I do not recommend: Deathloop

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I really don't like Deathloop.
#Deathloop #DeathloopReview #GOTY
00:00 Intro
06:56 The Menu
10:35 The Action
17:23 The Invasions
21:39 The Loop
30:15 The Bottom Line
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Edited by Austin @ausomehd
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[@SkillUp]

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[@-Scrapper-]

L

[@antonny1735]

hey man, do you have plan to review warframe new update the new war? hopefully you do

[@deckard7811]

Playing this game with mouse and not dual sense is blasphemy. The A.I. was the reason why I quit. It’s just an too easy game. Perfect for IGN and other reviewers who are even too d-umb to find resident evil 2s scenario B.

[@johnfuckingmarston68]

There was a moment where I forced myself to make it in a harder way just to be more entertained. The fact that this game has a 10/10 and is on Metacritic on Returnal level, is absolut ridiculous.

[@xavierabii548]

This was a rather harsh review lol. I just got this on Steam and I've been looking forward to playing it. Funny thing I actually disliked Mooncrash when I tried it back then. I guess I couldn't really get into the gameplay at the time because I was expecting something similar to the main Prey game which I had just finished at the time. I'll see how this one turns out.

[@lorenzodhernandes]

Arkane is a cursed Studio. They've made masterpieces with no recognition and are getiing loads of recognition for their worst game.

[@dontmatter4423]

Dishonored games gained no recognition?

[@Mi_tala]

Well not all perfect,there always one game you failed,do you remember how 343 studio just make 2 bad game in a row,well they finally found the game what they want to,you cant consistenly good,everyone always make a mistake tho

[@aravindpallippara1577]

@@dontmatter4423 Not as much as it should - that said it's not a perfect game either

[@lorenzodhernandes]

@@dontmatter4423 the first one maybe. But the second one is much better and was extremely overlooked. Like, sure, people know it exists, but don't recognize it as being as good as it is IMO. Prey's case is even worse, as so many people don't even know about it despite it being such a bold game.

[@Hates-handle]

There not a good studio anymore imo

[@CriticalNobody]

Deathloop is a game that takes awhile to click, then hits an enjoyable stride, then overstays it's welcome. Totally worth the $30 I spent on it and not at all worthy of all the 10/10 scores.

[@edubbz1987]

This is the perfect summary.

[@TimTams_64]

In Australia it's $60

[@mikeg5039]

100% spot on. It bought those reviews

[@Lo-Kag]

As said, a perfect summary. I loaned for free from my local library (it's a thing in Finland) and for that it was okay, but even for free, by the end I just wanted to see it end.

[@rasmie8858]

This game is probably what a Sekiro easy mode would look like if they gave you abundance of health gourd recharges after every mob encounters. Game journalists love hand holding... I thought the game was okay but certainly not a 10/10 game. I mean the same outlet (IGN) gave Outer Wilds 8.5/10. This game is nowhere near better than Outer Wilds. I fully expect Ralph to reveal how many dislikes he got for this somewhere in the future

[@EvilGenius447]

I find it incredibly ironic that one of Arkane's highest reviewed and critically acclaimed games is also one of their most basic and least immersive. I genuinely believe this was an intentional move to prevent the studio from falling too far by the wayside because of how overlooked past games were. I hope this starts and ends with Deathloop though because if this is the direction future Arkane games go then man.........

[@clockworkNate]

Not having on your opinion or anything but I'm curious what makes Deathloop basic compared to other Arkane games like Dishonered 1 or 2?

[@mattreyes4803]

@@clockworkNate it holds your hand, dishonored did almost none of that. The whole of deathloop tells you how to solve the loop, there felt like no need for trial and error.

[@jagermeister1487]

i preferred dl to prey tbh

[@g.4279]

@@clockworkNate It has one enemy lol

[@LiTTleGaBi21]

this so much, I really hope Arkane goes back to more immersive sim type of game, but Raphael Colantonio and cie left and I think they were a big part of how good their previous games are.

[@ChrisBa303]

It has to be said that Prey was made by a completely different studio though. Prey was made by arkane Austin while deathloop and the dishonored series was made by arkane lion.

[@arthuredington6171]

you're half right, The first dishonored was made by both Austin and Lyon while the sequel was made primarily by Lyon

[@asdergold1]

@@arthuredington6171 explains a lot

[@TobiTheHuman]

What. "We have this studio who made a game thats basicly this game we are about to make and they did a good job, sooo... lets give the new game to the studio with no experience in this kind of game." Who thought of this??

[@mitridi8422]

Lyon*

[@davidjerabek848]

@@TobiTheHuman What are you talking about? Both Lyon and Austin worked on first dishonored after that Austin studio made Prey and are currently working on Redfall and the Lyon studio made Dishonored 2 and this game both studios are full of VERY competent and experienced people. + Dishonored 2 is much more "this kind of game" than prey

[@thepneumanator]

This is how you maturely talk about something you know 90% of an audience will disagree with. I don't always agree with your opinion but I do always agree with the way you express it. You are a first class journalist. Don't let 'em tell you any different! EDIT: Wow, I didn't think the 90% number would be taken so seriously. My point was that he is fantastic at critically debating views of point that MAY not be popular. Guess I should have just said that.

[@themangotango95]

Exactly, i've disagreed with a couple of his reviews but I respect his opinions and still watch all of his videos regardless.

[@poopikins]

Hm? The user reviews have been pretty average since launch. It's only the "critics" that have been raving about it.

[@FairweatherBaah]

If you think 90% of his audience will disagree with it, you're delusional lol.

[@conker241]

This. He’s pretty much my favorite reviewer right now even though I disagree with him a lot!

[@weaverquest]

This is the common narrative I have been hearing. Mainstream outlets like IGN and Gamespot hyped this game up so much at launch with 10/10 scores but rhe public reception hasn't been that stellar.

[@RavenGlenn]

Just wanted to say: It was because of your review of Prey Mooncrash that I bought that DLC. And it truly is fanstastic and Prey & Mooncrash are experiences I will never not recommend to anyone and everyone I can. Thank you for reviewing Mooncrash so thoroughly. It was invaluable to my decision to buy it. And Prey is a damned masterpiece on its own. I can't believe it got such terrible reviews from gaming publications.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

You should see errant signal's take on prey and mooncrahs - he know his immersive sims

[@BrotherVoidBomber]

I just never got around to playing it so yeah literally 2 people remember it.

[@dividetc263]

Prey was such an underrated game

[@boxhead6177]

Prey Mooncrash was released same day it was announced on stage as E3 "available now"... that was a HUGE mistake. All the critics were in Los Angeles all wetting their pants cause they got backstage passes to see the first guided play through demo of Cyberpunk 2077. None of them had time to play it, they had to write about Cyberpunk and all the other games that were announced.

