Deathloop - new game from Arkane

[kray28]

The buzz and forewarning on this was low. I only found out about it a few weeks ago. But Deathloop is Arkane's clear follow-up to the Dishonored series...set in a totally different universe.
Just started playing, so I don't have a review. I don't even fully understand the game yet, but if you're used to the gameplay in Dishonored, you will quickly pick things up here.

Let me know if any of you are playing and what your thoughts are.

EDIT: spelling

 

[grommit!]

Oranging. Reviewers (other than ars) seem to like it, but I want to see how performance on PC is once it's had a patch.

 

[Mortus]

I'm interested in the premise. From what I'm seeing, it's being suggested that you play without indicators on, as they tend to turn it into a more linear experience. The reviews are a bit all over the place (with IGN giving it their 10/10 to hold true to the meme), but they all seem at least mostly positive. Definitely waiting to see how it performs on PC as well.

 

[IHATENAMES]

My experience so far isn't good. It crashes on startup and gives me crap about a illegal instruction. I bought it on steam. Hope others have more luck than me.

 

[Artichoke Sap]

Interestingly, I just started Prey: Mooncrash, which already established an Arkane game with a looping play with some permanent upgrades. I wouldn't call Mooncrash a "rougelite," though, because the area isn't random, and in fact is closer to a Groundhog Day time-loop that Deathloop is.

That kind of makes Deathloop "Dishonored stylish combat (minus the stealth option) in a Mooncrash smallish map with a restart loop." Problem is, I think more people liked the stealth of Dishonored than the "stylish combat," and the Mooncrash loop didn't seem to go over too well with most people. (I personally didn't even get far into Dishonored, a game that sounds like it was made for me).

Part of me wants to jump in to do the Demon Soul's "try and ruin someone's day" on an even playing field of experience/skill, and while the playerbase is there. Curious what the local folks here think of it first, though. So keep those impressions coming!

 

[Starbuck79]

I watched a little of a stream from CohhCarnage and it looked pretty stealthy. Very much a "play how you want" style where you can sneak around or just kill everything.

 

[Lt_Storm]

I watched a little of a stream from CohhCarnage and it looked pretty stealthy. Very much a "play how you want" style where you can sneak around or just kill everything.

Or do both! Especially after everything goes pear shaped.

 

[IHATENAMES]

My experience so far isn't good. It crashes on startup and gives me crap about a illegal instruction. I bought it on steam. Hope others have more luck than me.

Incase anyone gets the same bug. I had to go into the BIOS and enable AES. I have no idea why that would matter but atleast now it is working

 

[kray28]

Something I found out last night:

Spoiler

Apparently, there is some evidence that Deathloop is actually a sequel to Dishonored. More precisely, it takes place in the future of that universe

 

[Thorvard]

with IGN giving it their 10/10 to hold true to the meme

Wow. I haven't played it yet but a few people I know have it on PS5 and there consensus is that it's fun but no wear near a 10 rating. I gotta read the review now to see why they gave it such a high score(Besides being IGN and having no idea what they are doing)

I'm interested in it but I'll probably wait for a sale. I've got enough on my plate that it would just get tossed to the backlog.

 

[Delor]

I'm playing it.

It's stylish and lightweight. It has good voice acting and far more character and better story than I was expecting. There's a lot I like about the combat. The guns have distinctive feels to them, and also are kind of crappy versus a modern assault rifle in an intentional sort of way. They've lavished a lot of love on the melee weapon and its animations. You're pretty fragile so you'll get punished if you screw up but you've also got limited respawn capacity so one mistake won't end a level. The enemies are mostly even more fragile, which feels great.

On the flip side, it does feel somewhat thin and shallow. The levels are small and few; I'd expect a lot more map to explore from a $60 game. The levels are also very simple; the geometry itself is solid, but there's not a lot to interact with them or going on in each scene. The enemies are dumb as dirt. They're forgetful, don't coordinate, and are bad at pursuing you or flushing you out of cover; if you've got any way to break line-of-sight with them you can pretty much safely pick them off one-by-one. The equipment progression system is mostly unnecessary busywork I'd rather not do, too.

I'd score it 4 out of 5 stars. I'm having a good time, but am somewhat underwhelmed. If I was on a tighter budget I'd be angry at myself for not waiting for a Steam sale, probably, but I'm not and I expect to continue playing it and ultimately beat it which is more than I can say for most games I buy.

 

[TigerAway]

Interestingly, I just started Prey: Mooncrash, which already established an Arkane game with a looping play with some permanent upgrades. I wouldn't call Mooncrash a "rougelite," though, because the area isn't random, and in fact is closer to a Groundhog Day time-loop that Deathloop is.

