DEATHLOOP (2021) by Arkane Studios

Deathloop's often an artistic masterpiece that's a lot of fun to play and features a wicked hook. That being said, it's a severely flawed game, and the vast majority of praise I have for the game comes from its higher level philosophy and design and not necessarily in its execution.

The game is an artistic powerhouse. It looks phenomenal due to the incredibly talented artists at work on developing this game. Its sense of style is really unmatched by most other contemporary games. Its color palettes, its character designs, its setting, and its music are all phenomenally good and work to craft a really unique feel for the game. The fact that it looks so good is really impactful, because Void Engine is—there's really no other way to put this—a god-awful garbage heap of an engine on PC. The game frequently chugs in certain environments, and huge frame drops of double digits are overwhelmingly common. This is even more unforgivable considering all of these problems were present in Dishonored 2 when it released back five years ago. Most damningly, Deathloop isn't even that technically pretty, so there's even less excuse for such huge, arbitrary drops in performance. Luckily for Arkane, though, the art at Deathloop's core is more than good enough to carry the experience along.

The game is also quite fun to play. I was surprised to find out how close it plays to Dishonored 2. Many of the powers are simply carry-overs from Dishonored 2, and that's not a bad thing. The player is pushed to use them in a more wide-open fashion in Deathloop than they ever were in the Dishonored games, and it works exceptionally. The shooting is also much tighter than it was in the Dishonored games. Further, the core gameplay loop of replaying levels to gain more infusion points to improve abilities and equipment in order to better replay levels is really compelling and addictive, and Arkane's level design supports repeated playthroughs of the same area—at least, for a time.

The problem is that so much of this game seems to lack cohesion, and playing it for an extended period of time begins to feel disjointed. The world, to me, feels remarkably flimsy, which is a criticism I'm really surprised to be making considering how utterly realistic and lived-in Arkane's previous worlds have felt—particularly Dunwall. Blackreef in Deathloop feels like a set of multiplayer levels. They're designed fantastically for gameplay and they're a joy to play through and explore, but nothing in the game actually felt like a real, lived-in place. I never had the experience of poking through an apartment or a building and wondering how these people lived like I did so frequently in Dishonored, and that really damaged the experience in Deathloop for me. I didn't care about the setting or the lore because none of it felt real or genuine, and thus I never lost myself in this game like I did in some of Arkane's previous efforts. I was never really immersed and was always consciously aware that I was playing a video game. I lacked the transcendental experience I often have with some of my favorite video games, and a lot of Deathloop—despite being fun—felt dry and meaningless to play.

Feeding into this great flaw is the fact that almost all of the story content the player will experience is drip-fed through text items which are picked up in the world. The game does not pause as you read, so often the player finds themselves skimming very quickly through such text, barely paying attention in case they are detected by enemy NPCs patrolling the area. This quickly turned into a huge problem, because I was very rarely grasping where I was meant to be headed, or why, even, I was heading there. Several times I would be tasked with assassinating one of the game's primary enemies without having any idea who they are, what they were doing, or why they were doing it. The game does an exceptionally poor job relaying important plot- and character-critical information to the player, which leads you to simply following the marker on your screen and killing everything in your way. The only effort it shows in developing its characters is between Colt and Julianna, and the effort pays off as they're both the only people in the entire game who feel human. The rest are dry, boring, lifeless NPCs, despite some great voice performances. Cherami Leigh as Fia is a particular stand-out, but they're all really great.

The experience of playing DEATHLOOP, in one image.

Pacing is also an issue. Deathloop is the most blatantly offensive "Sorry, Mario! Your princess is in another castle!" game I have played in literal generations. The way this game artificially stretches out its quest lines is absolutely shameless and infuriating. There were several instances in which the player proceeds to the next step in a given questline, only for the game to throw a locked door or a literal wall in your way with a note attached to it, saying something like "whoops! You've got to come here in at another time of day to proceed in this quest!" Great, so I just spent this time period in a completely wasted manner, only for you to tell me in the most gamey way possible that I can't do this right now, and have to wait until the next day to proceed. This kind of thing grew frustrating very quickly, and my joy in replaying areas to explore further or increase my own power quickly turned to frustration with the tedium of the way the game structures its quest design. The quests are given far too many fetch-quest-caliber objectives and end up being stretched out far too long. This, again, feeds into the feeling gaminess that the best games do a great job of hiding from the player. I eventually went from having trouble keeping a grasp of the game's quests due to the poor way in which it relays its storytelling, to simply not caring, because so much of it felt flimsy and meaningless when I did grasp it, which is a real shame considering some of the character designs are so good, and the voice cast bringing them to life are all exceptional, particularly the game's two leads. There's a real missed opportunity to create some memorable characters here, because the player will end up simply not caring since it's too much of a chore to really become invested in them in the first place.

