I played quite a lot more Deathloop last night, 2 whole loops/8 areas. While it hasn't 100% clicked yet, it's definitely turned a corner for me, and I am engrossed for now.
@Clankylad Apologies, I thought what you were saying was a big spoiler, but it was actually the very next guided mission as part of the tutorial, the last before you are set free and left to make your own choices.
I got the Infusion power and immediately set about getting as many powers/slabs, good weapons and mods/perks as possible infused to keep for future runs. In my first few runs I got Shift and Nexus, basically Blink and Domino from Dishonored, as well as several purple guns, one gold one and some good mods which are all infused now.
Really digging that mechanic now and how you have to think about your loadout, there's not room for everything. I have a (silenced) purple nail gun that is my go to weapon for stealth, with reload and zoom mods. The purple rifle you start with equipped with quick reload (it only has one shot, but is still useful for sniping), and what seems like an assault machine-shotgun for when ***** gets messy with 20 in the chamber. This last is a beast, not least that the AI is pretty awful and often just follows each other down a path and you can just wipe out a platoon. Add to that faster movement while crouched and i'm a stealth machine but ready to go loud fast when needed. I suspect at least earlier in the game I could probably just run-and-gun through rooms Doom style with this super-shotgun, it's OP, but that's not really my playstyle.
My one criticism here is once you settle on a good loadout there isn't much incentive to switch it up so far.
I killed 4 visionaries, and Julianna a few times meaning I now have 4 of the slabs infused along with double Shift/blink[/spoiler], as a huge Dishonored fan I can't really see myself unequipping that to be honest and want a third upgrade for it but we'll see.
What hasn't quite clicked yet is the puzzle element, getting information. So far I have concentrated on getting stronger to make it my playground, it is a GREAT sandbox, but I need to spend some time furthering the investigation soon. I'm not quite there yet but feel IF things do fall into place I could fall for this game hard.
@Balta666 I had one more crash, thankfully quite early in an area, so I had 2 crashes in 6 areas total, then googled the problem further. Several forums suggested playing in offline mode. All this does is make Julianna the PvP character a bot instead of a human. (She will be a bot sometimes online anyway, probably) So far, fingers crossed, no crashes in 8 more areas. Honestly I would have been completely gutted if a couple of those longer runs had crashed and i'd lost it all. Several were 30-45 minutes with, lots of exploration, and some excellent loot.
Overall really liking the game now. But it was a tough buy in, and took a while to get going. I will have to see if the rest of it clicks, especially the puzzle part, and if the repetition of playing the same/slightly altered 4 levels ever gets tired, as I don't usually like Rogues.
@themightyant I actually played the game in offline mode only... Most of the crashes were while doing the same thing (don't remember exactly how to explain it as it was like 3 months ago and would also be kind of a spoiler). But the one that gutted me the most was when I finished my only loop past tutorial after finishing 3 guys and when I was asked to choose the weapons to carry through, the game bugged and wouldn't let me choose anything so basically lost all progress apart from knowledge.
Another loop done in Deathloop. I'm slightly in limbo between liking it, enjoying the exploration, but not sure the plot progress is fast enough, and finding going back to the same levels a little repetitive.
I feel on a knife edge about if this is going to hit home and be a huge success or peter out, feel it could go either way. I can easily see how it's so divisive.
Things i'm not so keen on.
The AI is horrendous and can be cheesed so easily. Fully understand why they cut off areas so that enemies won't follow you as a design decision, but don't let us just stand the other side of the invisible border and have them pile up for the slaughter. I understand that the game would likely be a chore if the AI was really good, loops would get dragged down, but this isn't great either.
Tempo. The puzzle plot enigma has not clicked at all yet really, ideally I need that to take a step forward soon, at the moment I feel like i'm going in circles with very little forward progress. To be honest this is my usual feeling in Rogue-lite's, it's why I don't usually like them, I get bored.
Loadouts. In my very first loop I got a silenced nailgun with a zoom attachment that kills everything in one headshot, I also got a machine shotgun that obliterated everything. They are great. The trouble is, now 4-5 loops in, I haven't felt the need to try anything else. This ties into the bad AI too, but it makes the loot system pretty useless.