[@NickHunter]

@@boxhead6177 omfg did those events occur in tandem?! What a fucking travesty

[@jeffcarrier9808]

Was curious to come back and rewatch this review after Redfall. I completely forgot this game got such high praise.

[@IEatFoamFootballs]

How’d it go for ya

[@wombat7961]

Deathloop is a 10/10 game if we are to be very critical. From what i can tell Redfall is 4/10

[@Jaydizler69]

@@wombat7961DL was a game made for people terrible at gaming, was not enjoyable. It was basically Arkanes starfield in terms of hype vs post release

[@deathgorilla782]

@@wombat7961I enjoyed red fall more than Loop

[@quantum9964]

I remember this being THE next gen game at one time

[@ciestermr1848]

Arkane already made a masterpiece time travel level in Dishonored 2, and I don’t think any of it has been carried over

[@4T3hM4kr0n]

"A Crack in the slab" I agree, it was a very fun level. Going between past and present and watching how the choices effect in realtime was amazing.

[@CHEFPKR]

The voice acting and gunplay is great, but it got stale quickly for me. Half way through, I just wanted to play Dishonored.

[@MadRaiiden]

Did that for me after 50 minutes hahaha

[@shiftyjim4138]

Made me just wanna play prey.

[@Jim26D]

@@shiftyjim4138 prey was basically system shock 3. My favorite arcane game.

[@Philosophical24]

Agreed

[@jarrodiaria2973]

Half way through I actually did stop deathloop to play dishonored haha

[@michaelmemory6938]

Still disappoints me Tim Schafer and his team got no recognition for Psychonauts 2, yet this game won several awards.

[@nicolasaguilar4469]

Travesty

[@HaosOnline]

Yep art and story hands down should have gone to Psychonauts 2.

[@staticshock4239]

Psychonauts 2 and Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart got no recognition while this won a lot of awards.

[@Mazapine]

This is really interesting to watch for the first time after the launch of Redfall, seems like all sections of Arkane lost their soul somewhere along the way

[@SrRumeniguer]

I think its just that they have to make their games in colab with the Austin studio and they are rushing them. I think Bethesda are trying to milk that Dishonored and Prey love from fans to sell us this crap. I bet if the Lyon studio was given a ton more freedom and time, they would release an Arkane masterpiece

[@guineverehaas2427]

​@@SrRumeniguer I also feel like that Arkane simply isn't that good with creating multiplayer games, and are being forced to make them by their publishers. Similar to how EA forced Bioware to make the multiplayer-focused Anthem, which was completely out of their wheelhouse and was terrible because of it. And to clarify this is not me saying Arkane is a bad studio, just that they're bosses are making them create games that do *not* line up with their best skills. For Redfall in particular it seems like Arkane just kinda gave up trying to make it work, and I don't blame them, but I really hope it doesn't end up sinking the studio.

[@jordanwhite352]

​@@guineverehaas2427From what I understood, EA didn't force Bioware and in fact actually saved the only good part that worked in that game.

[@guineverehaas2427]

@@jordanwhite352 ah my bad! In that case Anthem seems more like a developer aiming way too high for a genre that they do not have much experience in, and someone(s) deciding to release the game even though it's bad simply because thousands of man hours and millions of dollars were already used up. At least EA apparently wasn't as garbage as they have been in the past with other studios 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[@doom453]

Honestly I think only Redfall was bad, this was a good game that I thoroughly enjoyed once I got the hang of the time stuff. Definitely wouldn't consider this losing their way. Solid 7.5 8 game. Thought it would be bad from reviewers but that's why you gotta play stuff yourself.

[@emdeo]

This game getting 10s while Prey gets 6 and 8s.... holy shit. Gaming journalists live on another plane of existence.

[@_gungrave_6802]

Prey was largely just an average to above average game. Deathloop on the other hand was quite shit.

[@AbdurRahim-ep5qv]

i mean a game that could easily be handled on ps3 but is next gen exclusive not even ps4 xbox is hillarious

[@bradlesmcgee9566]

that's because Arkane bought review scores for this one lmfao kind of obvious when IGN gives anything a 10/10

[@xxyz9819]

@@bradlesmcgee9566 nah it's pretty obvious why it got a 10. You can say it got a 10 because it's quite black.

[@ben_dover33]

it's because black.

[@shannonhall9814]

Played Prey and Mooncrash this year. It was one of my favourite experiences I've had in gaming for an eternity. It's criminally unknown by so many people. Everyone needs to play it

[@JewTube001]

wish they made it stand alone. but i guess prey is cheap enough nowdays.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

@@JewTube001 Nah, mooncrash assumes lots of player knowledge and familiarity coming from prey - as a stand alone it will be very hard to get into

[@JewTube001]

@@aravindpallippara1577 Have to disagree. The the two games differ way too much that hiding the mooncrash behind prey was an utter hindrance to it's accessibility. (I know what you mean though but this wasn't the best way to go about it, the base could have just had more stuff in it to acquaint the player with crafting and the likes)

[@alexandreporter705]

Prey is actualy equal or better than Half-Life 1 and 2, but no one talks about Prey and keep asking for a HL3. Gamers sometimes have zero sense of quality. Even Arcane abandoned the Prey formula to make an inferior product just to appeal the masses. In an alternate universe we are playing Prey 2 Game of the year and buying flying cars and colonizing the solar system.

[@NickHunter]

@@alexandreporter705 Completely agree here. The Half life series are a fun action romp but simply existing in the world of Prey was challenging and engaging in ways that Half life never came close to

[@BackfallGenius]

In all the pre-launch interviews with the devs at Arkane, they definitely made it sound like a true "murder puzzle" that involved figuring out the optimal paths through the map, trying to get the right targets in the right spots at the right time, and piecing together the clockwork puzzle of Blackreef in a cerebrally intriguing way. So I bought it at launch and was definitely let down to see that the "loop" is actually four separate levels with time having no real gameplay effect, there's only one way to do the final loop, and the game literally handholds you through the entire thing, to the point where it even spells out how to do the final loop for you. There's absolutely no strategy or satisfaction involved in getting to the end of the game, you're just blindly following objective markets. I definitely loved Prey Mooncrash WAY more. I'm pretty sure everyone who's played that DLC was let down by Deathloop because Mooncrash straight up did everything Deathloop promises BETTER. I'm just wondering what the hell all these reviewers saw in it to give it such perfect scores... and I say this as a diehard fan of Arkane and the immersive sim genre.

[@ehko9989]

I can tell you what they saw, they saw the marketing+stylish esthetic+pretty polished game combo and did their thing. There's a reason why Fifa games sell as hard as they do, if a game is advertised well enough and it's not broken beyond repairs at launch, it will have a lot of praises. And Deathloop's advertisement campain was insanely huge, it reminded me of CP2077 in a way. You heard about it way too much without actually witnessing what it was really about. To me, Arkane games were all about bringing a new take on existing concepts, like the world karma system of Dishonored or the roguelike loop in Mooncrash for example. Here this vision of the studio was promised like never before and the more I heard about the game, the less faith I had in it.

