The added frames will be in a later update

Redfall will have options for either Quality or Performance on Xbox, but only one will be available at launch. Arkane confirms that Redfall will be launching with just the Quality option, and Pe?rformance mode will be arriving in an update after launch.

No date was specified in the announcement, just that it would arrive through a game update sometime later. So for Xbox Series X|S o?wners, Quality mode will be the sole option. Here's what you get on each platform with that:

• Xbox Series X: 4K / 30 FPS
• Xbox Series S: 1440p / 30 FPS

No resolution targets were listed for Redfall's Performance?? mode, but it will be the?? 60 FPS setting, for those who like their frames.

//twitter.c?om/??playRedfall/status/1646158836103880708

The streets run red

For those who prefer the crispy 60 FPS over h??igher resolutions, this is a bit of a bummer. I usually opt for the Performance mode whenever possible, and knowing there will eventually be an option for it honestly makes me consider holding off for a while.

Redfall does look really fun, to be fair. I've enjoyed the general theme and idea of it, it's looked solid in various trailers, and I'm a pretty big fan of Arkane??'s previous games. All of it seems ??set up for success.

Yet Redfall is also launching into a highly competitive window for attention. It arrives just after Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and just before The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It may hold the benefit of being ?a multiplayer experience, whereas those other games are solo adventures, but it's still a stacked spring by any standard.

Hopefully Arkane can get this mode out the door fast. Having all the frames I can for vampire hunting will be helpful. Redfall launches on M??ay 2, 2023 for PC and Xbox ??Series X|S.

The post Redfall on Xbox will get its 60?? FPS Performance mode in a post-launch update appeared first on Destructoid.

Sit down to a Redfall interview with the game's developers

When Arkane announced its new open-world shooter, Redfall, I think it's safe to say that we were all pretty excited, even if we don't know exactly what to expect. Well, the studio is helping us out on that front, because they've just released a deep-dive interview in conjunction with Xbox as part of QuakeCon 2022 that provides players with all kinds of details as to what it'll be like to play Redfall, including environments, character skills, and weapons. (Thanks, PC Gamer.) The Redfall interview included Arkane st?ud??io director Harvey Smith, as well as creative director Ricardo Bare and art director Karen Segars.

The team touched on just how big Redfall's open world is going to be for players to explore. Segars said that the space station in Prey, which has the biggest map of any Arkane game up until Redfall is relea?sed, will look tiny in comp??arison. Smith also clarified specifically what players can expect to see within that open world:

"Ultimately we hope that players will play single-player if that's what they want, and it will feel lik??e an Arcane game but it's more expansive. It's an open world, but it's not an open world based on the scale of vehicles. It's an open world based on foot. And so it's like a familiar setting, New England, it's spooky. Traverse the place, go into mom-and-pop grocery stores, apartments, get on the roof of buildings. And we try to put as many environmental storytelling scenes around as we possibly can, and so it feels very lived in."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaBgmJ9Trec

That sounds amazing to me, because when open-world games are scaled up too much, they can feel kind of empty because of how much space there is. I'm looking forward to exploring Redfall's map and finding as many secrets as possible.

The Redfall interv?iew also went into detail about the character progression. There are four playable characters in the ??game, and each one has its own set of skills and abilities, which are unlocked through a skill tree unique to that character. The idea is that whichever character you pick can be played in any way you like based on how you choose your build.

The developers also covered the "part RPG, part shooter" arsenal, including standard fare like assault rifles and shotguns. There will also be more unique weapons like a UV beam and a ?stake gun (because of course, you're killing vampires), which you can stock up with items you find around the worl??d, like the broken ends of pool cues or mop handles.

It sounds like they've really thought throu??gh some in-depth mechanics for us, and I wouldn't expect any less of Arkane.

While this interview is mostly good news, there is one detail divulged in a prior interview the devs had with IGN that fans aren't terribly thrilled about: when playing in co-op mode, the host player is the only one who will progress through the game's story. It's not game-breaking news by any means, but it is a bit of a bummer that you'll likely have to do?? an??other playthrough if you're not the host the first time around and you want to complete the campaign.

You can check out the full video of the Xbox interview if you want to hear more about what Redfall is going to have to offer. If this is the first big look at what Arkane has in store for us, I think it's safe to say that there's gonna be a lot to look forward to with Redfall.

The post Arkane released a?? Redfall deep-dive interview detailing what to expect from the? open-world FPS appeared first on Destructoid.

You only live thrice

I tried to go into Deathloop as blind as possible, only glancing at trailers in the middle of conferences, and avoiding everything else.

I suggest you do the same.

Deathloop (PC, PS5 [reviewed])
Developer: Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda
Released: September 14, 2021
MSRP: $59.99

Still reading? Well I won't give away too much!

"Groundhog Day with two assassins by way of Arkane" sums up the premise of Deathloop, which is enough to entice a large chunk of people; especially Dishonored and Prey fans. Arkane definitely dips into the font of those two games, and ends up pouring a refreshing drink that's generally bolder, and more flavorful than several past eff??orts.

Personality is not a problem in Deathloop, for one. Colt, your avatar and the main event of this time-looping mes?s, is more interesting than the entire cast of most modern AAA games. The banter between him and Julianna (hi??s rival) is glorious, and manages to rise above the typical edgy dialogue of a lot of shooters by actually making you laugh out loud. The '60s decor and fashion sense help bring out that personality more, especially with all that marvelous wood-based interior design! Nothing better than techy sci-fi clashing with wood.

Deathloop's primary weapon is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. The game highly encourages experimentation, loa??dout swapping, and exploration, and makes all of that very easy. The way the core loop (as it were) works is that you have an ultimate end goal in mind, but an unlimited amount of time to figure out how to do it. "Days" are broken up by morning, afternoon, and evening periods; all of which feature different environmental changes in four areas (connected by central tunnels, which you start and end every period in), and have key NPCs (Visionaries, which are basically bosses) in different spots. During all this, Julianna can randomly pop in as an extra encounter, both as an AI or as another player.

Loadouts, initially, are tenuous at best. You can't keep all of your gear between loops,? but very early you discover a mechanic that lets you pump what is essentially leveling currency into keeping items permanently. While a lot of games would make this process deliberately obtuse and annoying, I had what I could consider an "ideal" pe?rsonal loadout in a little over an hour of playtime. From there, it was mainly tweaking, and adding extra flair for specific encounters (sneaking around, versus head-on fighting/boss battles).

It's a very, very chill game with a lot going on, which is a feat to balance both so well. In case you're worried, it doesn't feel anything like a roguelike or a roguelite. The time loop gimmick actually serves the player at a foundational level, which really helped me become invested in it: I couldn't stop playing from the time I installed it. Deathloop gets very fun to play very fast becau?se it's willing to get kooky and arcadey. Case in point: I was given a double-jump almost immediately and it was off to the races.

What are essentially magic powers (conducted through relics called "slates") supercharge everything, providing access to berserker strength, stealth, teleportation, and more. Colt's unique power is that he can die three times each day before starting over a loop: essentially providing you with three lives (complete with the now-classic "loot your corpse to regain your currency" conceit). Arkane could have gone the gritty route with grounded Call of Duty style clamboring and sliding (which is in!), but they plu?ssed it up. Getting these powers is meaningful, too, as bosses (which respawn every day) basically poop out materia, which you can then pay to keep permanently (dupe abilities will provide upgrades).