Limited loadouts. You can only carry 2 powers every run (plus your default two extra lives one). For me a Dishonored fan who loves the verticality of Arkane's level designs Shift (Dishonored's Blink) is a must, but that only leaves one open slot really. Nexus (Domino in Dishonored 2) is just so powerful, linking close enemies so that they can all be taken out together so I usually take that. But this leaves no room for other powers and more creative play in the sandbox. I'm tempted to just ban those two and try a run playing basically as doom guy with the Havoc (damage boost and shields) power or Karnesis (levitate, hurl enemies) but again Nexus would be so strong here, attract enemies, link them all and boom, especially with the "lets all run to one spot" AI.
I get that there needs to be limitations else you would be entirely overpowered, and like that you can create different builds, but it doesn't lead to the fun experimentation I was hoping for so far.
The Characters. The VA's for Colt and Julianna both were nominated for their performances here. So far there has been very little exchanged other than the intro then a few short radio messages at the start of each level. I'm assuming there will be more, because at the moment it feels thin to deserve such praise.
Things I love
Level design. Very Arkane, layers apon layers, sneaky shortcuts, interesting and thoughtful design. Does anyone do it better?
World building. I always love Arkane's dystopian worlds, this doesn't disappoint.
@themightyant great summary! Your a bit further on than me, I've only got two slabs so far and though I'm kinda mindlessly enjoying it, the AI just standing about while you murder them as your out of agro range stands out like a sore thumb. I got a high grade pepermill machine gun in an early loop and can just murder everyone with that and nexus. Arkane gets so much praise for their stealth gameplay but io with hitman and even rebellion with sniper elite 5 feel a cut above this. It does at least allow you to recover stealth if youve been spotted. I'm kinda disappointed with the loop aspect too, I thought I would have to piece together myself how to kill all the visionaries but it actually feels much more linear than I expected. It really feels like dishonored and that game is 10 years old. I'm going to give it another couple of full loops but really, I'm not sure I'll finish this one. Anyone been invaded by an online Julianna yet? I don't think I have.
@themightyant hello mate, cheers for sorting out the votes for me this month. Give us a tag on the 31st jan/1st Feb please with the final choice and I'll update the thread title.
Really good timing on that too mate, I just lost my grandfather a couple of days ago and I'm just all over the place at the moment so the extra support is really appreciated. Thank you
@ralphdibny Ah mate, i'm really sorry to hear that. Losing a family member is never easy, I hope he lived a full life and left you with lots of memories.
What helped me a little was remembering that as hard as it is, death is just a part of life, and grief is the price we pay for love. Thoughts with you and your family. NNTR
It was such a weird and surreal experience. I was present for his final moments, he was almost 90 and died of natural causes/old age with a lot of his family around him. I might post more about it over on Push Square at some point if I feel it's appropriate. Not sure yet.
I played a little more Deathloop last night. Right now i'm still torn what I feel about it but leaning more towards a little frustration. Just feel i'm not making much forward progress. I got a little frustrated on the third try and went in all guns blazing and died, effectively making the last hours play almost worthless. I got a couple of minor leads but nothing more.
It's a tough one as I don't like it when games point you exactly where to go and tell you exactly what to do but Deathloop has map markers that often don't really help. They seem to lead you to places where nothing is happening or you don't have the required information/item yet. Which is more annoying than not telling you what to do.
I'm still kinda hoping, based on Arkane's pedigree and all the praise, that there is going to be some big moment where it all clicks. I feel if I could sit down and play for a good half-day or something I might be able to break the back of it, but right now it's breaking my will a little.
This game is addictive (just one more loop) but also frustrating right now.
@Clankylad I noticed the doo-wop track at Franks. Was humming it later. lol.
Haven't got to the end but agree the whole game is stylish. Arkane games are usually like that stylish, that sort of swaggery cool, it's very French, and I like that but then i'm a bit of a Francophile.
@themightyant The first time I played the game I felt the same way. Then something "clicked" and I was able to start figuring things out.
The thing to remember is "focus". If you find something new, don't get distracted by it, yet, until you finished something else. Sometimes it feels like Deathloop is an ADHD nightmare with SO MANY hints getting unlocked on a stage. Sometimes you just have to look at one hint and say "Let me follow this rabbit hole. And only follow that rabbit hole."
