"DEATHLOOP" is to Dishonored what Prey: Mooncrash is to Prey. Like Dishonored, "DEATHLOOP" levels are discrete sections that are patrolled by mostly the same enemies that don't provide much resistance if you're willing to sneak and kill quietly. The slabs worth using in "DEATHLOOP" are ripped directly from Dishonored. Further, in both games, each level is typically centered around finding one person and taking them out. I don't love the style of gameplay that Dishonored primarily offers. Nothing prevents me from savescuming my way through encounters to get the perfect run I am after. In Dishonored, overt combat is not fun, so anytime I broke stealth I'd just reset. Some people love this; I don't.
I prefer Prey over Dishonored because there are so many more creative or satisfying ways of dealing with enemies. This is due to many factors, one being the increased enemy variety means they have different weaknesses to exploit. More generally, the mechanics and environments lend themselves better to creative expression. If stealth breaks or if I don't want to be stealthy, I have options to make it through the section in a satisfying way.
I won't go further on base Prey, but what Arkane did with Mooncrash is mix in roguelike elements and different characters to encourage different playstyles even further. The potential upside of bringing this to a Dishonored style game is that it could do the same, making each attempt at a level fresh and encouraging creative gameplay. Unfortunately, Dishonored/"DEATHLOOP" really does not have the depth of gameplay where vastly different playstyles are fun to explore. Further, the permanent progression in "DEATHLOOP" meant that I never had to change my loadout once I had played for a few hours. Because the game uses a soulslike XP/progression system, where the currency you use to upgrade (residuum) is lost upon death, the rewards for progression needed to be meaty for the player to feel any stress around death like a true soulslike. This is a way in which "DEATHLOOP" uses a trendy mechanic that doesn't really mesh well with the rest of the game.
Another mechanic lifted straight from souls is invasion. I do feel this works much better as a way to spice up the otherwise repetitive levels, but this only worked for a few key hours in the middle of the game where I wanted to keep residuum for upgrades. Once my loadout was already overpowered, I didn't really care if Julianna invaded because I was just trying to finish the visionary quests which mostly didn't require you to get back to the tunnels alive; it was sufficient to make it to the quest marker and read whatever clue the game wanted me to. After that, Julianna could kill me and it didn't hamper my progress. The game suffers from lack of difficulty after the first few hours because progression is only player sided--the game never does anything to ramp up the difficulty of the levels you explore. In some ways, this game feels like "game-awards-bait" because it is easy enough for game critics to enjoy and it is littered with popular mechanics that game critics love to talk about because some asshole wrote a video essay on it. I've listed a few below:
-Demon's Souls style invasion.
-Demon's Souls style XP drop on death that you need to physically go pick up.
-Demon's Souls diagetic death and progression.
-Main character can't remember anything like Disco Elysium. ("ludonarrative resonance" lol)
-Roguelike with meta progression like Hades / Rogue legacy.
-Timeloops like Outer Wilds.
The problem is that every game example I've listed here uses the particular mechanic/design choice far better than "DEATHLOOP".
This review is quite negative so far; why is my score not lower? First, the conceit of looping over the same day does work fairly well with a Dishonored style game. Most importantly, it removes savescumming and, in the early hours, did encourage experimentation. Further, the visual style, the sound design, the music, and the voice acting is all superb. I think the writing could have been fleshed out a bit more but I like the world and the characters are interesting and distinct. It is really a shame that the artists, sound designers, and voice cast do not have their work attached to a better game. Also, I do feel that in some ways this game is charmingly ambitious. It is certainly much more risky in terms of it's mechanics than most high budget projects sheerly for the breadth of what they tried to do. I appreciate that, and I did somewhat enjoy my time with the game. It's a shame it wasn't more.
I prefer Prey over Dishonored because there are so many more creative or satisfying ways of dealing with enemies. This is due to many factors, one being the increased enemy variety means they have different weaknesses to exploit. More generally, the mechanics and environments lend themselves better to creative expression. If stealth breaks or if I don't want to be stealthy, I have options to make it through the section in a satisfying way.
I won't go further on base Prey, but what Arkane did with Mooncrash is mix in roguelike elements and different characters to encourage different playstyles even further. The potential upside of bringing this to a Dishonored style game is that it could do the same, making each attempt at a level fresh and encouraging creative gameplay. Unfortunately, Dishonored/"DEATHLOOP" really does not have the depth of gameplay where vastly different playstyles are fun to explore. Further, the permanent progression in "DEATHLOOP" meant that I never had to change my loadout once I had played for a few hours. Because the game uses a soulslike XP/progression system, where the currency you use to upgrade (residuum) is lost upon death, the rewards for progression needed to be meaty for the player to feel any stress around death like a true soulslike. This is a way in which "DEATHLOOP" uses a trendy mechanic that doesn't really mesh well with the rest of the game.
Another mechanic lifted straight from souls is invasion. I do feel this works much better as a way to spice up the otherwise repetitive levels, but this only worked for a few key hours in the middle of the game where I wanted to keep residuum for upgrades. Once my loadout was already overpowered, I didn't really care if Julianna invaded because I was just trying to finish the visionary quests which mostly didn't require you to get back to the tunnels alive; it was sufficient to make it to the quest marker and read whatever clue the game wanted me to. After that, Julianna could kill me and it didn't hamper my progress. The game suffers from lack of difficulty after the first few hours because progression is only player sided--the game never does anything to ramp up the difficulty of the levels you explore. In some ways, this game feels like "game-awards-bait" because it is easy enough for game critics to enjoy and it is littered with popular mechanics that game critics love to talk about because some asshole wrote a video essay on it. I've listed a few below:
-Demon's Souls style invasion.
-Demon's Souls style XP drop on death that you need to physically go pick up.
-Demon's Souls diagetic death and progression.
-Main character can't remember anything like Disco Elysium. ("ludonarrative resonance" lol)
-Roguelike with meta progression like Hades / Rogue legacy.
-Timeloops like Outer Wilds.
The problem is that every game example I've listed here uses the particular mechanic/design choice far better than "DEATHLOOP".
This review is quite negative so far; why is my score not lower? First, the conceit of looping over the same day does work fairly well with a Dishonored style game. Most importantly, it removes savescumming and, in the early hours, did encourage experimentation. Further, the visual style, the sound design, the music, and the voice acting is all superb. I think the writing could have been fleshed out a bit more but I like the world and the characters are interesting and distinct. It is really a shame that the artists, sound designers, and voice cast do not have their work attached to a better game. Also, I do feel that in some ways this game is charmingly ambitious. It is certainly much more risky in terms of it's mechanics than most high budget projects sheerly for the breadth of what they tried to do. I appreciate that, and I did somewhat enjoy my time with the game. It's a shame it wasn't more.