I'm a sucker for a mystery and a time loop, and once I had a few power ups and weapons Deathloop was a lot of fun although tedious at points and a little flat towards the end.
The world was highly engaging, tons of flavour and hints at the bigger story. The writing was largely excellent, lots of really solid characterisation in the audio logs and conversations. I was a bit let down by the ending, not so much by what happened but more that it felt quite sudden and shallow. Would have appreciated something more drawn out (without the risk of having to restart the loop) to bring it together thematically.
In terms of mechanics I appreciated the range of powers, although once I got Shift I found it so useful I never swapped it out. I feel like I might have missed some cool combinations of other powers, but being able to move that easily is hard to pass up. Got annoyed with some of the secrets being a bit cryptic and having underwhelming rewards, but overall it was very satisfying seeing how the whole machine fit together and playing with it to see what I could uncover. Also found inventory management a total bore once I had a few of a range of trinkets. Could really do with a "get rid of all doubles" button.
As for the PvP, I love the concept but for me it was hit and miss. I'm very glad to see someone experimenting with different types of PvP, but I often just played in single player if I was trying to set up something across mutiple areas. In the early game I was way underpowered and got instantly annhilated. Once I was levelled up and knew the maps it was 50/50 as to whether I'd get the jump on Juliana and be done immediately, or whether the other player slaughtered me before I even noticed them. Probably the worst round was going up against someone extremely good in the final stage of my final loop and having to do the whole thing again. Not fun. I did also play a couple of rounds as Juliana and had a great time with it, but it took a while to get a match so I didn't go back for more.
A few technical issues: had two crashes that lost me maybe 45 minutes of progress each, which is absolutely infuriating. Dunno why it can't just save your progress in an area... the game takes so long to start up I can't imagine people save-scumming with alt+f4. Also, as someone who likes to explore, in the early game I'd easily spend over an hour in one map so I'd have loved to be able to exit the game and come back later. Had other occasional issues with my PC/monitor where everything got weird and I had to restart the PC if the screen went to sleep or I changed window while the game was open.
Overall, super engaging, solid if slightly janky gameplay, felt quite different from anything I've played recently, and could have been a tad shorter with a more meaty ending, but I'm glad I played it and would totally recommend it.
The world was highly engaging, tons of flavour and hints at the bigger story. The writing was largely excellent, lots of really solid characterisation in the audio logs and conversations. I was a bit let down by the ending, not so much by what happened but more that it felt quite sudden and shallow. Would have appreciated something more drawn out (without the risk of having to restart the loop) to bring it together thematically.
In terms of mechanics I appreciated the range of powers, although once I got Shift I found it so useful I never swapped it out. I feel like I might have missed some cool combinations of other powers, but being able to move that easily is hard to pass up. Got annoyed with some of the secrets being a bit cryptic and having underwhelming rewards, but overall it was very satisfying seeing how the whole machine fit together and playing with it to see what I could uncover. Also found inventory management a total bore once I had a few of a range of trinkets. Could really do with a "get rid of all doubles" button.
As for the PvP, I love the concept but for me it was hit and miss. I'm very glad to see someone experimenting with different types of PvP, but I often just played in single player if I was trying to set up something across mutiple areas. In the early game I was way underpowered and got instantly annhilated. Once I was levelled up and knew the maps it was 50/50 as to whether I'd get the jump on Juliana and be done immediately, or whether the other player slaughtered me before I even noticed them. Probably the worst round was going up against someone extremely good in the final stage of my final loop and having to do the whole thing again. Not fun. I did also play a couple of rounds as Juliana and had a great time with it, but it took a while to get a match so I didn't go back for more.
A few technical issues: had two crashes that lost me maybe 45 minutes of progress each, which is absolutely infuriating. Dunno why it can't just save your progress in an area... the game takes so long to start up I can't imagine people save-scumming with alt+f4. Also, as someone who likes to explore, in the early game I'd easily spend over an hour in one map so I'd have loved to be able to exit the game and come back later. Had other occasional issues with my PC/monitor where everything got weird and I had to restart the PC if the screen went to sleep or I changed window while the game was open.
Overall, super engaging, solid if slightly janky gameplay, felt quite different from anything I've played recently, and could have been a tad shorter with a more meaty ending, but I'm glad I played it and would totally recommend it.