[@skillo6399]

@@ehko9989 also, the main cast is composed of black people. I don't care if you think i mean this in a bad way, it's simply a fact. Mainstream media literally cannot criticize high budget entertainment with a cast of mostly black people. Black panther? Mediocre, yet considered a masterpiece. That's why deathloop got so many 10/10.

[@souljastation5463]

@@skillo6399 Exactly, you're both right, it's been the combination of excellent artistic direction + 2 black people as main characters (and one of them is a woman too!). Also, the Visionaries: the men are utterly pathetic, pitiful to the point of cringe, while the Visionary women, while still evil, are depicted as competent and in control. I must say that superficially the game is pretty fun, especially if you're on console: with no support for gyro aim and no way to play with mouse and keyboard the low difficulty is balanced by the fact that you can't possibly aim precisely with a thumbstick. But the best adjective to describe this game is shallow: everything about it is shallow. I'm not a reviewer so I didn't notice all the conceptual stuff, but I was immediately disappointed by the world: it's beautiful but completely static, of all the stuff scattered around the only things you can pick up are bottles and glasses. That's not a next-gen experience. P. S. Also, I should mention that the ending is incredibly disappointing, this is the first time I ever hated a videogame ending, and I played Mass Effect 3 and TLOU2, didn't find them as bad as people said they were, but this, this is the worst.

[@blorgxsnorp7449]

@@ehko9989 Bro, I'll be honest, CP2077 doesn't sound that good when you look at the letter combination...

[@baldingsan457]

If you want a good “detective game” play either Obra Dinn or The Forgotten City. Deathloop’s puzzle is solved by the game itself

[@embracerodusk2537]

Prey & Mooncrash together is one of the most overlooked games of all time IMO. Played it when it first came out & loved it. It's easily one of the best games I've played over the past decade. If you like stuff like Bioshock, you should love Prey. I think it was held back by the name (which has nothing to do with the actual game) more than anything else. Much like the Wii U.

[@codylamp6814]

NeuroShock

[@nickpanov6456]

@@codylamp6814 literally the perfect name HAHA

[@ProphitDesigns]

And I just got it for free on EGS. Not knowing anything about Prey or Mooncrash prior, I decided to do some investigating and landed here. I'm at odds with the genre, as I loved the entire Bioshock series, but totally fell off Dishonored. Forgot about Prey and had Deathloop on my radar due to all the praise. But now seeing this video, I'm most likely just gonna dive in to Mooncrash.

[@melvin5096]

The reason why the name is a big problem for many is that this *is* a reboot of THAT Prey. Yes the 2006 shooter. That game was great, it had no real faults besides maybe being *easy* since you can't really die. However the sequel for that game essentially got sandbagged by Bethesda and we got nothing, supposedly it was almost even finished. And years later what the people got was a Bioshock esque reboot. If Prey was called anything else, it would've been fine, but it had to have that name since it was going to be a reboot of the "franchise". PS. Original Prey was in development hell for years since it was meant to be an N64 game, that's how old that name really is.

[@embracerodusk2537]

@@melvin5096 I knew it was in the works for a long while, but I didn't realize it was from the N64 days. That's crazy. So it was kind of in the same situation as Too Human by Silicon Knights (went from PS1, to Gamecube, to X360). But yeah, the name & the marketing for the game was really not well done. Now the Prey "reboot" needs a reboot.

[@scarletmoth1221]

I think what really struck me was how lonely it felt to play Deathloop. I stopped midway through my playthrough to go and play through Dishonored again, and it wasn't until watching your review that I realised why. In Dishonored, you get the chance to talk to your allies between each mission, to learn more about your targets, etc (and you even get the chance to interact with allies within levels). Deathloop didn't have that, and it ended up feeling emptier for it

[@fotografick]

i think that is intentional, at least that's the feeling I got.

[@callmepsycho3132]

I mean isn’t Colt by himself

[@philbarton2832]

Yeah the lonely feeling is definitely intentional, the game is telling you that you're the only one who can break the loop.

[@charlesmartiniii1405]

I never played the game so I can't speak for it but bioshock makes me feel completely isolated and I think it's one of the big reasons the experience stood out to me so much

[@philbarton2832]

@@charlesmartiniii1405 If you like that lonely isolated feeling then may I suggest you play Shadow of the Colossus or maybe hollow Knight, both are great examples of that feeling done right

[@JSephH76]

The best review I can possibly give this video is that I absolutely love Deathloop, and yet I also think that every point you made is valid. Well constructed, well thought out, all-around fair criticism. I love the game for the distinctly Arkane feel and the Dishonored-esque gameplay, yet I can nod along and agree with every criticism you leveled at the game. If anything it makes me excited for a (knock on wood) future in which they truly nail the formula in a more granular way with an ever-evolving and more immersive world.

[@gabrilo]

I came here to say exactly the same. I know the game has flaws, agreed with pretty much everything on the review, but I still enjoyed the game a lot.

[@JSephH76]

@@gabrilo Yeah I feel the game was flawed in structure and supporting systems (such as the AI) but the vision was still there and clear and well enough executed. It certainly has many systems that aren't the best but the core of the game is still amazing

[@XUXUZAO]

I also loved Deathloop and agree with every single point! Amazing review!!!

[@marquezFTW]

Don't hold your breath. Some of the most talented, creative people left arkane to work on weird west. I think it's pretty clear that this has already affected the quality of the games arkane can put out. Add to that how both commercially and critically successful Deathloop was, even if undeserved and I think it's safe to say they will just continue down on the path of making mediocre games that the dumb masses will lap up and make tons of money.

[@MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD]

They got praised for this mediocre offering, what makes you think they are going to improve it or fix the shortcomings when they are literally told "10/10, perfect"? Why would they invest the time to improve the horrible AI if that AI is 10/10?

[@GunpowderCoffee]

I feel like Hitman might be a better Timeloop game than Deathloop. Think about it. You choose a mission, time progresses (or at least events). And you can make certain characters do certain things by making changes to the loop.

[@BucklingSwashes]

THIS. I still think everything Deathloop does has already been accomplished in an arguably better way in the recent Hitman games. The only thing Deathloop does that Hitman doesn't is create a story-focused reason for its repetitious nature, and I wouldn't say it necessarily does that well.

[@RantKid]

On paper sure but not in practice

[@xelldincht4251]

when i heard the story premise it immediately reminded me of a mix between Hitman and Dishonored

[@thelinedrive]

And it doesn’t reset unless you reset it., not the game.

[@KUR1ST0]

I actually thought that Deathloop would be exactly like taking Hitman save scumming and making it into a core mechanic.

