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[IbizaPocholo]

In this video essay, Alex Van Aken breaks down the game design of Deathloop and how the game's level design and time of day system work together to create an amazing immersive sim game.

Like the best immersive sims, Deathloop encourages you to use its robust suite of tools to poke at its many systems and environments to differing results, which then allows you to piece together the best route through any place. However, unlike its predecessors, Deathloop doesn’t have one specific mission, ability, or weapon that stands out as the best part of the adventure; instead, it showcases how a game’s many elements can interact with one another to create a truly unique experience.

Specifically, the Deathloop level design and time of day system work together to create a setting that invites exploration and houses adaptive characters to provide consequences to player actions. Add in a consistent ruleset and shared design language that permeates every aspect of Deathloop, and you’ll understand why the title is one of the best releases of 2021.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Lucy and Tamoor talk about why Arkane's latest game, Deathloop, deserves to be the GameSpot's Game of the Year 2021. The duo discusses how the studio took the best of open-ended action, immersive sims, and rogue-lites to present something that distinct and exceptional.

A good magic trick makes the impossible seem possible and inspires a child-like sense of wonder. Watch any magician dazzle an audience with a sleight of hand, misdirection, or optical illusion and you'll see even the most stoic of people wearing an expression of astonishment. It's a unique kind of joy that is almost always followed by a desperate need to figure out the trick. "How?" onlookers will ask, trying to make sense of it.

For years now, developer Arkane Studios has been pulling off some of the most impressive magic tricks around. Through the Dishonored series and Prey, it has delivered worlds that are stunning and intricately designed, and that--most importantly--present the player with seemingly endless possibilities. This is all on top of stunning art direction, memorable characters, and compelling stories.

Arkane's games feel like impossible creations, each one a complex set of interlocking systems and mechanics that present a dynamic space where players are invited to poke and prod at their clockwork nature and watch as it reacts without falling apart. As an immersive sim and an action game, Deathloop is yet another impressive effort from Arkane in this respect. But what elevates it and makes it GameSpot's Game of the Year for 2021 is that it gives us all what we want most after being wowed by a magic trick: a peek behind the curtain.

 

[Jebron]

I'm absolutely fucking done with console gaming.

I just bought Deathloop for PS5, and it's fucking embarrassing how bad the aiming is, it's actually unplayable with how infuriating it is. How the fuck are we almost in the year 2022, and developers still can't get analog stick aiming to feel good? It's absolutely fucking ludicrous that I need to worry about this shit before I buy a game.

The worst part is that I can't fucking return this absolute pile of shit on the Playstation store. Why am I being forced to move towards PC gaming, where my money and time are respected? At least on Steam I have the chance to return defective products.

 

[The Cockatrice]

I'm absolutely fucking done with console gaming.

I just bought Deathloop for PS5, and it's fucking embarrassing how bad the aiming is, it's actually unplayable with how infuriating it is. How the fuck are we almost in the year 2022, and developers still can't get analog stick aiming to feel good? It's absolutely fucking ludicrous that I need to worry about this shit before I buy a game.

The worst part is that I can't fucking return this absolute pile of shit on the Playstation store. Why am I being forced to move towards PC gaming, where my money and time are respected? At least on Steam I have the chance to return defective products.

The console has nothing to do with it. The aiming and shooting is sluggish on PC as well. Hell, for a long while, aiming on PC made the game stutter but was fixed, although not entirely.

 

[Jebron]

The console has nothing to do with it. The aiming and shooting is sluggish on PC as well. Hell, for a long while, aiming on PC made the game stutter but was fixed, although not entirely.

I'm well aware it's not a console limitation, my qualm is with being locked into Sony’s ecosystem and not having any recourse when games can't execute fundamental mechanics like AIMING. So I spend $30-60 on a game on Sony's platform, some aspect of the game is absolutely broken and impairs the playability of the game, and because of Sony's bullshit return policy the answer is just "Oh well, fuck you"?

No, the fact Arkane can't implement proper analog aiming controls is absolutely stupid, and Sony can go fuck themselves with their anti-consumer practices. THAT'S why I'm done with console gaming, I have no power and no recourse when it comes to this bullshit.

At least on PC I can use keyboard and mouse or as a last resort I can return the game. On the PS store I'm screwed regardless.