Beyond chipping away at the critical path, part of the joy is slowly uncovering the mystery of why you're in the loop, and I'll basically leave it at that. The in-game mission screen is centered around this premise, offering a conspiracy theory style pinboard to help you slowly unravel everything. You can do multiple parts at once depending on the area you're in, or take it bit by bit, and start ??fresh the next day.

However you choose to play, the game saves your mi?ssion progress/knowledge like passcodes and major revelations: so you don't need to repeat a ton of things over and over until you get it perfectly right (nor do you have to memorize what you were doing). Again, Arkane could have gone so south with the number of roguelike elements they could have crammed in, but it really does play like an action-adventure that just happens to take place in a time loop.

All of these mechanics help facilitate cycle-based runs through a selection of four sandboxes that are combed through the way you want to. It isn't perfect though. I encountered a few instances of "go here...oh actually now that you're here, you need to com??e back in the morning." Great! At least I had the opportunity to scour the immediate area, have some fun, head back, keep what I wanted by investing in those items, then dive back into the zone within a few minutes. Slightly annoying, but ultimately painless.

What wasn't as painless w?as my encounter with several glitches on PS5, all of them menu-based. Sometimes when selecting a loadout the menu won't load, and on a few occasions, it locked up and didn't let me quit or start a mission. The only solution was to reboot, which let me pick up right where I left off due to the auto-save system. Your mileage ??may vary, but I encountered menu lag twice (which cleared up after 30 seconds), and soft crashing twice.

What I find especially fun is the post-mission "run back." It's a blast to figure out different paths to return to the tunnels before the next time period begins each day while all hell is breaking loose, and Deathloop entices you to come back under different ci??rcumstances to encounter new activities. None of the zones feel bloated: they're packed just enough to warrant multiple runs without getting o?ld, without providing the sense that they're jammed with Ubisoft open world busywork.

At what I would call a "medium pace," I finished Deathloop in around 10 hours (after the game ends, you can repeat the final day or start over). Part of the genius is that if you want to rush it, you can. If you want to take twice as long, you can too. There's a lot of speedrunning potential in Deathloop, and I'm stoked to see what peopl?e come up with as the "optimal way to solve the game."

The other part of Deathloop is playing as Julianna, which has a very 2010s "we need multiplayer in this game" feel at first, but ends up being a bonus rather than something that detracts from Deathloop as a whole. Your job is to dive into another (human) Colt's game via matchmaking, and take them out, similar to invading a game in a Souls joint. It has its own?? loadout screen and progression system, as well as a few subtle story bits. You can even turn off human invasions and restrict them entirely to AI as Colt. What I'm saying is you can ignore it, but it's also justified.

Extra mode or not, the main game is not compromised in any way. Deathloop combines a classic Arkane stealthy-shooty foundation with a genuinely interesting and fun premise to aplomb. This is goin?g to be on a lot of Game of the Year lists.

The post Review: Deathloop appeared first on Destructoid.

After finally getting some hands-on time with Deathloop, it feels like an Arkane coalescence

Live, die, repeat. Every morning, Colt wakes up on a nondescript beach in Blackreef, no matter what happened the night prior, and is left to uncover the mystery of why this is happening, and how to stop it. I've now played through a few of these loops myself, and while I'm still discovering the answers to Colt's questions, I feel I can safely answer one: just what is Deathloop?

There's a tendency, with a lot of media, to describe it in the context of other works. It's not unique to games, but it's certainly easy for us to do with phrases like Souls-like, roguelike, Metroidvania, and so on. They're useful in so??me contexts, especially to describe the places in which a game is pulling ideas from, paying homage to, or even just working within similar genre confines.

Deathloop certainly feels akin to some, but no single tag can narrow it down quite enough. In the time I've had to go hands-on with it so far, it has reminded me of a lot of different inspirations, while also feeling a bit all its own. We've seen Deathloop in a preview before, but its hands-off structure?? meant we got an impression of what it looks to be, and what it might feel like to play the game.

But now I've had some time to actually play the dang game, and I've got a lot to tal?k about. Let's start back at the beach.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTnzLC6Utk0

At its core, Deathloop is a time loop game. After an introductory segment of missions, you—as Colt—are left to loop through the day, trying to find a way to take out the eight Visionaries dotted across Blackreef, ending the loop. The who, what, where and when are left for you to discover, as well as the how and why of Blackreef's incessant ??looping.

Part of the fun is the mystery of it all. It might sound like a simple enough set-up, but these characters' lives are fraught, and as Colt discovers better and better methods for tangling them up in strings and elimina?ting them, he discovers more about the island itself too. Finding out how this all interlinks is really fun, but it's also why I'm not going to dive too deep into actual solutions of how to take anyone out.

To lay out exactly how Deathloop works though, here's how a day typically starts. After waking up on the beach, you pick out which area you want to investigate during the time slot. Every day is split up into segments of time—morning, noon, afternoon, and evening—though you can spend as much time as you'd like in the area once you enter. Every area changes depending on the time of day you visit it; while Updaam might be a quaint neighborhood during the day, there might be more party-goers and loop-participators in the area later, having fun and standing in previously unoccupied lanes. And all of them want to take down Colt for trying ??to rain on their parade.

So, then, the idea might be to infiltrate, rather than kick down the doors. Colt's certainly well-equipped for this, and playing stealth in Deathloop feels really good. A big part of this is the Spiker, a gun you can find pretty early on thatbecomes a bit of a staple of your arsenal (more of how that happens a little further on). It's a pneumatic nail-gun with crude iron sights, and seems just ba?rely intended for any amount of combat, but it's quiet, a one-hit? on headshots, and thank heavens, it never jams.

Because when the action goes loud and the many masked, frolicking participants in Blackreef's loop descend upon Colt, a jam is not what you want to happen. The guns of Deathloop feel very mechanical in nature, with Colt having to open mechanisms and cram in flat-drum barrels on big weapons. The feel really comes thr?ough i??n the Dualsense as well, where a gun jam will actually catch your trigger, warning you to find a safe spot to clear it out.

This isn't an arena shooter or anything; Colt can only take so ma?ny hits before death, and it's easy to get quickly outnumbered. W??hen a firefight broke out, I was often sprinting around corners, sliding and spraying as I tried to take out who I could with what little I had.

It's here that the loop really p?lays back into itself. Colt can save some equipment using Residuum, a system and currency you're encouraged to pick up early on by completing a certain task. Residuum lets you bank currency that you can either absorb from anomalies in the world or through kills, and then infuse into various parts of your armory, including guns, trinkets, and the powers that major characters wield called Slabs.

I quickly developed an affinity for the Spiker, as well as a devastating handgun I took off a target that could punch through just about anything. The tradeoff, though, is that early on your arsenal is still limited, and ammo is only as much as Colt can carry. It led to situations where I was having to rapidly acclimate myself to weapons on the fly, because it's what I could find littered around the battlefield. It was chaotic and messy, and it was fun. Turns out there is some joy to be had in breaking stealth without the usual moral consequences found in other games, like Dishonored.