That kind of makes Deathloop "Dishonored stylish combat (minus the stealth option) in a Mooncrash smallish map with a restart loop." Problem is, I think more people liked the stealth of Dishonored than the "stylish combat," and the Mooncrash loop didn't seem to go over too well with most people. (I personally didn't even get far into Dishonored, a game that sounds like it was made for me).

Part of me wants to jump in to do the Demon Soul's "try and ruin someone's day" on an even playing field of experience/skill, and while the playerbase is there. Curious what the local folks here think of it first, though. So keep those impressions coming!

Mooncrash fan here.

I watched a tiny bit of the video from CohhCarnage and Deathloop definitely has a similar feel to Mooncrash.

Looks like performance is not great on an RTX 1080. Would prefer to play it on an unobtainable next-gen console. But this is the first next-gen console game that has me considering it.

 

[grommit!]

Sounds like the PC "stutter" issue with mouse movement has been patched, but there is a separate issue when running at high framerates.

The enemies are dumb as dirt. They're forgetful, don't coordinate, and are bad at pursuing you or flushing you out of cover; if you've got any way to break line-of-sight with them you can pretty much safely pick them off one-by-one.

Someone pointed out that better AI would have made figuring out the loop more tedious - i.e. it's more a puzzle than a shooter.

 

[Delor]

I don't mind if they're predictable. They can be in regular places, react fairly reliably, and return to their posts after the fight end.

What I don't like is that if I screw up and aggro a bunch of them at once pretty much any large box, doorway or window, or hallway I can turn a corner in completely negates their threat and turns it into a repetitive grind of picking them off one-by-one. It's dull.

For example: Last night I screwed up and aggro-ed like 30 dudes at once and then got myself trapped in a dead-end as I ran away. How did I defeat them? Trick question- I'd already defeated them by running into a dead-end hallway. I stood there and they very sloooowly filtered into the hallway one-by-one and let me pick them off. In my apartment and surrounded by a "kill squad" summoned by one of the Visionaries? Shoot them one-by-one with the rifle as they mill about in the courtyard around my apartment, mostly not even aware enough to return fire and definitely not taking cover as I sloooowly pick them off.

 

[Delor]

Up to 11 hours in now. Still having fun. Probably appreciate it a bit more than I did.

I like the invasion mechanic. As Colt adds some excitement to the game and a chance to win some extra loot, but the game is structured so that it's mostly not too punishing when you lose. I'd imagine I'd turn it off if I was going for the win across all four time segments, maybe, but it's fine for just running around exploring and upgrading stuff and I haven't bothered turning it off for smaller multi-time-segment tasks either. If stuff goes bad and I lose out on the thing I was trying to complete, usually I'm still getting some useful loot and stuff for my time. (I've warmed to the loot system somewhat)

Fun to hop in as the invader and screw with a Colt, too.

 

[grommit!]

New patch claims to have fixed another stutter issue? And modified NPC behavior, though it'll be interesting to see if the "kite everyone to a chokepoint" tactic still works.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/deathl ... ss-support

Also DLSS support, so I guess we'll be seeing videos comparing FSR vs DLSS from the usual suspects.

BTW, does the game require you install the bethesda launcher? It says you need an account that can be linked to steam.

 

[ferzerp]

I really liked the concept here and really enjoyed what I played of it (on ps5), but then I just put it down one day and haven't booted it up again.

 

[Delor]

I did something similar. I played about 13 hours, then got back into Hearts of Iron 4 and that's been crushing my free time. I was wondering if I was going to come back- it'll probably be in the next week if I do.

Had a lot of fun fights being invaded. My favorite scenario is when I'm desperately fleeing from someone and I hide in an alcove and pop out behind them to ambush them- I'm 2 for 2 on wins from that, both ultimately culminating in a machete kill as the gun runs dry. I've got more slab stuff off of Juliannas than NPC visionaries at this point!

 

[Delor]

BTW, does the game require you install the bethesda launcher? It says you need an account that can be linked to steam.

I bought it from Steam and I can just install and launch it from Steam. I also can't find any "Bethesda" application searching my Windows search bar or the Windows add/remove software interface. So, I don't think so.

I think I might have had to log in to my Bethesda account from the in-game UI the first time I launched it, or something.

 

[TigerAway]

Recently started this game, and enjoying it a lot — except it crashes constantly on PS5. I think it’s the most recent Goldenloop update that might be causing the issues. That and maybe multiplayer.

Disabling the Internet reduced the crashes by a lot but still got one.

It looks like a new patch is out which hopefully fixes the stability issues.

It’s kind of like Prey: Mooncrash except with a greater emphasis on comedy and storytelling.