I spent waaaaay too much time on getting into the library at opening time only to realize it's only good for finding potentially good weapons on my first go around. It has some importance later, but going in and dealing with everything when it opens (or sneaking in before it opens) is...well..disappointing
@GamingFan4Lyf "Sometimes it feels like Deathloop is an ADHD nightmare with SO MANY hints getting unlocked on a stage."
Ain't that the truth. I played late/early last night. I didn't actually do many runs, instead I re-explored 3 areas slowly. It's amazing what you can miss, especially with Arkane's brilliant rabbit warren-like layered level design. Secret passages everywhere. Plus it's easy to miss a document or recording as they don't really highlight unlike most modern games.
I got several more leads and found The trash facility, to find another Power, Fugue, the ability to blinds and deafen targets. Initially this doesn't seem that useful, the only enemies that really pose me much of a problem, if i'm stealthing, are the Visionaries (occasionally) and Julianna. Perhaps it will be useful on them when I come to do a full run, or perhaps with upgrades it will Confuse enemies allowing them to hit each other, similar to powers in other games. Anyway for now it's basically useless to me.
Again that problem with limited inventory, limiting spontaneity or creativity.
I did actually get 2 new weapons that I have infused but honestly I was missing the gun I replaced (sniper rifle). I still have the 3 purple weapons I got on my first run silenced nail pistol, assault machine shotgun with explosive effect, and a scoped sniper rifle all with excellent mods that improve them. These cover every situation I have encountered in the game stealth, assault and sniping. It's a shame that there is no incentive for me to switch these up since my first run. They are better than the couple of gold weapons I have. As an aside I only had a gun jam once on first run, it was annoying!
Back to the game progress. While I did make some, it still felt glacially slow. But I feel more engaged that I did 24 hours ago - excited, intrigued, but still a bit frustrated.
@themightyant thank you mate, yeah if you wouldn't mind doing the announcement and I'll just change the name of the thread/update my sig later if that's ok?
Appreciate it, I was Gona say I'd just do it all but I have a pretty busy day today buying a suit and seeing fam. Cheers again, appreciate it
Pinch, punch first of the month and all that! This month's game is Hi-Fi Rush. It looks brilliant!
Did you fix this vote @FraserG? ...multiple sock accounts? /jk
Please use spoiler tags when discussing spoilerish moments of the game. You do so by typing your spoiler between spoiler tags like this: [spoiler]insert message here[ /spoiler] and removing the space between [ and /
Some HLTB Stats:
Main Story - 10½ Hours
Main + Extras - 12½ Hours
Completionist - 14½ Hours
Tag list, please tag @ralphdibny and let him know if you want to be added or removed.
Also please let him know if you change your username, we might not notice and you won't get the notification (equally let him know if you have changed your username to get away from the notifications and we'll will delete you off the tag list 😆)
Ok so now, votes for next month.
Tag @ralphdibny in a post with your vote(s). (Just hit reply on one of his posts or write @ralphdibny)
Write your votes in bold (put [b]...[ /b] without the space, around it) and try and keep it separate from any paragraphs.
One line will do, "My vote is such and such a game(s)"
Feel free to make the post longer but try and keep the actual vote separate from the main body of the text and at the top of the post next to his tag @ralphdibny.
Vote for as many games as you like!
The votes reset every month and start from Zero. Feel free to suggest new games and we'll will add them to the list and count your vote toward it!
Current games list
Amnesia: Dark Descent -
Brutal Legend -
Conker's Bad Fur Day/Live & Reloaded -
Crysis -
Fable Anniversary -
Goldeneye -
It takes two -
Kameo: Elements of Power -
Maneater -
Ninja Gaiden Sigma -
Nobody Saves The World -
Ori and the Will of the Wisps -
Perfect Dark -
Rage -
Return to Monkey Island -
Scorn -
Signalis -
Sniper Elite 5 -
Somerville -
The Gunk -
Trek to Yomi -
Tunic -
Undertale -
Yoku's Island Express -
If you have another game you'd like added to the list then let him know and we will add it with a vote from you!
He will link to this post in his signature so you can just click on my signature to get back to this post and see the list of games and current votes!
Lastly thank you @ralphdibny for setting this up and managing it so well. Send him some love.
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