Whenever I entered an area for a slice of the day, I usually had a single goal in mind. It might be to learn more about a certain topic, or to figure out how something might link into another piece of info I had, or even just to take out a Visionary and get their Slab power, so I could tur??n it into my own. The Visionaries themselves are no pushovers; one in particular, C??harlie, took me aback with how he uses his own Slab, Shift—essentially a blink—in firefights. Taking them out isn't easy, and the end goal is to take out all eight in a single day.

Thankfully, that goal never feels too daunting, as Arkane has menus and systems for tracking Leads around the different subjects and topics of inquiry on the island. It never felt like I didn't have a way forward, though I'm interested to see how that pans out across the full game, as threads start to expand ou??t and tie back into each other. They're not all assasination-related, either; some might just point you towards an area of interest, a little scrap of lore, or a really nice gun. Look, if you're going to take down powerful Visionaries, it might help to have a solid weapon or two.

It helps that the areas are varied, as well. Each locale feels dense, and it evolves as the day? changes too. Through several variations of the same place, I saw how the density of guards and enemies changed, or targets moved to different areas. Certain points of interest only open up at certain times as well, so I had to make a mental note to come back later to try and plunder whatever might be inside. And even within a few blocks of each other, areas might contain their own unique flavor or twist; Charlie's macabre games in Updaam, where loop attendees could play dangerous games free of consequence, is a great example.

The whole time, the threat of Julianna looms overhead. My preview was single-player only, so I only ever had to contend with the A.I. version of Deathloop's hunter-antagonist. While other Visionaries will wait for you to come to them, Julianna hunts you; a little tune will alert you to her arrival in the map, shutting off Colt's exfiltration routes in the process. The only wa??y to get out is to hack them back open, or take out Julianna. The latter is certainly more rewarding, resource-wise, but it's not easy either.

In my time so far with Deathloop, I've run across rooftops and snuck through alleyways. I've quietly dispatched an entire warehouse of enemies, and also barely scraped my way through a massive firefight. I've hacked automated defense turrets to turn on enemies, broken a few windows, and laughed out loud at some genuinely good bi??ts of comedy.

It might be easy to divvy Deathloop's many parts into many different categories, but I don't think that any one would get it quite right. It's clearly pulling in inspiration from different places, while still putting Arkane's twi??st on it the way only Arkane can. No mechanic has felt too out of place or incongruous with anything else.

In fact, everything in Deathloop melds together really, really well. It's a murder-mystery, and an immersive sim, and a shooter. It's a game where you have to loop over and over to uncover more. And some of its surprises, even early on, are way too intriguing to spoil. My notebook is already covered in scribbled ideas and leads, with different questions I still need to answer about Blackreef, its Vision??aries, its denizens, and Colt himself.

So that's a long-winded way of saying Deathloop is, well, Deathloop. It's going to feel familiar, at the very least, to anyone who has played Arkane Lyon's previous games, and it's going to have elements that feel like they pull on broader game design ideas. But it feels a bit like the culmination of a lot of ideas, and the right project to bring them all to bear on. Deathloop is a game where you wake up on a beach every morning, stuck in a time loop, until you can figure out ??how to kill the Visionaries and break the cycle. And from what I've played, it's a good loop to get stuck in.

The post Breaking the loop: A few hours with Deathloop appeared first on Destructoid.

Why would the Fine Print lie?

Super-cool shooter Deathloop is likely to retain its PS5 console exclusivity for an entire year, despite publisher Bethesda Softwares now being in the care of Microsoft. The most recent trailer for Arkane Studio's time-warpin' shooter includes a teeny disclaimer suggesting that Deathloop is unlikely to be seen on any other ?console until mid-September 2022.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzjq6myYALo

Deathloop is one of the few Bethesda releases that just got the ink dried on its contracts ahead of the buyout, which saw Microsoft purchase ZeniMax Media, (and subsidiary Bethesda), for a cool $7.5 billion back in September 2020. While all of Bethesda's upcoming releases �such as Starfield, Redfall, and Indiana Jones �will be at the whims of Microsoft's decision-making, Deathloop ??should retain its one-year PlayStation console exclusivity (though it will still be available on PC.)

Launching on PS5 and PC on September 14, Deathloop will tell the ?tale of top-tier assassin, Colt, who finds himself trapped within a time loop on the ?mysterious island of Blackreef. At the mercy of some of the planet's greatest killers, Colt must find the quickest, most efficient way of taking out his fellow predators, while staying one step ahead of death and, scarier still, deadly femme fatale Julianna, who is tasked with stopping Colt and protecting the time loop at all costs.

You can check out our own Eric van Allen's thoughts on Deathloop in his preview right here.

The post Deathloop PS5 exclusivity likely to last one-year, despite?? Microsoft/Bethesd??a buyout appeared first on Destructoid.

Break the loop

Deathloop always starts back at the beginning. Colt, struck with amnesia, wake??s up on a beach with one heck of a hangover and the revelation that time, on this island, is looping. He has a simple objective: to hunt down the Visionaries spread around Blackreef and kill them all in a day, closing the loop in the process. 

He can wield handguns, nail guns, shotguns, a machete, and a handheld hacking device, all in the name of taking out Blackreef's partygoers and scholars, but?? there is one problem larger than the legion of Eternalists between him and his targets: J??ulianna Blake. She's armed, and she has one goal: stop Colt from ending the loop.

I recently attended a preview session for Deathloop, where we got to see a slice of hands-off gameplay of the time-?looping adventure. Across the p?review, we saw a few different options for Colt: means of approach, ways of playing, and methods with which to dispatch the various Visionaries. And it looks pretty dang good.

Blackreef is split up into fo??ur areas, each of which can be visited at different times of day: m??orning, noon, afternoon, and evening. Different people will appear at different times of day, and the status of each can change too; in one area, a concert may be in the process of getting set up, while approaching the same place later in the day might show the aftermath of the show.

In our specific glimpse, we got to see Colt try and take out Aleksis Dorsey, a foul-mout??hed Visionary who's hiding, masked, amongst fellow pa??rtiers. The trick, as Colt discovers, is figuring out which attendee is Aleksis. You have to learn their personality, look for tells, and do it all while trying not to get shot by the many other locked-and-loaded guests.

All the while, Julianna taunts Colt over the radio. This was one of the more interesting features shown in the preview—Julianna isn't just a looming specter that hunts Cole, either as an A.I. opponent or as an actual second player, but she's a "voice-on-the-radio" too. She both mocks Colt and eggs him on, leading him to suspect the two have a history; whether they do or not see?ms to be something for the player to discover.

There are a lot of ways for Colt to deal with the Eternalists—the faction who want to keep the ever-lasting time loop going—that are scattered around each area. They'll all shoot Colt on sight, so stealth is one tactic, and it will feel especially familiar for any fans of Arkane's Dishonored series. Abilities like Shift, which teleports Colt a short distance, and Nexus, which ties enemies' fates together for one kill shot, work as they did in Dishonored. Meanwhile, if he goes loud, Colt can use Havoc to absorb damage and expel it in one big ?blast, and Karnesis lets him fling opp?onents into the air and off cliffs. 