[@amirgarcia547]

While I hate Deathloop, I’m still salty to this day that it won best art direction at TGA over Psychonauts 2 when the latter some of the most creative and visually stunning levels I’ve ever seen in a videogame, all of which are organically woven into the platforming and puzzles. Deathloop’s world looks nice, but it’s all style and no substance, since like SkillUp said, it never really feels like the player is a natural part of this world. Either way, we can all agree that it’s leagues above Redfall.

[@Darkreaper1982]

Prey and Prey Mooncrash are the most overlooked and underated games i've played in a long time. Prey was just a great game to play and the loop mechinic of Mooncrash so was fresh and interesting and fun to play around with. Such a shame Deathloop took nothing from Mooncrash.

[@lollo863]

It's also important to remember that Arkane is two studios: Austin and Lyon. Austin made Prey, Lyon made Dishonored 2 alone and Deathloop. Before those, they worked together on Dishonored 1.

[@Tawleyn]

While this is important, I feel like it only makes this failure sting more. Why not consult with Austin and get suggestions on how to make things better? Probably because anyone who touched it sang high praise nonstop.

[@TheHeadincharge]

@@Tawleyn I’d imagine that there was some consultation, but at the end of the day they weren’t the ones in charge.

[@argo9132]

Ithink it makes it sting more indeed. Because they're fully capable of pulling it off (loved D2) and this one simply missed the mark. Honestly I think the game is a solid 7, not this gross overstatement of a 10 that it got.

[@niezniezgov]

@@Tawleyn After Prey, some leads left with one of the creative director to his new studio Wolfeye. So there might be a loss of knowledge and skill. Also, Lyon got requisitioned to help Machinegames who was struggling hard on Wolfenstein Youngblood. I suppose they did not have alot of time either

[@kdiamond12]

France bad, America good. Got it.

[@sven.wckhrst]

When I heard about how good Deathloop is and that it's a time loop game, I imagined some kind of mix between Dishonored and Hitman and Outer Wilds and a little bit of Dead Cells, but in the end it kinda just was a shooter with four maps that get recycled a lot ... I wouldn't say its necessarily bad, but definitely disappointing.

[@Serryl]

Exactly! I assumed it was Dishonored + Hitman, which sounded unbeatable. I'm still interested in playing this if it ever comes to Xbox, but I wonder why Arkane weren't more ambitious. Maybe they had to cut scope, because of the pandemic?

[@boxhead6177]

@@Serryl The director of Death Loop... NEVER PLAYED MOONCRASH!!!, or Outerwilds, or Forgotten City. He refused to play and time loop games or movies while he was working on his vision.

[@lefouduroi9980]

@@boxhead6177 Is that so? Do you have a link to that (not doubting, genuinely interested). I don't like time loop games, so no dogs in the fight, but if that is true, it's weird to say the least... I mean, so full of himself.

[@SoullessSuicide]

I think it only received those great scores because it was a timed exclusive and PS5 players needed something to get people to play before other things come out.. hence the high reviews.. I am glad I watched this because it isn't something I would try.. but Prey is so I will instead try that out! Thanks!

[@freddice8156]

The best way to describe it is it's not necessarily bad, but definitely generic and mediocre.

[@Rane7685]

Coming back to this review months later and it just ... helps? I love Arkane games (absolutely loved dishonoured with 2 improving in so many ways and prey was sensational). I have tried to play this game 3 times now and each time putting it down and never finishing it. I just could not understand the scores at all and this review really helped me feel not so completely crazy for really not liking it

[@foxfire1112]

Ya me too i felt insane with the 10/10 like im just no longer the target audience

[@Shunpon77]

Proof of a good reviewer. Skill up doesn't just say he doesn't like something, he contextualizes why something is bad with very accurate language.

[@WritingOnGames]

That kind of reflection on how far away you feel from general consensus is something I can relate to a lot, especially this year, and especially with Deathloop. Can be a pretty alienating feeling all told. I guess it was just nice to see an in-depth review like this line up with a lot of the feelings I had towards this game while playing it, because honestly I just could not see what many others were seeing in this thing (and I say this as an Arkane fan). Great review!

[@Philosophical24]

Agreed 100% with you. I feel the same way at times myself

[@ShadowChief117]

I felt the same about the Outer Worlds. I haven't played Deathloop yet, so I can't really for certain add insight towards this game. But when Outer Worlds came out to rave reviews, I was stuck sitting there thinking it was middling at best and incredibly boring and unfunny at worst. I felt such a huge disconnect with reviewers until I found a review much like this one that explained every problem I had with the game and then some. I understand how validating something like this can feel.

[@EricMalette]

Agreed. I did enjoy this game, but not with the same relish as the other Arkane titles. One thing I do by default though is always turn off quest map markers for any of their games. It's just an essential thing to not spoil their games.

[@Tonebaited123]

Nothing wrong to have your own opinions on things. Own it!

[@hanzolo7719]

@@ShadowChief117 I absolutely hated outer worlds also. It was the worst game I’ve played in the last 5 years. I feel like I got scammed by people giving the game good reviews just to rub it in Bethesda’s face.

[@Shunpon77]

Something lost in 99% of reviews is perspective or reference. Skillup has this in spades. Great review, keep up the good work.

[@PopstarDracula]

The basic enemies are what made me drop this. They just sort of stand around for no apparent reason in random places, often at the edge of heights, even the edge of the island, just waiting to be stabbed.

[@selominator]

Yeah, this ruined the game for me also. I might pick it up later again

[@BucklingSwashes]

Arkane Studios after this and then Redfall: "It's not a Deathloop. It's a Deathspiral."

[@Grim_Pinata]

From what I can gather, the people that are loving Deathloop the most are the ones that either loved the gameplay mechanics of Dishonored and thus enjoy how Deathloop feels like a more action-oriented Dishonored with no moral consequences for your experimentation (which is who the game seems to be marketed towards from the pre-release developer commentaries), OR people that just enjoyed the story and characters. But for people who loved Prey's style, and how it just felt like the classic open-ended System Shock-esque exploration immersive sim format but evolved... Deathloop just doesn't seem to have that vibe.

[@evancruz3775]

Exactly, Prey gives you so much freedom to complete your goals with all the alien and human abilities. It’s insane what you can do if you experiment with them all. Death loop doesn’t have that, and I doubt we’ll ever get a game as open ended as prey in a long time.

[@mr.smithgnrsmith7808]

Guilty white liberals love this game

[@Noob12369]

this is my first arkane game, im enjoying it alot.

[@shaid1111]

Honestly I think it feels like it's tailor made for press that has a few days to beat a game and don't want to be challenged in any way but still feel like they did something difficult.

[@CdrRogue]

Prey's one of my favourite games of all time and I really enjoyed Deathloop, just doesn't quite match Prey or Dishonored's caliber. Still, at least it was something a bit different.

[@alexweinberg3913]

As someone who enjoyed it, the criticisms levelled here are completely valid. You need to be willing to put up with a lot of issues, and honestly, it takes too much to put up with this game's shortcomings compared to their previous outings to really enjoy it. Also that Rube Goldberg machine analogy was perfect

[@FelisImpurrator]

True. I actually want more games like that, where it's not a constant ticking time bomb you can't explore at leisure, but rather a puzzle box you solve from the inside. The classic immersive sim model is closer to that, but not quite.

