Game Beaten: "DEATHLOOP"

Sun 26 Sep 2021, 19:32

I was not planning on getting this game. Sony constantly showed it in their presentations and it just looked so bland and generic. That, in combination with it being a Bethesda (which is now Microsoft) published title, really did not make me want the game. But then the reviews came out and it was apparently amazing and everyone was freaking out about it, I got swept up in the hype so I bought it, played it and I hated it and thought this was a huge mistake.

Then I played it some more because, y'know, PS5 games are expensive, and got a little further in it, learned some stuff here and there. Did that for a couple of sessions over the course of a week, and eventually I had gotten pretty good at the game and had some good gear and it got really enjoyable.

The basic gist of the game is that you're stuck in a loop, a loop that is one day long, and to get out of the loop you need to kill 7 "bosses" in a single day and that will cause some stuff to happen. Each day is split into 4 time frames: morning, noon, afternoon, evening. And the island you're stuck on has 4 areas. So maybe one day you first go into place A in the morning, place B at noon, place C in the afternoon and maybe place A again in the evening, and then the day loops and all the stuff you've learned and some of the things you found are saved for the next day.

So the idea is that you will go around finding clues, better weapons, gear, and clever ways to kill these "bosses" (I say bosses in quotes because they're not big epic Dark Souls bosses or anything, they're basically regular enemies but with much more HP and fancier attacks), and then when you have found a lot of clues and good gear and weapons you will plan out a day where you will kill all of them.

(Very light spoilers this entire paragraph, but I think you should read it anyway if you're on the fence) For example, you will find out that two of these people hang out with each other at a certain place at a certain time, so ideally you should go get rid of both of them then. Two flies with one stone you know.

It's a very neat idea and I really liked it.

So why didn't I get into the game immediately then? Because it's hard and slow in the beginning. At first when you have no gear and no good weapons and don't know the maps at all you're a frightened little turtle crawling around trying for dear life to survive. I hate stealth in games, so I tried to play it as I usually do (rush it and gun it) and it really didn't work at all in the beginning. So I did have to force myself to play it slowly, which I didn't like, but I got used to it eventually and after a couple of sessions I had learned a lot and gotten better gear so I could start playing the game the way I wanted to.

I guess that could be one thing I could complain about? I didn't find much of the gear and perks useful. I basically used the same loadout the entire game once I had it (lots of health, lots of ammo and a super fast Rapier.)

Speaking of complaints, the UI in this game is a mess. Seeing what quests and leads are available at what time isn't super obvious (they had those icons but they pretty small for me, sitting far away), the infusion UI doesn't tell you what you have already infused in an obvious way so you end up with duplicates, etc. On top of that, the game froze for me twice when I opened the menu while in-game. Basically, I could be on a really good run and then I decided to open the menu to see my objectives and boom, I was stuck. That really sucked.

Other than that, I don't have many complaints. Music was fine, controls were good, voice acting was great and the story was good enough. Wasn't super into it but it was interesting enough.

Unfortunately, I don't have many screenshots or videos to share. I just didn't take many. I went through my PS5's capture gallery after finishing it and there just wasn't much there. Most of it was just trophy screenshots and screenshots of clues, nothing that interesting:

Not that the visuals and graphics are ugly or anything, but there just wasn't a lot of things to take screenshots of I think. My mind was more focused on exploring while playing the game, didn't really stop to take screenshots. Interpret that in whatever way you want.

Overall I recommend the game to pretty much anyone who likes single player FPSes with quirks. Maybe not right now because the game has some bugs in it, maybe wait for a sale or something. You definitively need to give it some time though once you do get it, you might not like the game immediately. But it's one of the more interesting games I've played and I could see myself going back to play it again.

And oh yeah, there's a multiplayer component too. Have not touched that yet.