There are a myriad of weapons for each approach too, like the silenced nail gun, shotguns, and rifles. Trinkets can upgrad??e these weapons too, lessening the recoil or even making bullets perforate enemies, and they can add abilities to Colt as well. There are a lot of tools for dealing out maximum da?mage, regardless of whether you're trying to sneak through corridors or kick down the door.

In Dishonored, players had to make a ch?oice between killing or not killing, with morality tied to the question; here in Blackreef, Colt is free to use any and all mea?ns, and a wealthy arsenal, to complete his objective. My personal favorite was the Sapper Charge, a grenade with two additional modes: Proximity Sensor and Trip Mine. In one gameplay segment, we saw Colt throw a Proximity charge onto an overhead object, then fling an enemy upwards towards it with Karnesis. Was it a little extra? Absolutely. But it looked real, real cool.

And Deathloop is, overall, pretty cool. Blackreef is a mix of stark bunkers and tunnels contrasted with the style of the '60s and '70s. Art director Sébastien Mitton drew a line back to Prey (2017)'s aesthetic, with piece?s of the space station showcasing dif??ferent styles of design, and that they tried to bring a similar approach to designing Blackreef.

"[...] Because the goal is always, really, to create something that is going to be profound, because in the end, we want to generate emotions for the player," said Mitton. "So that necessarily goes through visuals, and those visuals are going to inform everyon??e during pre-production, pro??duction. It's very important to have a whole lot of energy on that side."

As Colt's mission progressed, he eventually had to go loud and died, losing his loop in the process. Luckily, some things get to persist through the constant loops of time. Residuum, a certain resource you can find, lets you keep weapons, trinkets, and powers across loops. And while this might make Deathloop sound a bit like a roguelike, game direct?or Dinga Bakaba says the team believes it is not one.

The goal of Deathloop is to take out your targets in one day, and alongside the arsenal you can bring across loops, there is also knowledge. Colt can discover clues tha??t will open up new kill opportunities, some in almost Hitman-alike ways. The idea is that eventually, you will have the tools and wherewithal to break the loop.

Of course, this begs the question: what do you do when the loop ends? Narratively, we don't have the answer ??to that. B?ut gameplay-wise, there's always Julianna Blake.

One of Deathloop's big components isn't just the time-looping, power-bending, gun-toting assassination quest, but the person trying to stop it from happening. Players?? can "invade" others' games, either their friends' or random players', to take on the role of Julianna Blake and try to eliminate Colt. On its own, this is a pretty interesting concept: the hunter-vs.-hunted gameplay certainly seems fun, and in other games like the Souls series, an invasion always ratchets up the tension pretty quick.

It sounds like there's a fair bit more to it than just two players trying to kill each other, though. Bakaba says the team wanted the multiplayer mode to be an "anecdote generator,?" something that can hopefully incentivize creative?????????????????????????? moments between players. 

When a player invades as Julianna, they will have a couple of?? items and weapons, but there will also be "feats." These feats offer score incentives for different methods: playing it slowly, or damaging Colt instead of killing him, using mines or turrets, etc. And by accumulating a good score, you can unlock a random smattering of bonuses, as well as some cosmetics for both Colt and Julianna.

"But overall, we really wanted something where the real goal was social interaction, the stories we can create," said Bakaba. He offers up several different styles: playing violently or taking things slowly, potentially? role-playing a bit, or even ?helping Colt by giving him a decent gun. There are score incentives, but otherwise there's nothing really stopping you.

"I almost hope that some people create some kind of etiquette about those encounters, that would be interesting to see," said Bakaba. But yeah, it's all about the intrin??sic reward of interacting with others in interesting ways."

Where Deathloop looked, in some ways, like the building-up of what Arkane's been doing for years now across Dishonored and Prey, even earlier immersive sims and a host of unfinished projects like The Crossing, it's also new ground. It's a fairly fluid structure, open for players to intuit their own personalized methods for executing the various Visionaries of Blackreef while avoiding the crosshairs of Julianna&mdash?;or aiming those sights yourself.

It also looks pretty amazing. Deathloop is steeped in style, layered in potential for different encounters to overcome in a variety of ways, and it keeps tugging you back with the mystery of the island and Julianna's unending hunt for Colt. Arkane's immersive sim looks like it could be carving out a new?? path for the ??genre, and it's definitely one I'm eager to venture down.

Deathloop will launch for PlayStation 5 and PC on Sept. 14, 2?021.

The post Deathloop preview: Arkane’s greatest hits with an asymmetrical twist appeared first on Destructoid.

Arkane needs a little extra time

Deathloop, Arkane's time-looping shooter, is being delayed once again. The studio announced today that Deathloop will now be arriving on Sept. 14, 2021.

In a statement from game director Dinga Bakaba, art director Sebastien Mitton, and the Arkane Lyon team, they say they are committed to the quality and ambitions set out for Deathloop, while al?so ensuring the health and safety of those at ??the studio.

An update on DEATHLOOP from @ArkaneStudios: pic.twitter.com/tJwUSM5vum

— DEATHLOOP (@deathloop) April 8, 2021

"We apologize for the extended wait and thank you all for your passion and excitement," read the statement. "It is the fuel that powers our creativity and our hard work. We can't wait to show you more Deathloop soon!"

Deathloop was previously set to launch next month, a date pushed back from its original window of the PlayStation 5's launch. There have still been updates over the last few months on Arkane's mix of superpowers, firepower, and a Groundhog Day-style loop with two assassins on the prowl.

It seems like we're not done with delays yet this year, though. TT Games recently confirmed that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will miss its spring window, and games like Back 4 Blood, Humankind, and even the Analogue Pocket have all suffered delays. Xbox's Phil Spencer said last year that 2021's games would fee??l the impact of the pandemic and shift to ??remote work on ?development, and that seems to be coming to fruition.

The post Deathloop has been delayed to September appeared first on Destructoid.

It's all a matter of time

Arkane Studios has released a lighthearted video looking at its upcoming chrono-shooter Deathloop, which will launch on PS5 ??and PC May 21. The trailer sees the stylish title's designer, Dinga Bakaba, walk the viewer through the clock-warping concepts of Blackreef.

Deathloop concerns one single day of destruction for our protagonist, Colt, a professional hitman who awakens on Blackreef with a pocket full of targets and a mind full of holes. Cursed to live out the same day over and over again until he gets it right, Colt must efficiently strategize the use of his time in order to eliminate his targets: a band of merciless killers known as "The Visionaries." Not helping matters is Julianna, another expert assassin and every bit Colt's equa??l. Before this misadventure is through, Colt will find himself lined in chalk again and again, until he finally makes it to the top of the hit-list.

While time-looping very much seems to be the "in vogue" mechanic for gaming right now, Deathloop looks to stand apart with its charismatic cast, opulent style, and sharpshooting action. Check out Bakaba's video below if you want to know more about Deathloop's odd premise. Oh, and don't forget to check out the recent slick, 007-style theme song right here.

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You Only Live 600 Times

As a nice little musical interlude during last night's PlayStation State of Play presentation, Bethesda released a new gameplay trailer for Arkane Studios' riotous looking shooter Deathloop, which is headed to PS5 and PC on May 21.

The video features a veritable banquet of first-person carnage, as protag??onist Colt run 'n' guns his way through an endless cycle of death and rebirth, brought about by an island of eccentric assassins, headed up by the stylish and deadly killer, Julianna. As Colt faces death time, after time, after time, he must find a way to eliminate his targets, take down Julianna, and end the literal cycle of violence for good. It looks like one badass game, that's for sure.

