I had a hard time deciding if I should give this a thumbs up or a thumbs down...but I went for the thumbs up - purely because I DID finish the game and got some enjoyment out of it, but it wasn't perfect.

Deathloops core mechanic is in the name. Like groundhog day, if Bill Murray had the ability to teleport and got some sweet guns. You collect a resource called residium to help preserve guns, skills and abilities between loops - which seems like a sweet mechanic at first, until you realise that you can't fill your loadouts without abandoning things, should you need certain skills or you find a gun you really want.

What Deathloop does do well is keep you engaged with a few mysteries. plot hooks and an overarching puzzle which involves trying to kill all the important people in a single day.

What I found it doesn't do well...is more or less everything else.

The gameplay loop (see what I did there) got boring after the 10 or so hour mark. This was partly due to the very small maps and the small changes that are made through the time periods meant you could learn their layouts VERY quickly - this meant towards the end of the game I was zipping around the map like a crazy person, skipping chunks of map entirely as I had no real reason to go there.

Due to the "loop" mechanic - it becomes far too predictable, which I understand is the whole point, but still. Enemies do not get much harder as you go and the AI has a hard enough time keeping track of your as it is, even without supernatural powers. I didn't feel as though the second half of the game was that much of a challenge and once the mystery unfurled, I found myself less and less interested in that too and focused on breaking the loop.

I didn't do much PVP - but I enjoyed what I did play. The constant sense of anxiety, wondering if a Juliana would invade was quite exciting and invading other players was pretty fun too. But, ultimately, will not be enough to keep me playing the game.

Deathloop is by no means a bad game, at all! I just felt the pacing was off and it could've perhaps done with a bit more enemy variety and a bit more content to make it worth while.

6/10

I had a hard time deciding if I should give this a thumbs up or a thumbs down...but I went for the thumbs up - purely because I DID finish the game and got some enjoyment out of it, but it wasn't perfect. Deathloops core mechanic is in the name. Like groundhog day, if Bill Murray had the ability to teleport and got some sweet guns. You collect a resource called residium to help preserve guns, skills and abilities between loops - which seems like a sweet mechanic at first, until you realise that you can't fill your loadouts without abandoning things, should you need certain skills or you find a gun you really want. What Deathloop does do well is keep you engaged with a few mysteries. plot hooks and an overarching puzzle which involves trying to kill all the important people in a single day. What I found it doesn't do well...is more or less everything else. The gameplay loop (see what I did there) got boring after the 10 or so hour mark. This was partly due to the very small maps and the small changes that are made through the time periods meant you could learn their layouts VERY quickly - this meant towards the end of the game I was zipping around the map like a crazy person, skipping chunks of map entirely as I had no real reason to go there. Due to the "loop" mechanic - it becomes far too predictable, which I understand is the whole point, but still. Enemies do not get much harder as you go and the AI has a hard enough time keeping track of your as it is, even without supernatural powers. I didn't feel as though the second half of the game was that much of a challenge and once the mystery unfurled, I found myself less and less interested in that too and focused on breaking the loop. I didn't do much PVP - but I enjoyed what I did play. The constant sense of anxiety, wondering if a Juliana would invade was quite exciting and invading other players was pretty fun too. But, ultimately, will not be enough to keep me playing the game. Deathloop is by no means a bad game, at all! I just felt the pacing was off and it could've perhaps done with a bit more enemy variety and a bit more content to make it worth while. 6/10