[@grtcara8386]

Cos your a pony

[@kiranearitachi]

If the invasions didn't start lagging I would just sit and invade all day it's very fun

[@kiranearitachi]

@@grtcara8386 you do realize the games on PC too right

[@grtcara8386]

@@kiranearitachi and you’ve got a PS right and let me guess you don’t like it I wonder why pony but you loved Ratchet a game for 12 yr olds right oh I bet you loved hack and slash trash GOW didn’t you

[@littlehopeleft]

Welcome people of the past. I come here from the future. Future that has Redfall in it. And boy oh boy oh boy. Be glad for Deathloop my friends.

[@mars009]

Just beat it, and had fun with it, but damn, by the 3rd loop I was popping heads like there was no tomorrow. Once I found the guns that I liked, and the mods that they needed, I never changed them. Same for Colt's abilities, sneak, fast kills, tank health, more power + invisibility and shift...and that's it. It was fun, but years behind Prey or Dishonored. Edit: The Goldberg machine analogy is spot on. The end was also not satisfying :\

[@kvikram19]

The idea that time loop games are “metroidvanias of the mind” is just brilliant

[@synth1886]

I always call them Metroidbrainia ;)

[@defendthehouse]

I will stand by you on the Mooncrash hill. It's the best.

[@pbjent]

Is it possible to finish Mooncrash in one playthrough?

[@christophernimick2081]

@@pbjent depends on what you consider a playthrough. You have to run the simulation multiple times to unlock the whole story.

[@chrisg5219]

I love mooncrash its so good

[@Rokusu]

As someone who hasn't played prey and actually really enjoyed Deathloop, you bring up a lot of really valid points, it would've been much more interesting for the game to have a non-menu-based flow of time, the difficulty of enemies (while I think it's completely fine that they remain human) could've and probably should've been scaled up in other ways, and the puzzles frequently were underwhelming, you said many other very valid things but those stood out to me as things that could've elevated the game alot. When that is said I also can't help but feel like a lot of the criticism comes from either not experimenting enough or not paying that much attention to details, before I go into details I just want to make it clear that this review was great and I by no means want to invalidate your perspective, nor pretend that the game is some kind of flawless masterpiece. You stated that the puzzles were so convoluted that the hints were a necessary evil, while I agree that some of them are (how am I supposed to deduct that a guy will leave a password on a wall in the morning with no prior explaining) i'd also say that a lot of them actually are solvable, on top of that rather exciting to solve without relying on hints too much, an example of these involve two visionaries in love which you can (and have to) exploit to find out where they meet up, the clue you're given to figure out where to start is a photo you find from rummaging through their messages with each other that leads to their love cave, the location of where this photo was taken is the clue, and is also locateable if you've explored the maps during winter time, these photos lead you to a terminal with a password where you'll see that the images that are required in that password resemble the paintings scattered throughout one of the visionary hq's on the same level during Fia's creative time period, while not great or outstanding by any means i found this mildly amusing and didn't feel handheld. You mentioned that the passing of time only affects the maps in minor ways which is a bit of a shame because my experience was that maps could change from being cakewalks that were ideal for clue gathering and side content, to fortified fortresses or unique events that majorly changed enemy locations, grouping and overall danger. An example of this would be "The Complex" changing from a pretty standard clue gathering map, with puzzles that involve going into the walls through battery charged elevators, to a barren, heavily trapped james bond type map where you're dodging mines, avoiding detection, and fighting a stealthed visionary who power tripped a bit too hard and murdered everyone else. For this specific argument there are a lot of examples (Npcs re-enacting historical events, Strip-club/pleasure room (?) that only is accesssible after whatever was going on in there is over, parties that can lead to satisfying group kills or fun stealth gameplay, bbq's, comedy clubs, Fias base becoming a literal nuke upon high alert detection and general side content quest starts) of how the game implements the change of time into how the map interacts, and while i think this could've shined a lot more if the difficulty of said changes was balanced better, i think it's somewhat unfair to imply that there was little of it, i found it to be a lot of both minor and major changes that stopped the maps from getting too samey before beating the game for the first time. You commented on cause and effect being lack luster, not seeing or understanding why some things are gated at specific times of day, and not seeing what exactly it was that you changed that ultimately changed the outcome, i agree that some of these changes occasionally don't make much sense but the non sensical ones weren't the ones you brought up. You mentioned not being able to see the effects of doing some mischevious things to a fireworks setup, which was a bit amusing since doing this very visually actually blows up next to the entire area in a very nuke-type way, if you look to the direction of where the fireworks usually went off, adding to that the npc setting off the fireworks even comments on if you killed the other visionary in that area or not in multiple ways. The scientist that you're trying to bait into going to the party at night has a lot of information on him detailing how his experiments is keeping him from interacting with the people around him, explained in both voice-logs, general dialogue from other npcs and his own somewhat manically focused writing about said experiment, in my eyes jinxing that would be a reasonable reason for him to do something else that day. Much like that a lot of the gated areas actually have their time of opening and reasoning behind opening explained through npc dialogue, papers, terminals etc which, while you don't directly see the person opening the doors (which would've been obvious and great if the menu aspect of the game was reworked and time passed fluently putting you on a timer each day) i don't exactly see how seeing someone put paper on a door or straight up open it would add to the excitement of door opening. Finally you commented on how limiting the methods of actually killing the visionaries are, for some of them this is very much true, Harriets death involves you just straight up killing her with the only meaningful changes you can cause being based on your method of escape (by stealthing behind her you can stop her from releasing gas into the room for a clean exit, alternatively you can witness her sacrificial event take place and escape by going upwards) but there are multiple targets you can take out in a lot of different ways, Aleksis can be killed during his speech by pulling the lever that they audience use to put bad comedians into the meat grinder under the stage, he can be lured out to unmask himself and dance on the dancefloor behind said stage by playing his favorite music as a DJ, and he can be lured out into the back of the party by cutting off his beer supply, Frank can be shot in his studio or killed in a fireworks incident, Wenjie can be killed with her clones at the research lab or at the party after baiting her there with information that could help her research (this one if story related so it's not as much an option as it is the correct way to do it), Fia and Charlie and be shot during their argument with one bullet passing through both of them, executed separately, or drowned using their love nests emergency flooding mechanic. There are multiple ways to kill, isolate or lure out different visionaries but they all fall somewhat short to whatever is the fastest because of the lack of difficulty, becoming a demi god somewhat early in the game leads to the stakes of something going wrong being very very low, which somewhat makes experimenting with these otherwise great and fun features pointless, as they're never really necessary in the grand scheme of things. Your review was great and i just once again want to state that i don't fully disagree with anything you stated, rather how nuanced some of the points were (although the lack of nuance makes sense for this kind of rapid fire point by point based review). I really think the game mostly suffers from the same things breath of the wild suffered from, the game is so easily breakable and the scaling so unbalanced that you kind of have to handicap yourself to make the momement-to-moment gameplay challenging enough to the point where it is engaging, i did that in botw by not equipping high armor gear and limiting my healing, and i did that in this game by always taking the stealthy routes with no hp modifiers and sacrificing efficiency for satisfying/flashy kills, while playing with no guides and minimal use direction markers. While having to play the game this with is inherently a flaw, i still came out of the experience entertained enough for me to say that it was a worthwhile purchase during the sale period it had this Christmas. Really enjoying your content, looking forward to more! (btw the menu has a toggle for finding which things you haven't infused yet, still isn't a great menu but the features you were missing during your time actually are in the game at a rough level and make it a lot more accessible)

