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Colt and Julianna's interactions – full of bickering and arguments – are almost always entertaining and humorous, and the two are now among my favorite video game characters of the year.īlackreef is broken into four large districts, each with its own clues on how to proceed, access to targets, and storylines that progress the main plot or serve as side content. This kind of storytelling could have become juvenile in the wrong hands, but Deathloop's writing is strong, and I enjoyed seeing the twisted ways it played with the timeloop conceit.
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The game revels in its nihilistic world dying has no meaning on Blackreef, so why not do whatever you want? Death, murder, and all manner of awful things are treated casually, lending dark humor to the whole experience. Colt is on Blackreef, where time is perpetually stuck, and murder is the only way out. Julianna soon makes contact, explaining his situation, and by extension, the game's rules. As soon as he dies, he wakes up on a strange beach with no knowledge of who he is or how he got there. It all culminates in one of Arkane Studios' best games to date.ĭeathloop begins in media res, as Colt is murdered by a mysterious woman named Julianna Blake. Paradoxically, this feat is an intricate clockwork of planning, preparation, and execution that feels impossible at first. The rules of breaking the timeloop seem simple: kill eight targets within 24 hours. Protagonist Colt Vahn is stuck in a timeloop, desperately trying his best to get off the gleefully nihilistic island of Blackreef.
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Deathloop is a paradox, where time is in both infinite supply and quickly running out.
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