The new gameplay trailer is backed by a track recorded especially for the game: "Deja Vu" by Sencit feat. FJ0RA, both of whom I'm far, far too old to know. The track almost undeniably has a decadent and epic "James Bond Title Sequence" vibe, which is well suited to Colt's shadow-chasing, quick-drawing lifestyle. It's a slick and sexy song, and only serves to further hype Deathloop's subversive action, cool chara??cters, and sense of style ever more.

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Good vibrations

On "N.Y. State of Mind, Nas rapped "Ga??ve another squeeze, heard it click, 'Yo, my shit is stuck!' Tried to cock it, it wouldn't? shoot, now I'm in danger. Finally pulled it back and saw three bulle??ts caught up in the cham??ber." If I had a nickel for every time that happened to me...

Arkane's Deathloop might give Nas some flashbacks. As Bethesda describes on the PlayStation Blog, Deathloop has a mechanic wher?e some of the early-game guns jam easily. When this happens, the PS5 DualSense controller will lock its trigger halfway, immediately signaling that something's wrong. Bethesda says you'll feel the jam before you see it on-screen.

The DualSense haptics have more vibration feedback, but none of them seem as important as signaling a malfunctioning gun. Some other examples Bethesda gives: the recoil and discharge of a weapon firing, the individual nails falling into some sort of nailgun when it's reloaded, the thwack as your character punches? a jammed-up gun, and all sorts of mobility vib?rations.

They're all nice touches, but none are as thoughtful as the controller intentionally malfunctioning as the gun malfunctions. T?he controller really is the simulation of a gun when it comes to shooters. Temporarily changing the way it works to reflect what's happening in-game? is just [chef's kiss].

Immerse yourself in Deathloop on P??S5 with the DualSense controller [PlayStation Blog]

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Only $60 instead of $70

The cat's out of the bag, and good thing the cat's got nine lives. Arkane's Deathloop and its end????less lather, rinse, repeat cycle is set for next May. Except this isn't shampoo. It's murder and death.

Yesterday, the New Zealand PlayStation Store accidentally outed Deathloop's May 21, 2021 release date. Maybe it's because of the International Date Line or maybe it's because someone just can't read a calendar, but that date was perfectly accurate. Bethesda confirmed it today.

Six months out from Deathloop, this Groundhog-Day-but-with-assassins game is in a curious position. It's a timed PS5 console exclusive even now that Microsoft is in the process of buying Bethesda. Once that expires -- and it's reported to be a yearlon??g period -- it's almost certainly coming to Xbox (and X??box Game Pass). The PC version launches on May 21, 2021 alongside the PS5 version.

It's also worth noting that Deathloop will retail for $60 instead of the inflated $70 price tag that some PS5 games have. What's the logic, you ask? Who knows. It seems like we're just going to have to live with prices being all over the place until everything balances out and something --?? probably $70 if we're being realistic -- becomes the norm.

Of course, you could pay more. Deathloop has a deluxe edition that comes with all sorts of in-game bonuses like a snazzy James Bond-like tuxedo. There's also a standard edition that has throw-in items for people who pre-order. The standard edition, as previously me?ntioned, is $60 while the deluxe edition is $80. Pictures of all the bonuses are in the gallery below.

Deathloop Coming May 2021 [Bethesda]

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Groundhog Slay

A new update on the New Zealand branch of PlayStation Store has revealed a possible release date for super-cool, time-bending adventure Deathloop. According to the PSN landing page?, Arkane Studios' tale of clocks and glocks will launch on PS5 on May 21, 2021. A PC version is also exp?ected within the same release window.

As a quick refresher, Deathloop is the story of an expert assassin, Colt, who wakes up on the shores of Blackreef, a mysterious island doomed to persistently restart the same day every time the clock hits midnight. Seven island inhabitants have decided to make the most of their strange fate, rocki?ng a perpetual party day-in, day-out.

For reasons as yet unknown, Colt is tasked with eliminating all eight marks before the day is out, or is fated to return to the wet shores from which he awoke, destined to repeat the day over and over again. If that wasn't enough, Colt himself is in the sights?? of a fellow assassi?n, Julianna, and must keep himself alive while he scouts, tracks, and ultimately eliminates his prey. Neat concept.

Along with the standard edition, ??the PSN page also hosts a Digital Deluxe Edition, which includes a copy of the game along with several exclusive weapons, equippable buffs, and alte??rnate character skins for both Colt and Julianna. Pre-order customers will also bag themselves the PS5 exclusive "Royal Protector" machete, and "Storm Rider" skin for our boy Colt.

Deathloop launches May 21, 2021 [Gematsu]

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Dishonored, Prey, and Wolfenstein

Microsoft has owned Bethesda for two weeks now -- at least that's how long it has been since the announcement -- and we're already seeing the effects of the new leadership. (In actuality, maybe Bethesda does some or all of this on its own, but it's too tempting to ascribe all developments as Microsoft's mandate from up high.) It seems like one of the first moves, apart from getting Doom Eternal on Game Pass,? is to group together a bunch of last-gen games into high-value bun??dles.

Thanks to another ESRB leak (and this is really too easy lately with the "Recently Rated Games" tab), we've learned of two upcoming Bethesda bundles for Xbox Series X. One is The Arkane Collection which features four games. The most likely candidates are Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, and Prey.

There's a similar situation with MachineGames' recent projects. There's a Wolfenstein Alt History Collection which also bundles four games. Those have to be Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, and Wolfenstein: Young Blood.

Assuming a $60 price point, that's a whole lot of video game in each collection. Or, thinking optimistically, maybe Microsoft is bundling these to add to Xbox Game Pass all together. None of this has been formally revealed yet, so we'll have to wait to find out what Microsoft's intentions are. But, as misguided as Bethesda has seemed with properties like Fallout, the games mentioned in these lists make up some of?? the publisher's best effor?ts over the past 10 years or so. They're fine candidates for the bundle treatment.

The Arkane Collection, Wolfenstein Alt History Collection [ESRB]

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I'm loving the capital-s Style of this game

Deathloop looks like a playful, energetic, verging-on-out-of-control stealth-action game from the makers of Dishonored, and if you're in the mood fo??r a colorful world of assassins, y??ou'll dig its vibe.

During Sony's PS5 Showcase event, Arkane?? shared a new gameplay-focused trailer with more details about ?your role in this wacky time loop: to bring down eight targets with "grand plans for eternal life."

Following a recent dela?y, the new release plan is still Q2 2021 on PC and PS5.

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Arkane's assassin game delayed to Q2 2021

If you were expecting to play Deathloop ??this holiday season on your shiny new PlayStation 5 or your beefed-up PC, there's a change of plans – the first-person assassin game is launching in Q2 2021.

Arkane Lyon shared the news on Twitter today, citing a need for extra production time to "bring Deathloop's world to life with as much character and fun as you've come to expect fro??m our team?."

"The health and safety of everyone at Arkane Lyon remains ??our top priority. As we've adjusted to work-from-home, we found that delivering this new and exciting experience, at the polish and quality level that defines both an Arkane game and a true next-gen experience, is taking longer than normal."

