay. But I saw it for sale on the PS store for half price, so, I said "why not?",b and ended up loving it.
The game puts me in mind of "Bioshock", a little bit of "Fallout" & "We Happy Few" wirh a Austin Powers sense of humor....if you like redoing the same thing over & over. You want to explore every Nilk & Cranny to see what goodies you can find without trying to speed run through the story...this game is your flavor.... 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
Probably the first of your video where I disagree with you. This is my favourite arkane game all time and I feel like it was handcrafted for me. I liked the smart changes it made to the save system to change up my playstyle, I couldn't save scum like in every other immersive sim and that meant living with the consequences of fucking up and not having the chaos system meant I actually used all my tools and powers without feeling guilt. The levels are few but they are jam packed. All arkane levels are meant to be replayed but they integrated it into the gameplay itself. Cole was a great character for me , most of his humour actually landing for me which is rare in a video game. It's a much more casual immersive sim if you can call it that and I love it for that.
I would disagree on the quipping bit- it actually makes a lot more sense in this setting than in Marvel. Since nobody feels the threat of a true death, there's lots of room for joking and having fun without it feeling out of place. Meanwhile in Marvel, the world will be coming to an end and our band of milquetoast celebrities will still have the gall to crack jokes that crush any tension.
I personally loved the back and forth between Colt and Julianna, especially Julianna's half of the dialogue. I think it fits well with her character and the quips are nowhere near as bad as the cringey ass dialogue that comes out of Marvel films. Redfall is probably closer to Marvel quips than Deathloop is
What I liked about the game, was the style, with all the colors was super nice! I love the guns they feel good and look good too, and the whole idea was cool too and that's about it. I didn't care for much of anything else with the game, it just feel like they tried to take so much from other games and kind of made this Frankinstein's monster. I get trying something new and I'm all for it but this just didn't work for me on any level.
I bounced off Deathloop hard and Redfall looks/sounds like garbage, a shame since I loved Prey. It was the closest we got to a Bioshock this past generation.
It's July 2023 and Deathloop has an avg of 160 players on steamcharts and everyone seems to have forgotten this game even existed. Dishonored 1 has over 400 while Dishonored 2 has over 500. I think it's safe to say Deathloop was a flop both comercially and ideologically.
Personally, I dislike both Dishonored and Prey after multiple attempts and multiple hours played I just couldn't get into them. I bought Deathloop on a whim and I'm absolutely loving! It's made me think about attempting Prey again (tried and failed to enjoy Dishonored too many times to try again.) Maybe it's because Deathloop feels more streamlined but I genuinely enjoy it despite some flaws, I was instantly engrossed by it.
Finally got to play this game. I’ve been avoiding spoilers for a long time. Before I watch the video let me say I really enjoyed the game. Not better than prey or dishonored but still a really fun game with cool moments. Only complaint is that the game holds ur hand too much on the main story.
The game really sucked me in, but then ended on a pretty low note to be honest. I was so ready to learn more about the world and it's characters, but then it was already over Also that NL clip was hilarious hahaha
I'm guess I'm an old bastard now, as whenever I see these insufferable "trendy" 20-somethings in video games like Redfall and the new Stains Row, I just gag. That or I prefer good, well written characters... and not annoying caricatures mired in quirkiness that are going to be dated in 10 years. >__>
I agree with you and can absolutely not stand the look of new saints row but Redfall at least looks still dark and gory . Ya there’s some cringe dialogue and the younger characters seem lame but it is something Arkane hasn’t tried before and they did make playing as a woman(d2) and black bisexual woman(DOTO) fun so who knows maybe it’ll be fun . And if it’s got the good Arkane gameplay I can look past the Fortnite looking characters
Just finished the game today and man people were not kidding when they said the endings were anticlimactic. There's barely anything there. I like the game but this is some bullshit.
So why does the 0451 on a keypad give you that dialog and trophy "old habits die hard"? I just noticed the trophy since I beat the game today and was curious what achievements I still needed, and that is one of them. Did I miss a reference in the game to know to put that into a keypad? Or is this a reference to another game?
