Deathloop in the test: a daring genre

Test Conclusion

Test note

2.5

satisfactory

It could have been so beautiful: the idea of ​​constantly repeating one and the same day and gathering pieces for piece hints until they have found the perfect way to eliminate all their goals as an assassin, sounds exciting. Unfortunately, the implementation lacks courage. Although the complex mission is full of motivating puzzles, however, the rest of the game is much too conventional. The loop idea comes with increasing playing time to Gimmick and turns out to end due to the frequent repetitions as well as the much to penetrating from Antagonist Julianna as a horse foot. In combination with the very weak ki, Deathloop unfortunately stranded in the drawer of disappointments, because the developers could have done so much more from the game.

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Per

Atmospheric backdrop Well designed game world Great puzzles and many secrets Ambitious Genre Mix promising a novel gaming experience ...

Contra

... but is braked by ordinary levels design Takes the player too much to the hand Enemetic Ki with hair-raising problems The constant return in well-known areas is in duration on the nerves The raids of Julianna come far too often without changing great

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2021 is not a simple year for fans elaborately produced games: many developer studios have already shot their powder with top titles in the past year as The Last of Us Part 2 , Animal Crossing - New Horizons or Final Fantasy 7 Remake , While the next hit wave until 2022 in the form of The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild 2 , God of War - Ragnarok or Horizon Forbidden West .

All the more Games lovers enjoy an ambitious project like Deathloop from the Arcane Studios, especially if it strikes an extraordinary concept. Thus, the player in the action adventure appearing for PlayStation 5 and PC is put into the role of an assassin, which must liquidate eight persons - trapped in a time loop, which recalls the movie classic and daily the marmot reminded of 1993.

An endless day for forgetting

It is not nice if you wake up at the beach of the island of Blackreef and can not remember how you have come here. But what if exactly that happens every day? Exactly in such a time loop is Colt, the protagonist of Deathloop . At least he can remember so slowly to the experiences of the past days instead of forgetting them. He is caught by a young woman named Julianna, who contacted him by radio and with which he seemed to have often laid out. According to their hints, he and times he won.

The player now has to turn on the way and solve mainly two key questions: How is he in these Deathloop in? And how does he come out again? Even before the publication of the game was known that Colt has to assert himself as an assassin. In fact, there are eight visionaries on the island, whose death would break the time loop. The big hook on the thing: Because the day repeats steadily, even deceased persons are again putzmunter on the mat. Therefore, Colt has to eliminate all visionaries within a loop .

Looking for the perfect loop

To accomplish this, thoroughly browse the island divided into four areas. These are again guided by a place to the next, comparable to an ordinary action adventure. The difference to a classic mission structure is in principle only in the fact that they release different tasks parallel or in any order and constantly jump between four fixed time periods. For example, at lunchtime, they encounter a burned out house that has been intact in the morning. If you return to the same place early in a new loop, you can prevent the fire from preventing a bit closer to your destination.

In between, they collect new weapons diligently to defend themselves against the numerous opponents. Due to the loop, Colt loses his arsenal as soon as the day repeats. Only after a few days of play you get a special ability and can keep durable pistols and rifles durable thanks to the so-called residuum energy. The same applies to the panels that you get in the successful killing of a visionary. These lend Colt supernatural skills that unfortunately make the game a little too easy.

This is, among other things, at the very weak artificial intelligence of the opponents, which either much too impetuous to the player race, exaggerated hectically flee or hang on a corner in the worst case. At the latest when using the ether chalkboard, the Colt makes temporarily invisible, its adversaries are hopelessly overwhelmed. Then worthy approach is hardly worthwhile, and they master much of the areas much easier with offensive storm tactics.

Hobbing in the implementation

All this does not fit at all to the original approach, the Deathloop pursues with his daring game concept. So nice the puzzles that are triggered, they are also: they get too little free space and should graduate as many tasks as possible how the developer has thought that. The player is becoming more and more often sent from A to B to C and back to A, which is more effective than it's fun. The Hitman series, in which players also collect advice as an assistant and turn off their victims at the right time, is significantly successful in direct comparison and, above all, offers a much more playful world.

On the other hand, the stupid opponents alone ensure that some challenges are suffocated in the germ. Many skills are visibly intended for the player to be careful and considered. For example, he chops cameras to add unhindered to them. However, the temptation is great again, as well with the crowbar and easy to shut down. The developer apparently has noticed this problem itself and therefore installed some passages in which the opponents call reinforcement during each visual contact. However, this ultimately ensures that the game world logic coincides in itself. Finally, suddenly, new enemies appear in rooms that just have been completely empty ...

Nervous Julianna

Seven of the eight visionaries hold on to special places and must be driven together with clever manipulating their daily routine so that they can actually kill them all within 24 hours. An important exception is Julianna himself, which in turn is constantly hunting on Colt. In fact, she penetrates all the nose into the territories in which he currently holds up and simultaneously locks all outputs. ERGO you can not just flee before you, but must see a special radio antenna and chop to open the doors into the other areas.

Julianna is either controlled by the computer or other teammate, provided that the online mode of Deathloop is active. In the former case, the little clever Ki appears again, which is why the interventions are bored quickly. In the latter case, a quite crunchy fight can come about, but what only makes more effective. The frequency in which Julianna appears is, or so much too high is set and makes the actually funny feature for the biggest nerve factor of the game.

Release: Deathloop appears on 14 September for PlayStation 5 and PC. The game has an age release from 18 and costs in the trade in the standard edition between 60 and 70 euros.