This admittedly isn't as high-profile of a delay as Halo Infinite, which feels sorely needed on Xbox's part, but it stings. With the way the next-gen launch landscape is shaping up, I could have pictured people who missed Dishonored still taking a chance on Deathloop in 2020 because it's here and it looks cool.

"While we know this is the right decision for Deathloop, we share your disappointment, and apologize for making you wait even longer," Arkane said. ?Remember the Before Time? I m??iss the Before Time.

@deathloop [Twitter]

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Over and over

It has been about exactly one year since we first heard about Arkane's newest project, so now it's time for the second look. The PlayStation 5 stream is the home to the second Deathloop trailer.

The story's still the same: Rival assassins stuck in a Groundhog Day cycle of killing each other over and over again. It's a cool premise, slick presentation, and Arkane has earned our trust. Deathloop is one to pay attention to.

And this time we probably won't have to w??ait until June 2021 to get our third lo?ok.

[Update: Bethesda has confirmed that Deathloop is a timed console exclusive to PlayStation ??5. Further, it's launching this holida??y season.]

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One more freebie for the pile

Arkane's throwing a reverse birthday party of sorts, the kind where it turns a year older but you're the one getting presents. 

The first game Arkane Studios ever made, Arx Fatalis, is free on PC right now. The reason for the giveaway is that Arkane's celebrating its?? 20th year of existence. Kind of. The developer's founding date is O?ctober 1, 1999, so the actual anniversary passed more than six months ago. Still, 20 years is nothing to turn your nose up at -- especially when studios get shut down all the time.

There are two minor catches that go along with the free copy of Arx Fatalis. First and foremost, it's redeemed by signing up for the Arkane Outsiders email list. Second -- and this will be a huge deal for some and the most trivial detail for others -- it has to be claimed and played on Bethesda's launcher. If you're fine with all that, here's where you can get your free copy of Arx Fatalis. The offer ends on May 31 at 7am Pacific.

Arx Fatalis isn't as beloved and revered as a lot of Arkane's more recent works like Dishonored and Prey, but it held its own back in 2002. It's an immersive fantasy RPG where you're tasked with destroying the God of Destruction. I don't know how Arx Fatalis ends, but that'd be a pretty ironic and humiliating way for that guy to go ou??t.

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Shephard's sequel

It's been long known that Valve contracted Arkane Studios in the mid-'00s to make a new Half-Life game. However, little was actually known about that project except that it was set in Ravenholm and that Valve canceled production before it was close to finished. Now, thanks?? to NoClip's most recent documentary, we have a clearer idea of this project that never came to fruition.

PC Gamer broke out all the nitty gritty details shortly after the documentary aired. This new game (which was reportedly going to be Half-Life 2: Episode 4) was considered to be more of a spin-off than anything else. The main reason for this is that it didn't star Gordon Freeman. The protagonist was Half-Life: Opposing Force lead Adrian Shephard.

All of the Half-Life games that were developed outside of Valve have had alternate protagonists, and Arkane's game would've followed suit. Gearbox Software made Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay; they starred Shephard, Barney Calhoun, and Colette Green and Gina Cross, respectively.

Inventive use of tools would've been a main focus of this game. A primary mechanic for both combat and puzzle-solving was a nail gun used for stringing power lines to an active outlet, creating an electricity f??ield ?for shocking hordes of zombies. A locomotion tool was a leafblower that's outfitted to allow Shephard to double jump. There's also talk of a chainsaw.

Shephard had a sidekick: Father Grigori whom Freeman encounters in Half-Life 2. The priest is experimenting with Ravenholm's undead citizens??,? taking headcrabs and cooking them down into drug-laced drinks. It, uhh, doesn't end well for Father Grigori. He'd eventually mutate into some sort of monster.

But, it was all for naught. Valve canned the project. Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio says he believes it was because the game would've required at least another year of funding, which was an investment Valve didn't want to make. There's probably truth to that -- but, knowing what we know now, it's tough not to think Valve canceled Arkane's Episode 4 because it had no intention of getting around to an Episode 3.

Arka?ne's Half-Life s?pin-off featured Opposing Force's protagonist and his mate, a mutant priest [PC Gamer]

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Freeman was kung fu fighting

Ravenholm. We don't go there. But, foolishly, we were going to go back there.

In hindsight, this feels like an extreme case of getting ahead of yourself. Back in 2006, Arkane Studios (before it became a Zenimax subsidiary) was contracted by Valve to make Half-Life 2: Episode 4 which was titled Return to Ravenholm. How young and naive we all were, thinking that Half-Life 2: Episode 3's eventual release was a foregone conclusion.

Today, video game documentary production NoClip released a new eight-second GIF of Return to Ravenholm's gameplay:

(5/7) pic.twitter.com/dCDRD3x71y

— Noclip (@noclipvideo) May 21, 2020

Half-Life diehards will instantly recognize that this prototype footage has a lot to wrap your head around. The zombies look nothing like they did in Half-Life 2 (although this could be a case of placeholder models), they?'re capable of ripping doors off their hinges, and Gordon Freeman has a "This is Sparta!" kick for blasting the undead straight in the face. I'm left imagining the G-Man lifelessly saying "Very flexible, Mr. Freeman."

This NewClip is promotion for NoClip's upcoming documentary on Arkane. While Arkane is currently best-known as the architect of brilliant games like Dishonored and 2017's Prey, its pre-ZeniMax past is filled with canceled projects. The studio's key players go into depth about all of that when NoClip's documentary airs on Tuesday, May 26. If you need more convincing, here's the trailer (which, conveniently, has more Half-Life f?ootage, including some sort of electro-trap for incinerating zombies).

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Reveal is coming at The Game Awards

Creation is fueled by passion, so it should surprise no one that two years after resigning from Arkane, the studio's co-founder has fallen back into making the type of games Arkane excels at. Raphael Colantonio and Julien Roby -- former Arkane co-founder and executive producer, respectively -- have started a new development team that takes a smaller approach to crafting memorabl?e experiences.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, the duo announces the formation of WolfEye Studios, which is a collection of fewer than 20 employees who all work remotely. That modest size is by design. Colantonio explains that he believes the huge-budget teams with hundreds of employees are forced to make safe games. "I don't know the commercial viability of that, and it probably pushes the industry toward making games that are very low-risk," he muses. "They're super impressive, big H??ollywood blockbusters, but without ?much substance. That's my fear of going big."

Roby elaborates on WolfEye's intentions: "We really wanted to get back to ?the core ideas we both like in games, both as players and as designers," he says. "We like games that respond to player actions, where the world reacts to what you are doing, and the experience is owned by the player. It was what we wanted to get back to rather than being constantly distracted by the complexity of doing games which are technically more involved, and little by little your focus in development moves away from the actual experience toward technicalities which in the end don't change the experience much."

Eventually, the two seem to admit that people who like Arkane games will probably be drawn to WolfEye's projects. That's because they're making games that they want to make -- which is largely what they were doing at Arkane too. No one's shedding specifics about WolfEye's debut game, but we can probably expect it to be immersive with narrative that's strongly tied to gameplay??.

