I'm sure it's easy to say this about many publishers who own multiple studios, but I'm very picky when it comes to my Bethesda games. Oddly, I don't really get that excited for Bethesda Game Studios titles like "Fallout" and "The Elder Scrolls," but I'm a huge fan of id Software and "DOOM," and I occasionally enjoy some entries from MachineGames, like the newer "Wolfenstein" games. One Bethesda developer that I often can't get into, though, is Arkane Studios. I've heard for a while that their games aren't for everyone, and I felt that when I struggled to get into titles like "Dishonored" and "Prey." However, I always find myself wanting to like an Arkane game, and "Deathloop" caught my eye early and often: the unique time-loop concept made it look like it was gonna be a nice reinvention of the first-person shooter formula, and the more I saw of it, the more excited I got. When I finally played it...I hit a wall with it and dropped it after four hours. However, after my brother completed the game, he was kind enough to let me use his save file to properly complete a loop. And with the recent release of some difficulty settings and accessibility features, I thought I'd give it another go to remove that asterisk away when I say that I "beat" the game. And after all my time playing it, I think it's an enjoyable title, but one I once again didn't fall in love with.
Off the top, I think "Deathloop" has a great premise, and I do think it is expanded on nicely throughout the game. It takes an interesting approach to storytelling, where the story is unraveled more as you play, and I think that's a nice twist on things. Colt and Julianna are also great characters, and their banter is awesome (made even better by the fact that the voice acting is incredible). The visuals also look pretty great, and I think Blackreef is brought to life fantastically within its dark visual design. The gunplay and controls are very fluid, and I like the DualSense support on the PlayStation 5. Furthermore, the overall looping mechanic and integration of light roguelike elements make it very unique in a genre that has been saturated with by-the-numbers titles.
While all of these are great, though, I do think several flaws hold the game back a good bit for me. Maybe it's just that I'm not into looping games like this, but this one kinda got repetitive after a while, and I found myself losing motivation to discover things fairly quickly. The general gameplay loop wasn't exciting enough for me to get addicted to it as I did with a game like "Hades." I know these are two separate games, but it's probably one of the most comparable examples I can make. The in-game Julianna encounters also felt like pace-breakers for me, and I never felt excited or interested when she showed up. And finally, the AI, as you may have heard from almost everyone, is just not up to snuff. I returned to the game after the updates, and I still found the AI to be laughable at points. I don't think the game is wildly easy like many others do, but I think most of the difficulty I noticed just comes from the fact that the game throws too many enemies at you, and the easiness stems from the fact that the AI can often do nothing at all, even when you get closer to the end and it should start adapting to your play.
Yeah, as much as I wanted this to be the game that broke the "Matt can't get into an Arkane game" curse, it just fell a little bit short. "Deathloop" is far from a bad game, and I definitely enjoyed my time with it, but I don't think I see it as the "masterpiece" that I've heard others call it. There are just too many things that hold it back for me that could've been improved on. I do recommend giving it a shot for yourself, but just bear some of these things in mind before going with a purchase. Also, please remind me to manage my expectations for "Redfall," even if gameplay comes out and blows my mind. There just seems to be some weird Arkane curse on me, and I need to be cognizant of that.
Final rating: 7 out of 10 "Good"