The game would have been better with the original design -- no handholding, forcing you to Bill Murray your way through this Groundhog Day But It's a Group Activity and Also There's Murder. Bethesda's testers gave feedback that basically forced them to put together the "here is everything you are supposed to do" aspects at the last minute before the game went out the door. Probably the same group of people who didn't go upstairs in the mansion in Dishonored because the guard told you not to.
Anyways, it pretty clearly takes place in the Dishonored universe, and if you cobble together the hints scattered through the world it seems like they used the Void to make an artificial time loop and may have kinda sorta ended the world in the process. Not their problem, and it's implied they were having some sort of Cold War/climate change situation and everyone thought the world was doomed anyways. The technology is slightly off in the same way that Disco Elysium's tech was, and the visuals are dripping with psychedelic 1960's design philosophies. Amazing soundtrack to match, too. Some of my favorites:
- Karl's Bay theme - Link goes right to the combat bit, with a shit-ton of combo organ interlaid with some dirty surf rock riffs
- "The Revenant" by Ramblin' Frank Spicer - in-universe track made by one of the Visionaries, catchy as hell
- Updaam theme - The whole thing is good. Twangy guitars for when you're creeping about in stealth mode, good old spy movie shit. Then the electric guitars and heavy bass guitar kick when the combat busts out, and of course the obligatory combo organ in the background.
Check it out if you get a chance. Arkane makes a lot of good shit. I hope they continue to do so in the future, and Bethesda doesn't suck all the blood out of them to fund another Rage sequel or some shit.
The first 5-10 hours are probably the best arkane has ever done. Great setting, gameplay and cast. But after that, the stale repetition gets kinda boring while your now OP character gets railroaded trough the only way to solve the loop.
As many nerds pointed out, prey moonshot had a better "loop mechanic" than deathloop years later. Altough prey's characters were almost non existent. So win some loose some i guess
Turning the loot quality all the way down and locking the difficulty to max helps.
Shit, didn't know about the 'handholding demanded to be added' thing.
Another game that I had a few hours of fun with, but the 'vibe' really got killed for me due to jank and what felt like weird design choices. I think I have like, 5 hours into the game, and now real desire to come back and finish it.
Was janky as fuck on release, as Arkane tradition dictates. Much more stable now, complete with difficulty/loot tweaking and accessibility options
Bethesda’s testers gave feedback that basically forced them to put together the “here is everything you are supposed to do” aspects at the last minute before the game went out the door
Ngl I probably would’ve been one of those people, I’m a fucking idiot and need things clearly laid out in front of me
Great game though, I need to go back and finish it
I liked it, but never quite loved it. Soundtrack and visual style were by far the best aspects. Gameplay was eh, but did get repetitive after a while.
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Also hated the Fia portion. Had enemies detecting me through walls even though I was sneaking around. Stealth in general wasn't great compared to Dishonored.
