This game seems good on paper, but the execution is so meh.

The premise is cool, and the art style is great, but the story is lackluster, underwhelming and ultimately disappointing. There are some interesting story elements sprinkled throughout the game, like Colt’s and the Visionaries' backstories, but they’re never explored beyond surface-level information. The ending, in particular, is a huge disappointment. It feels unsatisfying and anticlimactic, with nothing really explained in any of the endings. We still don’t know exactly what the anomaly is or who AEON is. It barely feels like a conclusion. And the bits of information we do get—like Colt being betrayed and stuck in a different loop before the events of this game, the fate of his wife, and the truth about his relationship with Juliana (all of which are revealed by reading paper notes, by the way)—either go nowhere, are never touched on again, or refuses to be explored any further then it being a random fun fact Colt or Juliana spit out.

As for the gameplay, while it’s fun at first and genuinely feels good, it quickly becomes repetitive. You end up playing through the same four areas over and over to gather enough info and resources to finish the game. Each location changes slightly depending on the time of day or who you kill/sabotage earlier in the loop, but the novelty wears off fast. There’s ultimately only one path to take to kill all eight targets, so you find yourself retracing your steps almost exactly, unless you go out of your way to do side content. To make matters worse, the AI is brain-dead and blind as a bat—it’s probably the worst AI I’ve seen in a game period. The game is laughably easy because of this, making the whole experience feel mindless and boring. I never once felt challenged or rewarded.

By the final hour, I just wanted it to be over. I felt like I wasted my time and was really disappointed, especially since I had played their other game, Prey (2017), just before this one, and Prey is genuinely amazing, It’s now one of my favourites.

Deathloop: 4/10

First and foremost, the gunplay in this game just does not feel good. Most of the weapons don't feel satisfying, and this ultimately makes repeatedly clearing out antagonist hideouts a chore. In principle you can use stealth instead of engaging in a gun fight, but stealth actions are very limited, and the game is obviously built around the gunplay and combat.

There are way too many 'leads' to keep track of. The game has a journal system to help out with this. Nevertheless, I ended up feeling confused and the different objectives just seemed like random, unrelated things I had to do for reasons I couldn't remember. Doesn't help that basically the only character you actually interact with in the game is Juliana. Chats with her are limited to a few lines of obnoxious banter here and there. All the other characters you will only interact with (at least in the first ~10 hours) through dialogue lines that are blurted out during combat. This means non of the characters are memorable, and so neither are their related quest lines. I had trouble even remembering the antagonists names.

I could see the idea they were going for in this game, and it works for the first few hours, but revisiting the same areas and repeating the same actions can only be rewarding if there are good reasons for doing so and if the combat can carry the game through the repetitiveness. Unfortunately, the game ticks neither of those boxes.

If they fixed the menu bug it would be perfect.