My issues with the way the game imparts its story and designs its quests won't be a problem for everyone. If you're looking for a rip-roaring time in a combat arena where you can play in a fast-paced manner and kill everything in sight using a variety of weapons and powers, all while being surrounded by exceptional art and level design, while great music plays, then you're likely going to love Deathloop. But if you're looking for a more cerebral experience where you can explore, learn about the world you're in, and piece together things for yourself as you proceed—like you did in a game like Dishonored or Prey—you're probably going to have a mediocre, up-and-down time with Deathloop, as I did. When it's firing on all cylinders it's a joy to play, but I never felt I was truly immersed in its world and its characters, and those are by far the most important reasons why I typically play single player games. So for someone like me, I would not recommend Deathloop. It's an ambitious game made by people who clearly care a whole lot about their medium, but it ended up being a bit too tedious and gamey for my tastes, in addition to running very poorly on PC.

I don't really regret the purchase because I'm happy to fund Arkane as they keep trying creative, ambitious stuff like this, but I sure hope they do it on a different engine next time, and I hope they put more emphasis into executing on delivering a more cohesive, genuine world and narrative to suit such great style and characters in the future.

⭐⭐

Playtime: 19.6 hours

Dishonored 2 (2016) by Arkane Studios

Dishonored 2 is actually very similar to its predecessor, though a bit more polished with systems and mechanics that are further developed than in the previous title. If you liked the first game then you should definitely play its sequel, as it features more of the same fantastic gameplay, level design, and art style.

Dishonored 2 is a dream to play due to how deftly it weaves between being an all-out action game and a tense, satisfying stealth experience. Like the first game, each style of play is ably rewarded, whether you want to be a violent psychopath, or a complete ghost sneaking through each level and leaving no trace. The flexibility the game provides its players is one of the best things it does and why it's so worthwhile to play, and with the new game plus mode added post-release it's even more satisfying, as you can pick either of the two protagonists and choose to play in a different style from a past playthrough. I do also greatly enjoy that Corvo is voiced this time around by the timeless Stephen Russel. The silent protagonist of the first game was always awkward in my opinion and regularly pulled me out of the experience.

The other thing Dishonored 2 does extraordinarily well is level design. Most stealth games require very well-designed levels to function properly, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that Dishonored 2 has perhaps the most impressive level design I have ever seen in a game. I don't want to spoil it, but suffice it to say that I've never played anything as mind-bendingly engrossing as the Clockwork Mansion or A Crack In The Slab. It's simply phenomenal; fun to play, and the spaces feel real and functional, as if they could actually exist rather than being specifically designed for a video game. The genius of these designers is undeniable and they're setting a standard for which the rest of the industry can only strive to approach. Brilliant work, the best stealth levels I've played since 2005's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory.

This game just feels good to play. The art style is gorgeous, the way you flow from one room to the next stealthily eliminating enemies, dominating all-out fights, or ghosting through via the use of gadgets and powers is almost always satisfying. If you screw up, you're still able to fight in a satisfying way, making save-scumming unnecessary. I prefer to play almost completely stealthily and I find myself losing hours whenever I boot this game up. The portrait work is fantastic, the soundtrack is eerily accurate to the tone of the game.

If there is a criticism I have, it's that the story feels very underdeveloped and seems as if it could have used some more polish. I was intrigued by the premise but too much of it felt contrived, and the ending is so abrupt and unsatisfying. I was fully enthralled by this game from pretty much minute one and never really felt any frustration or distaste until the very end of the game, which I found profoundly unsatisfying. One positive to note is the voice cast, which, like Dishonored, is filled with big name actors who do a superb job. Rosario Dawson is a particular standout, as is Vincent D'Onofrio.

