Deathloop

A fun tactical first-person shooter with stealth elements. Level design is masterful. Combat is fast and tense. There are always many ways to approach any situation and a lot of room for experimentation.

First, let's set expectations. Despite the time-loop conceit the story is very linear. There are 4 big levels and 4 times of day amounting to 16 total variations you can visit, but time doesn't pass naturally once you're in them. They might as well be just 16 levels. And the story is not a mystery for you, the gamer, to solve. You have very clear missions and by just following them through with the tracker you will finish the game. You have some freedom to choose the order in which you complete them, and there are one or two clever time puzzles (with lackluster rewards), but the point is that you're not a detective. In essence you're a shooty-stealthy dude. Deathloop is, at its heart, a FPS. If that's not what you're into then this is not the game for you.

Now, let's get the really bad stuff out of the way: the dialog, voice acting, characters, and story are all some of the worst I've ever experienced. The basic premise is interesting but everything on top of it is pure cringe. It's like listening in on a chat room full of self-absorbed, wise-cracking college drama students. Consider this: there's a temporal scientific experiment that can change the course of humanity but all anyone cares about is who's coming to a dress-up party, fireworks, and self-indulgent games. I stopped reading through documents early on in order to maintain my faith that good writing still exists somewhere out there in the spacetime continuum, but that couldn't save me from absolutely hating all the characters, the two main ones most of all. I've never missed Half Life's silent protagonist so much.

Then, there's the awkward. There are just too many systems in the game and they are encumbered by an unreasonably complex UI. It might take a few hours to complete the "tutorial" and learn how they all fit together. To be fair, they do make sense, but their integration is far too convoluted. I did not enjoy the early game very much, but once I moved past that I did have a good time.

The game does a really great job with stakes. Dying can have a seemingly huge cost in that it throws you back to the beginning of the loop. But some things you achieve or gather are permanent, and the more you play the more you are able to make things permanent. In the middle-to-late game most everything you need is permanent and death is just an annoyance. Most importantly: you, the gamer, add to your familiarity with the levels. The next time you try a failed mission you will know the challenges so much better and be that much more efficient. And of course you can also experiment with new paths. It's not an easy game, and so it feels very rewarding when you pull off an optimal mission playthrough. It's likewise a relief when you barely make it through on the last fumes of health and the last few bullets.

Deathloop is able to make this repetition enjoyable because its levels are so awesome. I never got too frustrated with having to repeat a mission because there were always new ways for me to try to succeed with new things to discover along the way. Or, I could just muster up my determination and work on getting better at one path. Or go do some other mission if I was feeling burnt out. That's not to say that repetition can't get annoying when you die over and over again, but that's just how it is with high-stakes games.

In conclusion: it's not for everyone. It's difficult, has a convoluted UI, and has remarkably horrid writing. But for those who enjoy high-stakes FPS gameplay and appreciate awesome level design Deathloop is a delicious treat.