What Is Deathloop About Anyway? – An Explainer

If you watched PlayStation’s State of Play on Thursday, you saw the third Deathloop video. Like the other two, though, it might have left you wondering what the hell the point of Deathloop is. If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Perhaps you’re more clever than I am (in which case, hats off to you. Feel free to gloat.) but neither of the two trailers that I had seen for Deathloop helped me understand what the point of the game is. Apparently, and I don’t know how you would understand this from the trailers, the objective is to kill eight targets in 24 hours—one of which can be a player character. Do that, and you escape the Deathloop. Fail, and you do another loop.

Sure some of you might be saying, “duh, it literally says that in the trailer.” Granted. I have several questions, though. What is this Deathloop? Why are we stuck in it? Who are these eight targets? Why is there a “rival assassin?” Why does killing the eight set you free? Why do they want me dead? Answering those questions from the trailers alone has proven to be impossible for me—but there are answers.

Now, I wouldn’t blame you if you missed it, but Bethesda put up a blog post in September that explains everything. You play as a guy named Colt. Colt is stuck on an island. The island is full of “eccentric party-goers.” The island is in an endless time loop. You want to get out. The only way to get out is to kill the eight “visionaries” that are keeping the loop going. You have one day to do it.

Why is this island in a loop? Well, these eight “visionaries” are attempting to make themselves immortal. So, they’ve messed with time. They’ve only partially figured it out, though. What they know is that as long as one of them is alive, (they’ve “anchored the loop” to themselves somehow) the loop will keep repeating. They’re also rarely together.

As far as gameplay goes, the play area—the island—is broken into four unique districts, more or less how Dishonored did things. The day cycle is also broken up into four segments, each one with unique triggers for the visionaries. You can jump around each district at your pleasure—even repeating districts—but you can only visit one district per day cycle. That is to say, one district in the morning, another in the afternoon, etc.

Your targets, the NPCs, and everything else on the island is going to be constantly on the move, whether you’re there or not. That’ll make things difficult. In fact, Bethesda directly states that it’s impossible to take the visionaries out one-by-one. So don’t bother trying.

That means you’re going to have to figure out how to get them together for a “two birds, one stone” kill. At one point, trailer number two—which attempts to explain this—proclaims “knowledge is power” but the message got lost in the phrasing.

“The loop is knowledge. Knowledge is power. Power is freedom,” the trailer says. Apparently, that was a cue to learn the personalities and motivations of the visionaries so that you can make them go where you want them to go and do what you want them to do. For example, Egor wants to be lauded as a genius and invited to parties. He also wants to turn down those parties. You know, because he’s too good for them. Aleksis wants to be the beloved, eccentric billionaire that everyone wants to be around. Ruin Egor’s plans and he’ll go to Aleksis’ party. Bam. “Two birds, one stone.” Keep doing that and you’ll win.

Okay cool, so what’s with Juliana? The one that’s “different” from all the others? Juliana is one of the visionaries, but unlike the others—who simply want to go about their business—she wants you dead and she’ll hunt you down to kill you. Easy enough. What isn’t clear, though, is that Juliana can be a player character; which means that if you’re online, another player can join the game just to hunt you down and force you into another loop. That option can be toggled off, of course, but it is meant to add a little more complexity and excitement.

In my humble opinion, the trailers have been trying too hard to be dramatic and cute. Sure, they’re highly stylized and the gameplay looks amazing, but the point of the game gets lost in all of it. The trailer they showed at State of Play, for example, was a music video with some teleportation effects. I walked away from that thinking, “wow, that looks like classic Bethesda. I love the art, the guns look satisfying, and I’m digging this teleportation thing. I still have no idea what the point is, though.”

Now that I know, I’m thinking two things: I’m planning on failing a lot. Like, a lot. But, I’m also wondering if it’s going to be more frustrating than fun because of that. If I couldn’t piece together the story that the trailers were trying to tell, am I going to be able to wrangle together and kill eight targets in 24 hours—while another player is actively trying to sabotage me? Guess we’ll find out in a year when it’s available for Xbox. Gotta love those timed exclusives.

Deathloop will be available for the PS5 and PC on May 21.

Source: Bethesda