You slap stealth and murder together, and you get one of my favourite genres in video games. I still won’t shut up about Hitman perfecting this, and the Dishonored games from Arkane are also a chuffing good example of bending the shadows to your will so that you can strike at the perfect moment. The real challenge in these games though, is to not kill everyone that enters your field of view. Unless you’re a monster, but seriously who would even do something like that?
Giggle. Anyway, games like Dishonored managed to nail the appeal of a non-lethal approach, because even henchmen have families you mass-murdering piece of work you. By the look of things, Arkane’s next game Deathloop has a very similar feel, flexing some massive open-ended levels with stealth and chronal shenanigans as you work your way through a checklist of targets. Unlike Dishonored though, Arkane doesn’t want you to stress over morality, and get right into the business of killing everyone who stands in your way.
After all, that’s exactly what the game was designed for. “There are some abilities that are dedicated to that, to sneaking around, to making the best of stealth,” game director Dinga Bakaba said to VG247.
So, you can play using stealth, although playing non-lethally is not something Colt is into, for a number of reasons. But the most important reason is, the only way he’s getting out of the island is by killing eight targets before the end of the day. So, because people don’t really die per se, because of the time loop, he just goes for the fastest option, which is either sneaking past them, or eliminating them through stealth, or action.
You can really go crazy, go loud, go silent, explore as much as you want or be as fast as you want, but without missing out on the content.
As much as I love a good stealth challenge in a video game, Deathloop sounds like a consequence-free breath of fresh air that rewards rampages far more than it does patience. Plus it’s nice to not have the game admonish me for making ample use of all the cool anarchy abilities thrown at me, for once. Deathloop will be out in December, and in case you missed it, here’s the PS5 trailer for it:
Last Updated: July 1, 2020
