Deathloop Critic Reviews

Deathloop is a game where observation and dynamic thinking go hand-in-hand with shotgunning goons in the face and snapping their necks ... it delivers bombastic thrills and wince-inducing kills with intelligence and elegance in equal measure.

Deathloop feels like the end result of an experiment that Arkane started with the release of Prey: Mooncrash. In many ways, it has successfully nurtured that genius nugget of an idea — a roguelike immersive simulator — into a AAA blockbuster. I am once again blown away by Arkane’s ambitions in game design, and how they manage to maintain them alongside such strong aesthetics, and compelling writing. This is an essential purchase if you value video games that expand the medium’s boundaries.

Deathloop is both unique and familiar, subverting time, gameplay and expectations in equal measure. A mystery worth solving and experience worth having, there is nothing on this planet quite like Deathloop.

Deathloop is not only one of the most conceptually ambitious and well executed games ever made, but Arkane's PlayStation swansong also has a boundless energy and ingenuity that no other game can match. Quite simply, Deathloop is an unparalleled synergy of first-person shooter design, explorative bliss and narrative complexity that we likely won't see again for a very, very long time.

Deathloop feels like your first bite of a cheesecake after being stranded on a desert island and living off seaweed for six months. In a sea of shotgun-spread triple-A games that are all too familiar, Deathloop is a precision 50. cal bullet of originality right through your eye socket.

Deathloop is the kind of game that will get in your head and stay there even when you’re not playing. Colt is a great protagonist, the intricate environmental design is a dream to explore, and the loop system keeps things fresh and offers so much replayability. Simply put, Deathloop is fantastic.

Deathloop is slick and inventive, with a delicious sense of style and humour. It distils Arkane’s hefty systems into something more explicitly playful, then leaves its sparkling cast to run riot in its huge interlocking puzzle of an island. One of the smartest and most outright entertaining games of the year.

Deathloop encases fun investigation work and satisfying combat in a unique time loop mechanic to create a tremendously satisfying adventure.

Taken as a single-player experience, Deathloop feels complete and incredibly well-rounded. The extra injection of optional multiplayer action is a fabulous cherry on top. Basically, Deathloop is everything I wanted it to be. It’s confident both as a successor to many of the ideas of Dishonored while also expressly its own thing, with a tone and sense of style I absolutely adore. It’s one of my favourite games of the year - and one we’ll surely be talking about for months to come.

There’s a lot to enjoy here and the banter between Colt and Julianna is entertaining in and of itself… Colt starting out being very unsure of himself (not even knowing who he is to start with) to (re)gaining his confidence and going on the offensive. There’s a lot of swearing and a lot of blood shed so this clearly isn’t for the younger gamers or those who are sensitive to such things… but for the rest of us this is a lot of fun!

Deathloop is a fascinating and brilliant game. It subverts expectations out of the gate, providing players with a deep mystery that is solved by compelling, diverse gameplay. While being similar to Arkane’s previous work, it is almost like anything else you may have played while still housing familiar, recognizable elements. A whirlwind of intrigue, action, and style crafts Deathloop into a melting pot of smart, bold choices. Thankfully, Deathloop transcends its shackles as an amalgamation of “Arkane’s Greatest Hits” by offering players a thrilling take on shooters. Combat puzzles involving webs of untruths and harrowing escapes turn Blackreef into a time loop you won’t want to break from. And a definitive candidate for one of the best shooters in years.

Deathloop layers a refined take on Arkane’s signature mix of ability-driven action and stealth onto a time-looping premise, and the result is one of most memorable games of recent years. While many of the pieces may be familiar, the combination is fresh and full of surprises.

Is Deathloop perfect? For that, the story is a bit too slow to start, at times you are led by the hand just a little too much, and there were still too many bugs in our review copy. But that can be solved with patches and updates, and the pace does not detract from this intelligent and well-crafted murder puzzle. Let's hope it's the first of its kind.

For all of its complexities under the hood, Deathloop is Arkane’s most accessible game yet and elicits constant satisfaction. The action is a pleasure, while its main drive has you constantly picking up pieces of an unknown puzzle that are pieced together in separate chunks, before the frisson of excitement when the full picture starts to form. What’s extraordinary is how Arkane make it seem so easy. Blockbuster game-making at its smartest and most essential.

Deathloop takes elements from games like Bioshock and Dishonored, combining them with a Groundhogs Day like timeloop to create the coolest, most stylish, and best game of the year.

The things is, you don’t have to think about anything if you don’t want to; you can just enjoy the adrenaline rush, blasting symbolic victims of player violence (enemies even disappear in a whirl of multicoloured light when shot, a self-reflexive reference to the sheer disposability of non-player characters). But a darker subtext is always there, if you want to look beneath the gleaming surface...In this way, Deathloop gets to have its cake and eat it – over and over again. And it is, to be fair, absolutely delicious.

Deathloop is one of the best games of the year — at least from what I’ve played so far. And I say that as someone who has previously recognized the quality of Arkane games while struggling to enjoy them. But with this game, French team Arkane Lyon used some smart tricks to amplify its strengths. And the result is a special experience that has broader appeal than some other Arkane projects.

As Arkane’s been acquired by Xbox, this is its first and last PS5 exclusive. But what better parting gift than a perfect day you could happily live again and again?

Deathloop is a magnificently unstructured FPS filled with loads of weapons and abilities that never stops being fun.

There isn't anything else quite like Deathloop. It's a riveting detective mystery, plays with time loops in unique ways, and never feels like it slows down, even in those stealthier moments. It's a game that's thought out top-to-bottom, with two perfect leads heralding the charge and a unique multiplayer component that feels central to everything that Deathloop is, without ever getting in the way. Whether you're looking to break the loop or preserve it, Blackreef is certainly worth the visit. You may find yourself as stuck there too.