We'll get our first look next month. WolfEye has a worldwide reveal at The Game Awards on December 12. Until then, WolfEye leaves us with some of its guiding philosophy: ""...A small [studio] doesn't mean making small?? games. We can make big games that focus on th??e right areas."

A??rkane veterans launch WolfE?ye: a small studio making big games [GamesIndustry.biz]

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Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves!

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus has become an incredibly divisive game since its release in 2017. While it brought some hefty and frenetic gunplay with excellent presentation, the actual gameplay aspects took a backseat to a poorly written and sloppily paced story mode. While BJ Blazkowicz was still a fairly deep and interesting character (along with being portrayed wonderfully by actor Brian B?loom), most of the supporting cast were caricatures in the vein of grindhouse films without any of the same charm. It also didn't help that the story mode peaked around the mid-point and petered out without much fanfare at the end.

When Wolfenstein: Youngblood was announced, I was happy that MachineGames was sidelining BJ for a bit. While the man is captivating and a clear anchor for this series, taking a step away from the legendary figure to focus on his offspring could lend some new ideas that may strengthen the inevitable Wolfenstein III. Breaking it out into a co-op game, too, could allow for a stronger focus on gameplay versus the overwhelming story bits from II.

MachineGames has certainly succeeded in catering more to the gameplay aspect than last time, but it hasn't quite nailed the same formula that made The New Order feel so refreshing five years ago.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood (PS4, PC [Reviewed], Xbox One, Nintendo Switch)
Developer: MachineGames, Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Released: July 25, 2019 (PC), July 26, 2019 (Consoles)
MSRP: $29.99

The beginning of Youngblood makes it seem like this will be another story-heavy experience like Wolfenstein II. In a cutscene where BJ Blazkowicz's children, Soph and Jess, are training, the iconic figure gives a speech about ?how the girls need to be aware of their surroundings at all times. It's a clear setup for the new co-op focus, which sees you and a friend blast Nazis together and have each other's backs. BJ is basically a god, at this point, so he knows a thing or two about spotting Nazis without looking.

After that, Youngblood cuts to you and your partner on a mission in the Paris Catacombs. With Hitler dead (spoiler alert, I guess), Soph and Jess are tasked with mopping up the stragglers to the Nazi regime. When you return, you disco??ver that your father has gone missing on his latest expedition into the heart to the Nazi forces. Not a duo to sit around and wait, you take up arms in locating your father and purging the Nazis from this world once and for all.

That's really about the gist of the story, too, because it takes a backseat to what Youngblood is really about: shooting Nazis. As I said above, the gameplay portion of this latest Wolfenstein game is tipped far more in favor of letting players interact with its game world than New Colossus was. That's kind of a ble?ssing and a curse because I'm still not quite sure how I feel ab??out it.

I'm also not sure I’m totally down with the changes done to the formula here. Previous Wolfenstein games were more like old-school shooters in that you only had to worry about enemy positioning and ammo counts. They operated with very light RPG and upgrading mechanics to give you a sense of progression throughout your playthrough. Youngblood might as well be called Borderlands: Nazi Edition because this is pretty much?? a looter shooter with heavy RPG mech??anics.

As you kill Nazis, you'll gain experience that levels you up. As with any RPG, you gain permanent stat boosts for each level and are awarded experience points to invest in various attributes. These take the place of the perk system in the last two Wolfenstein title??s. In those games, using guns and performing specific actions gave you permanent upgrades for BJ that would increase his fire rate, give him more heal??th and ammo, or allow him to move silently.

For Youngblood, you're now working through a skill tree that you unlock with the aforementioned experience points. A separate currency of silver coins also factors in by allowing you to unlock weapon upgrade?s, cosmetic options, and "Peps," which are co-op specific actions that provide temporary boosts to you and your friend. You'll find things like a health booster that restores 50 health upon use, to a power-up that will grant you 10 seconds of invulnerability for getting out of tight situations.

I can't believe I'm writing this all out in regards to a Wolfenstein game, but Youngblood really does buck the trend of what you'd expect. This even follows into the level design, which has far more sprawling and open-ended layouts than the three games before it. Thanks to the guidance of Arkane Studios (famous for Dishonored and Prey), Youngblood almost feels like Deus Ex with how many different pathways you can take to reach the same location. This isn't an open-world, mind you, but more a sandbox than the linear corridors of what MachineGames previously did with Wolfenstein.

It's really the best aspect of the game because the RPG systems make the gunplay stumble quite a bit. Instead of being a skill-based shooter, this is now a numbers game and you'll get instances where you're unloading entire machine gun clips into an enemy without them falling. I'm especially taken back by how the pistol, which was super versatile for stealth takedowns in both The New Order and The New Colossus, is now practically worthless since it can't perform hea??dshots.

The weapons that take the biggest hit are the heavy guns, though. For all its faults, Wolfenstein II had these amazing moments where you'd rip a turret off its mount and go to town on Nazi fools. Much like the neutering of the pistol, the heavy weapons are basically useless against the inflated health bars of your foes. In an interesting move, specific enemies have weaknesses to different guns – which forces you to think smarter about what you're firing – but it seems none of them are?? weak a?gainst these heavy options.

Even with those faults, it's hard to deny that coordinating with your buddy and striking from multiple points is just plain fun. I'm guessing those health bars were increased because the game would be too easy otherwise. Even on "Challenging" difficulty, the game’s hardest available setting, my co-op partner and I were barely breaking a sweat. It was mostly us du??cking behind cover, popping near 100 bullets into a foe, and watching as the AI failed to stick to a single target. There were some amazing bits where I'd be face to face with some jerk, peppering him with bullets with reckless abandon, while my partner was across the map distracting him. It's kind of hilarious in its stupidity.

What further reduces this difficulty is the nifty system put in play for when you are downed. While there was obviously going to be a revive state (what co-op shooter doesn't have that?), Youngblood provides you with a shared life system for getting?? out of tricky situations. While this doesn't avoid the problem of being downed while stuck in a revive animation, the game doesn't immediately end when both players are at zero health. One of you can opt to spend a shared life to heal on the spot and get back into the action. When you're out of those shared lives, then the game is over and you'll need to reload your checkpoint.

Bafflingly, the checkpoints are spotty as hell. While the early missions saw us getting regular saves in scene transitions, the later ones restarted us completely from the beginning after death. We'd get to the boss encounter (of which this game does feature a few), die, and have to navigate through the whole map again. You don't lose your XP or loot, but it's a total pain in the ass to shoot the same foes again in what feels like artificial padding of length. The same could be said for the completely unnecessary co-op actions – such as both of you having to open a door together. It also doesn't help ??that the Nazis level-up alongside you, making the whole XP system feel redun??dant. It's mostly a reminder that you're playing a video game instead of an interesting new development.

Worse still, my co-op partner and I were never quite sure what we were doing. The main missions are not clearly marked, and there are practically zero interstitial cutscenes to keep you motivated. In much the same way that Metal Gear Solid V felt like too far of a course correction from the overloaded narrative of Metal Gear Solid 4, Youngblood might as well be a mod for Wolfenstein II. There is some story, but its prese?nce is rarely felt during the campaign.