Upon release the game ran incredibly poorly on my machine and many others due to Arkane's installation of the new Void engine in lieu of Dishonored's Unreal engine. It ran so poorly in fact that I had to put it down for several months while waiting for a patch. Thankfully Arkane have done right by their fans and not only added significant stability, but also added several features on top of this. I mentioned New Game Plus before but I want to mention it once more because it's a truly great addition to the game. The game runs very well now and is far more stable than upon release, so don't fret if you're worried about potential performance issues.

Dishonored 2 overcomes a threadbare story with amazing level design and satisfying gameplay and should be played by anyone with an interest in stealth games or bombastic combat. Excellent game continuing the tradition of the Thief franchise and I truly hope Arkane continues to make Dishonored games for as long as they wish.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Playtime: 79 hours

Prey (2017) by Arkane Studios

There are a lot of things Prey does really well that made me want to like it. I love its cousins, Dishonored and its sequel, and I was hoping for a similar experience when I picked up Prey. Prey features a lot of the same things that Dishonored does well and even though they're different games I couldn't help but to compare the two while playing through Prey.

Prey features the same stunning level design and environmental art that Dishonored does so well. Places function as well as video game levels as they do immersive areas. Each locale feels like a real place with functional design, looks beautiful, and works extraordinarily well as a level. It's an impressive feat pulled off by the developers. The graphics are fine, with some great lighting effects. And the story is just intriguing enough to keep you moving forward, though devolves into fetch quests and "go here to fix this door" a bit too often.

My biggest problem with the game is that playing it just doesn't feel good. This is because there seemed to be very few efficient solutions to a lot of the problems it presents. In Dishonored you're given an ample amount of tools with which to overcome the different challenges the enemies provide, whether you wish to play stealthily or loud, lethally or nonlethally. However I couldn't shake the sense that with each enemy encounter in Prey I was doing something wrong. Bullet-sponge phantoms took multiple magazines to bring down, poltergeists left me missing them and wasting most of my ammo just to bring them down. I put the game down for a long time just 6-7 hours in because of this and picked it up again recently and put about 20 more hours before putting it down again for the same reason. There were times I'd try to sneak past encounters as well, treating the game more like horror, but even that fails to work at times as certain enemies seem to auto-detect you no matter how many skill points you have in stealth. I'd google strategies to kill certain enemies only to find that-- Surprise! There are none. Want to sneak by it instead? Well, the phantom patrols and now you're missing out on exploring and taking in good environmental storytelling and looting half the level, which is your driving force for exploring these spaces to begin with since the story missions are uninspired at best.

The game gives you an unlimited amount of tools to accomplish the problems it presents in clumsy, unsatisfying ways.

There's a reason many people complain about this game's difficulty. I played most of the game Normal, but even on "Story" mode enemies too often feel like bullet sponges. Something about playing it just feels off, whether you're tackling it as a shooter or a stealth game. Clearing a room just doesn't feel satisfying. Even after dealing with enemies and solving a problem presented by a monster in a room, I couldn't shake the fact that I had done it in the sloppiest, most inefficient way possible. This had me replaying rooms, trying different tactics; sometimes for half an hour at a time, but it always felt similarly unsatisfying. For a while this kept me pushing forward in search of unlocking new skills, until I had unlocked enough Typhon abilities to summon the Nightmare, another bullet-spongey enemy which I googled to learn would continue to appear every 20-30 minutes for the rest of the game. It was at this point that I lost my drive to play the game completely and finally put it down for good.

Dishonored felt fresh and challenging and even when I mucked up an encounter I could clearly see where I'd made my mistake, and would focus on doing better next time. And it was extremely satisfying to sneak past a room full of enemies, or take them out, or use the environment to my advantage. I never felt this playing Prey. Not one single time. I felt like a bumbling idiot, relying on my upgraded shotgun and combat focus to deal with nearly every challenge. While the levels can feel like a fun sandbox I ended up feeling that none of the tools they gave me to play with were very effective at dealing with any of the problems provided, so I resorted to smashing through it with the proverbial hammer (or in this case, shotgun) instead.

There are some other things that bothered me about the game as well. The sound mix is absolutely terrible, which I remember from day one but still hasn't been patched to adequacy yet. You can be hugging a wall in a room and hear electricity from a broken wall in the room adjacent and above you, or hear a fire that you passed 20 minutes ago still raging two floors below. Certain instances of dialogue are far too loud or sound like the mic was too close to the actors' mouths when they were recording their lines. Gunshots don't sound loud enough for what they are, and space doesn't sound quiet enough.

