The game's tone is spot-on – it focuses the story around Colt's dynamic with Julianna, one of the Visionaries who's positioned herself as his rival. Julianna and the VisionariesĪrkane has built a fun location in Blackreef. While the complicated mix of powers and time loops might seem off-putting to players more familiar with traditional shooters, Arkane has done a fabulous job of moving out of its comfort zone and making a game where it feels good to pull the trigger. Using accessories called trinkets, you can customize Colt's loadout every time you enter a level – maybe amping up your magic if you're trying to stay invisible, or boosting your health if you're planning on going through the front door. Aether lets you turn invisible for a short space of time, and we already mentioned Nexus. They include abilities like Shift, which lets you teleport to high places of the map instantly, or Karnesis, which is like slapping an enemy with an invisible tentacle – that one is fun for knocking enemies off cliffs. It's much easier to just get into some firefights – and the PS5's adaptive triggers help make the gunplay feel nice.ĭeathloop's powers are called Slabs, and you take them from dead Visionaries. The fact is, though, you have to play Deathloop like a shooter to really get the most out of it, and if you're anything like us, you'll get too impatient to sneak up on the same groups of enemies every time the day resets. One of Deathloop's weaknesses is the way it bombards the screen with exclamation marks when enemies catch you, which, whether intentional or not, makes it feel like being caught is a mistake you've made as a player. There's little variety between these NPCs aside from the guns they carry, and they're not overwhelmingly intelligent, which is a relief considering you'll run into them many times over. The enemies are pleasantly disposable, with an odd mannequin or crash test dummy-like look to them.

'Arkane has done a fabulous job of moving out of its comfort zone and making a game where it feels good to pull the trigger.'

But unlike Dishonored, this game gives you a lot of guns, explosives and powerful abilities to use in open combat, and you sense that the developers want you to get your hands dirty.

Like Dishonored from the same developers, it seems like a stealth game at its heart – you start each level without enemies knowing where you are, and you can sneak up on them with a machete for a stealth kill.

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