Only after trying a few other games did I appreciate how well designed Deathloop is. It manages to strike a perfect balance between exploration and guided gameplay, without ever getting overwhelming or stale. Skills and guns are a real treat to mess around with, and open the door for new strategies. The characters express themselves in small doses, without assaulting you with bricks of dialogue or long cutscenes.

The progression system, however, is not that well paced in the single player or the multiplayer. You tackle the beginning of the game trying to hold on to any upgrades you find, but eventually you find that perfect set of broken weapons and even the golden unlockable guns are not interesting anymore. Still, the loot system gives you a real desire to stay alive, without being too punishing, similar to a fight in a battle royale after spending 5 minutes collecting loot. Multiplayer randomly awards upgrades through every "match" played, but ultimately it relies on a player base that is no longer there.

I've also had some problems with graphical settings. If you are too, I highly recommend you follow the digital foundry recommended settings except replace FSR with DLSS (I believe that video was made before DLSS was added to the game).