In addition to this, Mick Gordon, who was perfectly at home doing the Doom soundtrack, just doesn't feel like his music fits Prey. There are some nice tracks here and there but subtlety is definitely not his strong suit, and that's what I feel this game required. Though this is very much a matter of taste, and I am in the minority: Most folks liked the score.

I also had an issue with the annoying, lazy, scripted jump scares that permeate this game and was surprised that other outlets did not mention them. I'm not talking about happening across a mimic, which is an organic part of the game. I'm talking about scripted sequences such as the "Touch Me" calibration screen scene in Psychotronics, which was so infuriatingly lazy and offensive that it actually led to me to halt playing the game for the night. Or the theater screen screeching to life in Crew Quarters with no warning. There are numerous instances of this crap, and the awful sound mix only serves to deafen headphones users, which is where my key gripe comes in. It's not just startling, but literally painful due to the ineptitude of the sound mixers. If you crept up behind me while I'm at work and blew a damned air horn into my ear I'd probably jump a mile, too. Is that good horror? No. It's a lazy prank. It's annoying and infuriating, and it had me hating the moronic developers who'd think up such a rote, lazy tactic that's been ruining Hollywood horror films for decades now.

For the record, there are instances of real horror and tension in this game that are actually quite enjoyable. A great example is the morgue scene in which you're creeping along into the morgue only to see a suspended body slip off the rack and slump quietly to the floor. You're sure there's a mimic in there somewhere, so you cautiously creep into the room, searching for it, on edge the entire time and filled with suspense... Only to find nothing but some supplies and notes inside. This is great horror, and the fact that it's often mixed in with lazy jump scares only serves to show how frequently the game fails. It seems to me that the developers strove to add a horror element to the game, but were unskilled in specifically how to do it and perhaps unfamiliar with effective horror, relying instead on recent experiences they've had in theaters.

In a word I'd describe the game as uneven. At its best it's hitting the same heights as other great Arkane games, but at it's worst it comes off as incredibly lazy and uninspired, which is a shocking imbalance for a game that does so many original, inspired things. I had some great times with the game but couldn't shake the fact that it just did not feel good to play most of the time. If you're looking for a horror game then I suppose you might like this, but it doesn't feel great to play as a shooter or a stealth game, so I'm not confident in recommending it.

I do hope Arkane takes another crack at it with a sequel, because there are some really great ideas at the core of Prey that I'd like to see polished up a bit in another effort.

⭐⭐

Playtime: 32 hours

Dishonored (2012) by Arkane Studios

Successful new intellectual properties are typically very difficult to produce in the world of game design. The process requires the developers to build all aspects of the video game from the ground up. They have to decide what type of art direction they're going for, conceive all pieces of the plot and characters from scratch, and build all of the technical systems such as graphics and combat from scratch. This is why new IPs are often rough around the edges. Sequels are so ubiquitous and generally more critically acclaimed because the developers already have an existing foundation to build upon from the previous title and they can focus on adding polish.

Dishonored is one of the special few new IPs that manages to avoid most of the pitfalls and delivers a diverse, adaptable, polished experienced right from the get go.

The most noticeable aspect of the game is its art design, which was deftly crafted by one Viktor Antonov, a Bulgarian art director famous for his work on designing City 17 and its outskirts in Half Life 2. His touch is recognizable in Dishonored as chaotic Dunwall shares many similarities with totalitarian City 17. Nothing feels like it was pasted over from Half-Life 2, though. Dishonored is a true steampunk game and Dunwall has it's own feel that's inspired by Victorian era London gone bad. There's a dirty river, loads of industry, and even a familiar-looking bridge. All of it is given a unique touch, and the result is a very immersive world. This is escapism at its finest; be prepared for the Dunwall to suck you in immediately and carve away the hours of your day as you explore every nook and cranny. I haven't been as enamored with a new setting since playing BioShock and first experiencing Rapture.