That's a real shame, too, because the dialogue and short interactions between Soph and Jess are honestly a lot of fun. They're written like idiots, but the way they sound when gunning down Nazis or correcting each other's mistakes creates an authentic relationship between the duo. You feel there is a lot of shared respect not only for each other, but for their father, and it helps build the Blazkowicz family into this unstoppable force of nature. The sillier elements of Wolfenstein II are still present, but a lot has been done to keep the tone cons??istent instead of fluctuating ??all over the place.

I appreciate that aspect and even the well-thought-out level design, but I'm just so torn on everything else. It's fine to make an RPG shooter, but there isn't a lot of care taken in incorporating those elements into Wolfenstein. It's great to let the narrative take a backseat, but you also should remind players what they're fighting for. Youngblood never feels like a fully realized idea, which ultimately hurts what could have b??een a great game.

Maybe I just expected too much, but I find myself missing the careful balance of story and gameplay that The New Order had down pat. Youngblood makes?? plenty of strides forward for this series, but it also takes some steps backward that end ??up hurting the overall package.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Slay, sister

Sitting down next to my temporary s??ister in Bethesda's booth at E3, we shake hands. He takes control of Jess while I get to handle Soph. We're the tw??in daughters of legendary Nazi fighter B.J. Blazkowicz, and he's raised us right. Which is to say, he's raised us to be Nazi killers too.

Out in the deserts of Texas, Jess goe??s hunting with her father while Soph practices close-quarters combat with her mother. Th??e parents seem a little paranoid, but it becomes apparent why not long after. The twins get thrust into their first real combat situation. It's do or die, but they have each other to rely on.

Infiltrating a Nazi zeppelin, Jess and Soph move in for their first kill. Jess tries to kill an unaware Nazi with a hatchet, but fails to land a finishing blow. He readies his weapon to retaliate just as Soph strikes from another angle?, turning his head into a splattery red mush. Immediately after, the sisters celebrate their initiation, alternating between cheering and vo??miting. Jess complains that his brains got in her mouth. It's a scene that manages to be graphic and bloody, but also somehow light and slapsticky.

Finally, my co-op buddy and I gain control, and it's time for us to sk??ulk around this zeppelin and kill some Nazis ourselves. We both took the cloaking option for our first skill, so we use that to good effect, using countdowns to get simultaneous stealth kills on two different guards in a room.

We can't keep up the stealth strategy forever. Eventually, we flub a knife swing or two and things get ??loud. Nazis pour in from?? all sides and their guns are bigger than ours. Thankfully, we just need to kill some of them and take their weapons, then the fight becomes more even.

Movement is crucial in thes??e high-stress situations, and I felt more than capable with all the tools available. The sprint seems especially fast, sliding into a room and blasting a dude never gets old, and the combination of a double jump and an edge clamber make maneuvering around the battlefield natural.

We eventually make it to the target we were sent to assassinate on the zeppelin, and he's got a power suit with a ton of armor. I went at him hard and eventually ran out of ammo with everything but my pistol. My sister was low on health and pla?ying a gam?e of cat-and-mouse with him. We finally got him onto a wing and then shot him into a jet engine, by simultaneously hitting both of his hands as he was hanging. My buddy goes in for a fist bump, and you know I wouldn't leave him hanging.

The example of shooting his hands at the same time is sort of the extent of cooperative mechanics shown in the two-mission demo. There are also the obligatory "doors that are too heavy for one person to open alone" and the "buttons on opposite ends of a room that need to be pressed simultaneously." One cool idea is that the sisters have a shared pool of lives, encouraging you to pick up a do??wned teammate, and also creating situations where we were both incapacitated so I chose to bleed out faster so I could come back and pick up my partner, thus spending only one shared life instead of two. It's nothing revolutionary, but perhaps it doesn't need to be.

What it needs to be is a functional shooter that works as well with a living cooperative partner as it does with an AI sis??ter for people who prefer to play solo. At that, it's looking like it'll be a successful romp through Nazi territory in the hopes of locating the twins' father.

I'm personally interested to see more of the sister moments. The scene surrounding their first kill was endearing considering the subject matter, and I want to get to know?? them better. I ?loved seeing their personalities bouncing off each other, and the fact that I'd get those scenes peppered in between a lot of Nazi killing is pretty much fine by me.

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Die, All Right!

Arkane Studios' next game isn't another Dishonored, it's a new property called Deathloop. It should still feel familiar, though.

Bethesda announced Deathloop at its E3 press conference with a stylish cinematic trailer (embedded above). It pits two rivals, Colt and Juliana, against each other; Colt wants to destroy the Blackreef island and Juli?ana wants to save it. They're stuck in a time loop, murdering each other over a??nd over.

Here's the official description: "Deathloop transports players to the lawless island of Blackree??f in an eternal struggle between two extraordinary assassins. Explore stunning environments and meticulously designed levels in an immersive gameplay experience that lets you approach every s?ituation any way you like. Hunt down targets all over the island in an effort to put an end to the cycle once and for all, and remember, if at first you don't succeed… die, die again."

However, Arkane says Deathloop has the signature studio gameplay that people love about Dishonored. It's a first-person action game. Levels are designed so players can choose their approach -- presumably stealth, non-lethal, etc. Arkane knows what it's doing, so Deathloop is ??t??he sort of project that's immediately intriguing.

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Understandable, really

We can expect Arkane Studios to continue making immersive games that prioritize "deep world building and environmental storytelling," but Dishonored? The series is on hiatus. Speaking to VG247 at QuakeCon, lead designer Ricardo Bare said that the Dishonored series is "resting for now."

While critically successful, Dishonored 2 didn't make the same commerc?ial splash as the original. A break could probably do the next game (and the team) some good. "[W]e're always going to craft spaces that you feel like you're visiting, whether it's Dunwall or Talos 1," explained Bare.

He also spoke about Arkane (re)exploring shared worlds. "Being able to incorporate more o??nline sharing or multiplayer type stuff, we totall??y might do that," he said. Whereas story-centric single-player games often had tacked-on multiplayer modes a decade ago, he feels that what's happening now is "way different – it's more community-oriented, it's more about what gives your game legs, builds community, sharing, and things like that. Games are approaching that with lots of different models."

Between Dishonored and Prey ??turning out as well as they did, I think this studio is overdue a huge commercial hit. I'm eager to see how Arkane will continue refining and ad??apting its formula.

Dishonored is "re??sting for now" and future Arkane games could incorporate seamless multiplayer and different perspectives [VG247]

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Looks like we're going to the moon

It's clear Arkane Studios isn't done with Prey, one of our favorite games of last year.

A couple of months ago, the developer posted teaser-y images and hinted at an announcement scheduled for June 10 (the same day as Bethesda's E3 press conference) with some real gross eyes. Earlier today, Arkane added a batch of conspicuous new achievements to the PC version of Prey.

Together, they spell out the message "If you believed ?they put a man on the moon?."

The race is surely on to figure out what's needed to unlock these achievements and if doing so brings any new information to light ahead of the June 10 reveal. I'm expecting more ARG shenanigans.

One user on reddit, judgedead53, claims to have already "obtained 'You' by killing [spoiler] at the end when he's preventing me from activating the nullwa??v?e device."

My big question at this point is whether or not the new content will be standalone. I always appreciated that approach for Dishonored and think it makes a lot of sense for Prey, too. We'll just have to see.

Prey - Update (152MB) [reddit]

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