[Video] ‘The Dark Pictures Anthology’ Returns With New Teaser Trailer For ‘House of Ashes’; Gameplay Reveal on May 27th

Time loops and death have become increasingly popular as plot devices in media. From Happy Death Day to Russian Doll and Returnal, the act of replaying the same day over and over has a surprising amount of variety to it. Arkane (Dishonored, Prey) is the latest to take a stab at it, and judging from what I’ve seen of it in action; it’s going to be a loop I won’t want to leave.

Deathloop is what Arkane boils down to (quite unapologetically) ‘Dishonored with guns’ and that concept alone intrigues, but throw in the aforementioned time loop, a 60s aesthetic, and a cat and mouse game between rival assassins, and there’s something I’m so very eager to get my hands on this September.

The preview showed me the start of the game, setting the scene for what to follow. I won’t be going into fine detail on that here, but what I can tell you is you, as amnesiac protagonist Colt, are trapped on Blackreef island where the day repeats over and over. The only way to end it is to find a way to kill eight specific targets known as Visionaries over the course of the day. Each loop allows Colt to learn about how things operate in each of the island’s four districts and work out a strategy for achieving his murderous goal.

The bad news for Colt is that the whole island is out to kill him, and chief among his foes is a rival assassin, Juliana (who can be controlled by another player); hell-bent on stopping him from ruining the good time the residents are having. This is a party island for rich and powerful bastards, and they’ve designed the time loop to live out an endless shindig, hence their reluctance to allow Colt out of it.

In the gameplay that followed, Arkane’s Dinga Babka led us through an attempted assassination of one of the targets. Aleksis Dorsey is our man, and Colt is out to crash his opulent party. This quest is a feat that will be significantly tougher in the early hours. Colt begins as ordinary as the next hired killer, and does not know anything about the island. This is why each run means something, no matter how much or how little you do. Whether by experimentation on an established plan or discovering new opportunities through previously unheard conversations, you’re always learning something.

Over time, Colt can harness several powers, access bigger and better weaponry, and combine the two to perform a symphony of death. Deathloop has mods called trinkets that alter a weapon’s effectiveness or give Colt temporary abilities such as double jump. More permanent capabilities allow Colt to do things such as hurl enemies through the air and teleport short distances to reach higher ground or rewind time a short amount to escape death. Already it’s clear that the Dishonored approach of revisiting familiar ground with new tools will open the island up further.

Interestingly, rather than starting from the same point after every loop, Deathloop has the option to pick one of four starting locations at any given time of day, with no time limit placed on how long you spend there. Depending on the time and location, certain things will or won’t be happening on Blackreef, and this opens up fresh opportunities and tools to help Colt solve the riddle of the loop for good. In the case of Aleksis Dorsey’s party, Colt can turn up earlier in the day while things are still in the process of being prepped and other buildings are open. Colt previously finds a note about a safe hidden in a library that contains something valuable in the gameplay footage I saw. Unfortunately, at this time, it’s evening, so the library is locked up tight. So on the next loop, Colt heads into the daytime and goes to the library to unlock the safe (the contents were ‘censored,’ but Babka teased that it would be pretty valuable for the future).

This time-hopping reveals two helpful things for Colt’s assassination of Dorsey. One is where and when Dorsey will be in the open at his party (onstage, giving a speech to his guest); the other is learning that there’s a trapdoor with a meat grinder in it on stage (learned by seeing someone use it earlier in the day). Colt has to find the switch for it. The demo does indeed show Colt finding the button and turning Aleksis Dorsey into hamburger meat in an expensive suit.

This is, of course, just one solution to one target, there are still seven more to defeat, and there’s no guarantee that this method will work for your overall master plan. The promise of such flexibility is likely to be rewarded given how well Arkane has done to give players freedom in games like Dishonored, and there’s another wrinkle to it that raises the bar considerably.

Julianna Blake. The rival assassin out to kill Colt, is seemingly a constant thorn in his side. There’s a comedic chatter between them over comms where they both tease, pester, and take the piss out of each other. Given Arkane’s previous games were pretty strait-laced, it’s something of a surprise to see a lighter tone in this, a game about murdering people over and over again in a variety of nasty ways. It does seem to work, though, and the banter in the gameplay footage felt natural, and actually funny. The fact that this back-and-forth could be ended at any minute by Julianna killing Colt adds a nice edge to it, but greater still is the fear that an internet friend could be in control of Julianna.

Deathloop has a multiplayer of sorts, akin to the invasion system in the Souls series where one player can invade another’s game as Julianna, with the mission of stopping the other player’s Colt. As with Colt, Julianna is upgradeable, so even this feature of the game comes with a hefty dose of unpredictability as the invader could be tooled up to the max and highly skilled, but you’ll never know until it happens. It’ll be interesting to see how seamless this function ends up being and how well Arkane can balance it.

There’s still so much to learn about Deathloop‘s Blackreef island, its secrets, its inhabitants, and most importantly, about the many ways Colt can dish out death. After seeing it in action and getting a real taste for how it works, I’m anticipating its release more than ever.

Preview based on Alpha gameplay on PS5.

Deathloop is out September 14 on PS5 and PC.