The plot is serviceable though predictable. Daud, the conflicted villain of the game, is the strongest and most interesting character. It's a shame he doesn't get more screentime, though Arkane have remedied this with a pair of DLC episodes in which he is the playable character. The player character, Corvo Attano, is a silent protagonist. This is a negative for me since I personally detest the silent protagonist trope in video games. I understand that the goal of the silent protagonist is to allow the gamer to project his own reactions into the game, and I know that many gamers enjoy it, but it pulls me out of the experience when I don't hear my character speaking to anybody addressing him because it's so unnatural. I can't logically connect the fact that my character is mute, yet nobody in the game ever seems to comment upon it. I don't enjoy it in the Half-Life series, and I'm not a fan of it here, either. I will say that the game deserves a mention of its voice acting, particularly the role of Daud as played by Michael Madsen of Tarantino fame. Other praiseworthy roles are played by John Slattery (Mad Men), Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass), Brad Douriff (Lord of the Rings), Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), and Susan Sarandon (Thelma & Louise). They spent some money on voice talent, and it pays off. The one qualm I do have is the repetitive nature of the guards' canned conversational quips, of which there are few. They repeat themselves regularly which breaks immersion.

The wasted landscape of the plague-ridden city can become tiresome and a bit grating. There are corpses littered about, filth, rats, and crumbling buildings galore. The design is fine but the pacing leaves you in these types of areas for a bit too long. The more civilized settings in certain levels such as the gentlemen's club and the high society party feel special by comparison, but the pace would benefit from seeing more of the inhabited areas of the city and fewer of the burned out, deserted ghettos. There are only so many ways you can depict diseased ruin before it becomes repetitive.

The game's graphical muscle won't blow you away if you're used to games like Crysis 3, but the art direction props up the visuals enough to make them astounding in certain areas. There's an old oil painting feel which permeates the game, and it fits the look and feel of the setting very well. I get a sense of great design while playing this game. There aren't all that many graphical options to tinker with, but there is a field of view slider, which is always cause for celebration with PC ports. The game also runs exceptionally well on PC, so even if you're not wowed by the visuals and the art design like I am, the technical aspects of the visuals won't hinder you from enjoying the gameplay at all.

Dishonored is fully adaptable to your style of play, which is refreshing in a game that emphasizes stealth. If you're a stealth fanatic (as I admittedly am), then you'll enjoy it here. It's possible to finish the game without ever killing anybody or being spotted, and you're able to accomplish this thanks to being provided the tools to move quickly and silently throughout huge areas. Blink allows you to teleport instantly a certain distance across the map, and you can also acquire the ability to see through walls. Mobility is a requirement in many stealth games, and Dishonored gives you the tools to traverse the environment quickly when needed.

The beauty of the strong stealth play is that it's balanced by an arguably better combat system. The combat powers at your disposal (slowing or stopping time, possessing enemies, finishers, etc.) all synergize incredibly well with one another and they allow you to take out your enemies in endlessly amusing ways. It's a sign of the design team having clearly described objectives, and I was genuinely amazed at how well the game flows between stealth and combat. I expected to play this game for its engrossing, artistic setting and ended up getting the biggest kicks out t's combat system. In my opinion it's the strongest aspect of the game, which is indicative of the game's greater value considering its already great art direction. There are multiple reasons to play this title, which helps it appeal to a broad demographic. It's no one trick pony.

The only real criticism I have of the game is the clumsy way in which it handles morality. Great games have been bungling morality mechanics for nearly a decade now (BioShock immediately comes to mind), so it's not surprising, but in Dishonored it becomes a glaring flaw because they get so much else right.

You're informed very clearly that the city will descend more and more into chaos if you kill your enemies rather than avoiding them or knocking them out, and your allies will begin to view you unfavorably the more deadly you are. While this is logically understandable (a lack of law enforcement officials presumably increases chaos in a troubled city), the mechanic unintendedly puts shackles on your ability to transition between stealth and combat. The gameplay seems designed to be freely adaptable so you can move seamlessly between stealth and combat when you're spotted, but it then tells you via the plot that playing stealthily and non-lethally is better. You begin to feel corralled into playing the game stealthily rather than being free to adapt to combat situations if you get caught. The plot punishes you for being spotted and having to fight your way out.

It's a disconnect in design between a plot that wants to make you accountable for your choices and gameplay that wants to be flexible. A potential solution would be leaving the chaos meter to be regulated entirely by how you choose to dispatch your assassination targets. Then it's isolated to the plot and doesn't have any effect on the way you choose to play the game. It's a disappointing flaw, but it doesn't take much away from a game that offers so much to begin with.

Overall, this game is a beautiful, immersive experience and it should absolutely be played by anybody who typically enjoys stealth games, or games that offer rich, engrossing settings. I'm very much looking forward to Arkane's inevitable sequel to this game.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Playtime: 46 hours