[@JewTube001]

biggest youtube comment ever

[@Rokusu]

@@JewTube001 nigga its been a year leave me alone 💀

[@malazan6004]

I completely agree Deathloop is one of the most overrated games I've played in awhile.

[@gilded_lady]

I'm wondering if the 10/10 reviews are one of those "you know, we should have given Prey a better review, so I'm going to extra hype this one" in the way actors will win Oscars for midding-goof movies but its unspoken that its for a lifetime of work or trying to amend for not giving them the Oscar for a film that a few years later is now acknowledged a masterpiece.

[@kw9849]

I hope you're right, but I'm reasonably sure the Industry has largely forgotten Prey ever existed in the first place. 4 years is an eternity in this space. And, as they say, two wrongs don't make a right.

[@fatbroccoli8]

That’s def what happened with Leo Dio

[@saikonus]

​@@fatbroccoli8 True. Leo have 10 or more movies better then The Revenent...

[@fatbroccoli8]

@@ivanasukjadic1423 that’s unfortunately true, just look at black Panther

[@mota2028]

Yeah when Leo is getting mauled by that bear I was like " oh dear God just give the man an Oscar already ! why are you putting him through this" lol

[@JonDenton]

I bounced off this hard, wondering what I was missing. Turns out I was waiting for future Ralph to agree with me.

[@gabehere]

Hey Jon, nice to see you here. How goes things?

[@kobainage]

Play it. He is wrong.

[@tangerinecarrots4282]

@@kobainage people can have different opinions lol

[@bdiver87]

Agree entirely. Traded it in after a couple days

[@HaosOnline]

@@kobainage played it and did NOT enjoy it at all. Buggy on release and nothing really stands out.

[@DarkRonnie]

I loved Prey Mooncrash, and i greatly enjoyed Deathloop too, it does have several interesting puzzels that arent plot relevant, i do agree 100% with the invasion stuff

[@jashisgone1746]

This review makes me feel much better. I never found myself enjoying the game and I felt like maybe i just wasn’t getting it or something

[@silas4853]

Now you can Stan your racist self a little better huh

[@K3end0]

I love how knowledge can change perspective. Skillup could really have liked and enjoyed Deathloop to a much greater extent without the experience of Mooncrash, but simply playing that prey dlc put the entire thing into a different perspective leading to this review.

[@itsRecreational]

But people gave IGN shit for comparing SMT V to Persona 5. I view this review as poorly as that one. They should each be judged on their own, and just because it wasn’t Prey Mooncrash doesn’t mean it still wasn’t a great original and new IP in a time when originality is sorely missing from the industry. I played both and am looking forward to Redfall even more after playing Deathloop.

[@MyNameIsSalo]

@@itsRecreational where youre wrong is thinking this is an objective review. Its a "i had fun with this game" or "i did not have fun with this game". He makes this point very clear in every video, but some people still think its trying to be objective. And his past experiences with other games definitely impact experiences with future games.

[@ulfi5223]

@@itsRecreational If we rate something, we naturally put the game into the context of what was there before. We are not turning into newborns, every time we get a new game on our hard drive. If a product does not reach the bar, set by the games that came in the past, then the review has to reflect that.

[@grillmeisterkush6396]

@@itsRecreational agreed. it's like comparing Valhalla to AC2. Or Halo 3 with Infinite. Bad Company 2 vs. 2042. Shillup! Stop playing video games, it just ruins your opinions on newer video games 🤣

[@MrWhygodwhy]

As someone who has NOT played Mooncrash but agrees otherwise with Skillup, I can assure you it is not essential. However, I have played Arkane's previous works including the base game of Prey, I have played Outer Wilds, and I have played Hitman, all of which make Deathloop look terrible in comparison.

[@GrahamScott155]

(Haven't finished the game myself, so don't really have my own opinion on the game yet.) Always good to see a well-constructed review that doesn't fall in line with the prevailing opinions. Great work.

[@dsu1097]

Same, I played half of the game and got bored

[@perkettmusic]

I have never watched a critique of anything so negative but so well thought out and organized at the same time. You nailed this and I'm excited to binge these reviews. Man just has correct opinions smh.

[@joshcorbett4787]

“Correct opinion” is a bit of an Oxymoron

[@perkettmusic]

@@joshcorbett4787 you can have an opinion on something that is objective

[@ShugaBuns1]

@@perkettmusic then it's a fact and not an opinion. By definition there can be no such thing as a correct opinion

[@ALIMOQPEL]

Just negative actually

[@conaninflable2832]

I come from the future. Dude...we need to talk...

[@gellister]

I wouldn't put it past games journalist reviewers to have liked the game purely because of its apparent handholding linear nature and easy combat. When you play games as a job and try to finish them quickly for embargo, having one that is easy to get through probably earns points in your book.

[@HuginMunin]

I don't think that's it, game journalists commonly give high scores to much harder games. I think basically, people who are into games and the gaming industry admire Arkane and think they're underappreciated, and people who think about games somewhat academically really like the cleverness and novelty of the core concept of Deathloop, and because of those meta-factors forgive the game for all the individual things about it that aren't very good.

[@Calebe428]

@@HuginMunin i cant take big game journalist reviews seriously ever since the guy that couldnt beat the cuphead tutorial lol

[@HuginMunin]

@@Calebe428 But the reality is difficult games (Souls and Souls-likes, Ninja Gaiden, Cuphead, Spelunky, Super Meat Boy, etc,) generally get high ratings/positive reviews from review outlets.

[@babakgeblee3343]

Dishonored 2 had a mission with time manipulation, the mansion when the outsider gave you the time piece, now THAT was awesome. Wished more of that

[@FelisImpurrator]

Hot damn, yes. Dishonored 2 was ridiculously good. If they had built an entire game around the Clockwork Mansion and that conceptually, it would have been a masterpiece.