It's an immersive sim staple. Originally a reference to the book Fahrenheit 0451, now 0451 is normally the code to the 1st safe in any game with immersive sim sensibilities. It's present in Deus Ex, it's present in Dishonored and some other games. Any player that previously played an immersive sim would attempt 0451, especially when the game screams at you "You know the code!"
Yeah I agree with a lot of this. I found it overall lacking, and frankly I'm kind of upset that it's set in the dishonored universe. It feels wrong in a way. I feel like they could've leaned more into world building, I still feel like there were so many questions unanswered. Deathloop tried to appease everyone I think and it suffered ad a result. Missed the chaos system, nonlethal options, and multiple answers to different situations. Also Redfall has me REALLY stressed. It does not look hopeful....
While I'm 3/4 of the way convinced it's set in the Dishonored universe, I'm not entirely sure since they never outright confirm it as far as I know. But hell, the name "Blackreef", the fact it was an old fishing village, the Shift and Nexus slabs, the many architectural similarities to Dishonored, plus the dueling pistols at the very end...those pistols felt like they were all but a total confirmation. It wouldn't bother me personally, it would be kind of neat to see the future of the Dishonored world.
Not sure how the Chaos system would work in a world where everything is constantly being reset. I also don't know why Cole would need non lethal options in a game where everyone is always resurrected. But that's not for me to figure out since I'm not a game developer.
@@Largentina. yeah I get that, but I wasn't saying they should've put it in Deathloop, I'm just saying that I missed the chaos system from the different games.
Saddest part is the beginning is held down so much because the okay testers for the game were Neanderthals and needed their hands held throughly and really bogged it down. IMO I wouldn’t disregarded their input in order to tell a more involved and interesting intro. Arkanes fan base is used to activating a couple brain cells to play and the intro pro killed hype for many players.
Deathloop is a decent experience for me as well as a fun one with some frustrating parts in especially for those that became completionists of Deathloop just like I just did half an hour ago from typing this comment! Deathloop is my twelfth and latest game to make my Perfect Games list on Steam and I'm a proud Steam gamer for doing so! Great video btw!
I wanted to love this game so badly. Prey is one of my favorite games of all time, but this one just feels like a bit of a letdown. When I play this, after an hour or two I find myself switching over to Prey or Dishonored. Not a horrible game by any means, but it just feels so dumbed down from Prey.
I agree with everything, except the "music" in this is game is virtually nonexistent: a couple of grooves for open fights which you showcased and the CONSTANT 4 notes repating when an enemy is nearby. Playing stealthy-ish on console, 3\4 of my gameplay was accompanied by this loop (pun intended). Also, I didn't quite understand why Julianna wants to preserve the loop so much. It's all to pretentions, vague and lacks any visual representation.
it has a simpler mechanics and thus it's easier to play. I honestly liked that, sometimes you don't have 60 hours to throw at a game, you just wanna pick up the game and play it without thinking too much. I do feel like Deathloop is that type of game. I genuinely laughed a lot at the jokes. And the IP is new, that's excellent. Overall I'd give it 8/10. I'm not super happy about its price, though. 60 usd is too steep for me. And the AI seems way too dumb for a game like this.
I loved Dishonored, but felt really disappointed by this game from its story, gameplay, progression and replayability. It was a huge let-down for me from the studio.
I'd kill for Arx Fatalis remake. Or DMoMaM2. Or PREY2. Or Dishonored 3... It's such a great shame these games don't sell better. People are so fucking stupid.
The void engine crashes and the P2P multiplayer is shit like the game needs way more updates till it's done crashing on launch and the MP is made way better. Generally loved the game it lasted about 20 hours for me and the murder mystery but your the murderer is super cool hope it gets DLC to help out on content. Maybe a sequel so good giving it had more content I would love a good sequel.