[@penguinchilli6244]

@@FelisImpurrator just fyi, it wasn’t the clockwork mansion, it was Stilton’s Mansion (from A Crack in the Slab mission). Both places are amazing pieces of level design, but the time travel was so incredibly done and one of the many reasons why D2 is one of my favourite games of all time. I played through that game 5 times and each time was a different experience.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

@@penguinchilli6244 Stilton mansion has an equivalent in titanfall 2 - do try that game as well

[@theultimatefox8100]

@@penguinchilli6244 Stilton's Mansion was my favourite part of Dishonored 2, Clockwork Mansion was a close second 👍

[@sarcasticlittleass]

Dont worry guys, I can fully recommend the game. It is great.

[@sprinkdesign7170]

When will Arkane realise that Gill Sans (or its derivative here) DOES NOT WORK as a UI font in lowercase? Particularly when it's lowercase AND oblique! The commas alone are hideous. I HATED Prey's constant use of it. Gill Sans can look marvellous as display or headline type, across weights, in all caps or small caps, particularly if widely tracked. It just seems to be a go-to 'fifties / sixties' font for them.

[@yidingliu8663]

Love Deathloop, but huge Respects on speaking your mind. I do not agree with you on many titles, but I know one can always find an honest reviewer speaking his true feelings.

[@anthonyserocco2774]

I feel like he's honest almost to a fault. When he complained about Halo Infinite's story, he left out a ton of really important details that undermine his opinions, but he left those details out because he didn't wanna spoil anything, which makes me wonder how honest he actually is.

[@Tony_Ugatz]

@@anthonyserocco2774 -_-

[@FelisImpurrator]

@@anthonyserocco2774 You managed to completely contradict yourself in the span of one paragraph. Impressive.

[@mrwalker6026]

@@anthonyserocco2774 you can spin any review to skew a certain narrative... I already know the types of games I like and gravitate towards them which rarely turns out a disappointment.... Now bugs and other performance issues is why I listen

[@Parris360XP]

@@anthonyserocco2774 I don't really see the issue with that though. your assumption is that the review came with the cost that he couldn't talk about those finer important details but as he said in the review, he knew and just didn't want to spoil, but regardless he wasn't a huge fan of the story I doubt that undermines his point too much, he just didn't enjoy it as much as others did.

[@CharlieViking95]

I personally liked the game a lot, but beating it once gives you no incentive to replay it; the golden path to killing all 8 visionaries never changes.

[@gettingbeat]

Yepp, this was what I was most disappointed by :/ I enjoyed the game a lot too, but really didn't have interest continue playing after I knew the path and had the ~3 powers I wanted.

[@AmazinglyAwkward]

That sounds like… Not how a game with time loop mechanics should go

[@FelisImpurrator]

It's funny. This is how visual novels often work, but Steins;Gate, perhaps the ultimate time travel themed narrative driven game, does it far better than this even conceptually. The Zero Escape trilogy too, with better puzzling and actual meaning to the order in which you experience different timelines.

[@AlienBrudda]

This is on purpose though, dishonoured was designed to be replayed but most players finish the game once and move on, the whole looping mechanic off this game is meant to give all players that feeling of mastering an environment and trying different stuff in a single campaign

[@JewTube001]

there's not a huge amount of replay-ability to any of arkane's games imo. it's mostly only for story reasons. in mooncrash you're forced to replay if you fail a campaign, but after beating it i don't there's any reason to replay.

[@wubbybubby9759]

Honestly I love deathloop, as a giant fan of dishonored 1 and 2 seeing this game felt like well another dishonored. I didn’t go in with high expectations which is why I think I like it so much it was a fun time. I think a lot of elements where just like dishonored from your base to the levels I loved it but I see where your coming from.

[@LargeLeonard]

But even you will probably agree that Dishonored is better in pretty much every single way. This game is decent, but in my opinion its also Arkanes worst project.

[@Shinkajo]

So you think that Dishonored are great games and the studio that made Dishonored came out with a new game and you didn't have high expectations? Seems counterintuitive.

[@averymusicalperson]

@@LargeLeonard but it’s funny

[@TheKillerJok]

How is this like another Dishonored? It's not even close to the level of immersion seen in Dishonored.

[@skayodev]

Same here, I'm a big fan of Dishonored but this game was like sooo much fun to me, especially since Dishonored 2 was a bit of a drag... Took me a loooong time to finish that one... But yeah I really enjoyed Deathloop!

[@garthmarenghi4628]

KZbin reviews be like "This game doesn't have the things i would have specifically hoped for, don't play it sucks everyone is wrong."

[@cosmosprosto]

After playing Outer Wilds and it's seemless rendition of the time-loop mechanic, I couldn't make myself finish Deathloop. It felt too Videogamy with its weapon selection screens, days that felt like levels and all that stuff. upd. So Yeah, that's basically exactly what Ralph said.

[@mitchell1-8]

What does video gamey mean? Isn't video gamey something you would want in a video game?

[@EcchiRevenge]

@@mitchell1-8 Probably means it lacks immersion.

[@cosmosprosto]

@@mitchell1-8 I mean you never feel immersed in the world, when I was playing Outer Wilds I was so into the whole timeloop thing, so into the world and the story, that I never once thought, yeap, that's a game. But here I'm constatly reminded of that with all those screens and mechanics. I'm not saying it's always bad. Mario oddessy is the videogamiest videogame, and I still enjoyed it, but is not an IMMERSIVE sim

[@cosmosprosto]

@@EcchiRevenge exactly

[@themalteseninja8307]

I just got outer wilds half off on steam for cyber mon. and I can’t stop playing this game. Thanks to skill up for the recommendation for real

[@jarikuipers237]

This guy is definitely my most respected, and all-round favorite game reviewer.

[@The.Nasty.]

Yong’s good too but I can’t listen to him say the word “February” anymore… Like nails on a chalkboard.

[@basementsage1443]

@@The.Nasty. yong is very opinionated and not in a good way

[@The.Nasty.]

@@basementsage1443 that too, I’ve been unsubbed from him for quite a while… I think when he started cozying up to Jason S is when he started to go a bit off the rails.

[@ryo-kai8587]

@@julieeke Yeah, I found the same thing... I used to watch Yong's videos sometimes, but eventually they all started feeling like a waste of time-like a 12 minute video could have been 3-5. Skill up is absolutely the best in my personal opinion, and now we get the gaming news here as well.

[@The.Nasty.]

@@julieeke I agree with that.

[@powerbeard5653]

if deathloop doesn't prove that journalists are "influenced" by the industry they're supposed to be critical of, then I don't know what is.