I found some of the latter criticisms not hard enough. This game does not follow in the path of immersive sims, at all. it has weak enemy A.I., laughable level design, horrible looking since in most cases it feels like shadows are missing, a poor attempt at trying to copy an already superior game that was years old and did the concept much better, and so on. We all know that Arkane drank the cool-aid, and Redfall in both it's design and description sounds like the most bland game ever yet. Arkane's future does not look bright. Look to other games like Weird West and other independent developers.
well they take place in the same universe and the lore kinda connects with the "void" in some ways so I'd expect the game to play in a similar way although it's not the greatest of arkanes titles
Great review as always man but I think the dishonored comparison was unwarranted, I do understand that it is a game made by the same studio and that it shares a lot of the same mechanics but it is not a sequel but a different game in a kinda different genre. The review should stand on it's on legs in this regard.
Why is every reviewer I see avoid calling it the avoid the obvious? It's a roguelite 😒 Guess Triple A studios don't like the fact that they're taking ideas from the indie scene🤔
@@melancholyman369 You're trying to educate others on the differences between likes & lites yet fail to realize procedural generation is a tenet of *both* . And as I said before, Deathloop is not a roguelite. The only commonality is in restarting a loop upon death and carrying over gear, but it's particularly different in the fact you don't get to carry over gear if you die, and it takes three entire deaths to even have to restart the loop. Pair that with zero procedural generation and an ability to know exactly when and where everything is, and you have something specifically not a roguelite. It certainly takes complimenting elements of roguelites that suit its design, but it's not designed around those. Have you even played the game? Maybe the reason reviewers aren't calling it a roguelite is because it isn't one. I doubt Arkane of all developers would be squeamish about acknowledging their influences when their prior titles are them deliberately and vocally channeling Thief and System Shock. This game is no different, with only splashes of roguelite elements to spice it up.
I have no interest is this game, but I am very glad it's getting so many high scores. After dishonored 2 and prey not selling in the numbers they deserved I was beginning to worry the would end up like visceral. They needed a hit.
The MCU humor ruined it. They’re always trying to make everything quirky and fun instead of you know, holy sh*t I’m in a time loop. That and flirting with your own daughter wtf
Seem a like a focus was on old ideas, rather than creating something unique that could standalone. It's a hard pass to me but for those who enjoy it that's cool.
This game is one of the biggest disappointments i had in gaming. Them tying this badly written junk to dishonored, even if death of the outsider was clearly a quality drop-off makes me more angry than it should've made me. I should've gotten the memo with arkane and machine games shitting out young blood and how embarrassingly written that was, really. I also do not think shitty quip writing was invented by marvel, but crap writers wanting to sound trendy, funny and like "the fellow kids meme". LiS is the poster child for this problem, and sadly i'm afraid that influenced gaming far more than any of us ever wanted or hoped it would.
I really disliked this game on so many different levels, despite loving previous Arkane games. Aesthetically, the game is so overstuffed with colors and ideas like the art team worked tirelessly for months and then dumped every asset into these levels. The writing is obnoxious and tries so hard to be cool and edgy with "you just got looped" and "this is where death died". Soured me so hard on the game. Alongside this is the overall goofy mood where NPCs do goofy dances and act like morons. It doesn't match anything else at all, unlike NOLF which felt very cohesive in its charm and tone. The systems upon systems had me constantly stopping my play and eventually not wanting to play at all. All of the item management and equipping does nothing at all to improve the game and made me get bored real quick. The level design is very lackluster compared to Dishonored series. I didn't notice how much I disliked the flow and layout of these levels until haflway through when I quit. The combat, mobility and stealth is all as good or worse than what was done in Prey/Dishonored. This game leans on combat a lot more and suffers for it. I think Arkane is over as a studio I love. Between this and their next game, they lost my interest completely. The creator of the studio left alongside their ideals and goals, leaving behind a studio with a lot of vision but no real direction. There is Harvey Smith still but I have to imagine he is having less impact and probably looking to move on or retire himself. Ironically, the studio got too big to continue to make the games they originally wanted to make. Now the stakes are high which demands more accessible, multiplayer-focused games.