[@TheHappyKamper]

Thank you! This is exactly the review I needed to hear, and wish I'd heard before purchasing. I heard glowing reviews on podcasts and general chatter on the net, and I have to admit that I just ignored the occasional naysayers. After putting in around 30 hours, I just got to the point where I realised this game was just very grindy, especially when I was grinding for loot and not so much for story. I got to the stage where I didn't really give a rats arse about the story, or the characters; especially as the world felt very bleak and empty to me, with the faceless enemies, and the 60s vibe being surface level at best. I looked up on YT for plot spoilers, to see if the ending would've been worth my time (turns out, definitely not). I think the last straw was what you so accurately described as a Rube Goldberg machine, with all the entertaining part cut out. I was 30 hours in, and hadn't really interacted with any characters, just found tedious info dump text and audio logs, and shot the main level bosses in the head from a distance. This reviews captures all my own criticisms and problems with this game, that had so much potential. I will definitely be playing through Prey and its DLC now!

[@trevor3013]

Prey is made by the same people

[@Ava6581]

The last 2 hours made Deathloop go from a 9 to a 6 for me. No final level, three terrible endings, and The fact that you can only kill all the targets in one specific way killed the replay value.

[@Tike22]

wait whats the 3rd ending i thought there were only 2

[@wonton28]

@@Tike22 the 3rd ending happens when you don't finish the game and he's stuck in the time loop forever lol

[@2FingerTuesday]

For me the game was a 6 at the start, got close to an 8 near the end, then fell back to a 6 after seeing that ending

[@JewTube001]

the endings in prey were very rushed and unsatisfying too. i got the feeling that the devs didn't think too much about the endings or otherwise just needed to get the game shipped on time.

[@williamdv94]

@@Tike22 There is a third, but it's basically a even less satisfying version of the first ending

[@pondopondo1497]

So basically even Hitman is more of a timeloop game.

[@newbasicgerman]

I fully agree with everything you said. But yet, somehow, I enjoyed playing this game so much, I really had lots of fun with it. Maybe we will see a Deathloop 2 someday, that builds and refines these concepts.

[@Splomf]

I realised during this review that the perfect game to implement a time loop within, is Hitman. All the creative and endlessly complex ways to take out targets, the need to stay hidden, the little stories that play out within each level that flesh out the background to the main story. And most importantly the fact that in hitman, knowledge is power. You may have a gun, but you can't just walk up and shoot the guy without the entire police force descending on you and killing you before you get out. You've gotta use your knowledge of the map and it's inhabitants to your advantage.

[@user-nt8dy4xw9r]

You are one of the rare reviewers who’s got the balls to go against the tide. You are truly special in KZbin world.

[@geraltofrivia4936]

Just like his cyberpunk 2077 review 😂😂😂

[@jon-umber]

@@geraltofrivia4936 Cyberpunk 2077 is a great game. Don't @ me

[@Revan-eb1wb]

@@jon-umber looooooool

[@Revan-eb1wb]

@@geraltofrivia4936 he still highlighted the negatives even though he liked the game

[@bojanhristo3519]

It’s just his opinion. Why should be against the tide if it’s not his opinion. Ign is not saying it’s a 10/10 because they want to swim with the tide, it’s because the reviewer, we basically know nothing about and 0 what he likes and dislikes, think that way.

[@chillshepherd6605]

First review of yours I haven’t agreed with. KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS? My respect for you has gone up, as I’ve discovered that my enjoyment of your reviews are based on your careful analysis, not a mindless "we agree on the same stuff so I like you" . Thank you for your thoughtful, leveled analysis! In a day and age where the relationship between reviewers and corporations are being continually blurred, I’m thankful to come to your channel and know, whether I agree with you or not, I’m getting _your_ opinion, no one elses. Cheers mate!

[@melancholyheel129]

Yeah that's the thing I love about shillup's reviews. Even when I strongly disagree on his overall outlook of a game, he articulates his feelings into specific examples from the game so well that I can always see the logic in how he came to that conclusion.

[@MrPwner911]

So. Uh. Redfall. that's it, that's the comment.

[@ultimomos5918]

currently playing through Deathloop and yea, pretty spot on review. It's a good premise but 4 hours in I'm still getting tutorials and wondering "ok like, when does this game START?" Now that the training wheels are off I'm kinda just like "oh....thats it?". I was debating sinking the time to actually play it through because the premise, art design and characters seem interesting but I'm just going to go download mooncrash at your recommendation, knowing that nothing really goes beyond go to X shoot/collect Y. Thanks SkillUp for the headsup

[@superduper6419]

Almost every reviewer said this game is a masterpiece,but after really playing this game,I found there are tons of downside for this game so eventually I strongly came to disagree those reviews

[@lloyd_r]

The box art will give you a clue as to why it was universally loved by all the game journalist's

[@gamerinatrance3618]

@@lloyd_r Ah yes, of course it has to the black characters. Can't be literally any other reason.

[@Sammo212]

I was surprised how blind people are in this game. The only time I felt threatened was when figuring out how to kill a boss, I got invaded, or I was jumped by the girl.

[@Ergeniz]

We all got jumped by the girl. Lemme tell ya.

[@David-ym2vk]

So basically what you're saying is you wish this was a hitman game? Lol The Hitman games had open sandbox levels where the npc's were moving around within it doing various activities at various times. Sometimes this meant you could learn where they were going to be at a certain time and through trial and error, plan out your assassin and escape route accordingly. Other times, their movements were randomized and it made it way more challenging. I do thing Deathloop would have greatly benefitted from this congruous environment and only occasionally using the menu to pass the time for certain events rather than always going back to the menu for everything. It definitely would have made the world feel more cohesive that way. I played Deathloop and had a tremendous amount of sheer fun despite of its shortcomings. I thought it was an excellent evolution of the dishonored gameplay design that often felt limited even though it the game tried to make it seem like your actions really mattered. In Deathloop, I would happen across a clue somewhere that would cookie trail me to another and then another and then a new objective would show up or new lead and it made exploration fun and intriguing. If anything, I would have liked to see a lot more of this. The sense of discovery was really interesting in this game. One of my favorite memories was when I was playing the party level at night and just roaming around the rooftops and I shot some dude and missed and accidentally blew up the statue. Everyone came running out to see what happened and I got a new lead that I could blow up the statue to draw out the dude I needed to kill. That was pretty awesome to randomly discover that. The menu system as the game hub was a valid complaint. I didn't like that because it made the world feel disconnected like I was picking levels from different worlds rather than the same one with movement of time. So in that regard I can definitely see the Hitman formula being an improvement. The AI was pretty dumb which is also a complaint, but I played on a higher difficulty and was pretty much always on low health from the higher damage output, better aim, less health supplies, etc.. My number 1 complaint is actually once you find the silencer for the smg it breaks the game. You can hip fire snipe people across the map without alerting anyone not directly looking at them so it totally killed the difficulty at that point because the heath and ammo became irrelevant. This happened for me around the mid point of the game. So the last half of the game was just a shooting gallery rather than a challenge. That being said, I have no reservations in recommending it to anyone because while it does have some apparent flaws, it truly was just an all around fun time.

[@digitalnomadtrader]

Coincidentally, I'm playing this on a GE76. Completely agree with your review. Also, I may just be bad at it, but it felt like a lot of level design was there to screw you badly enough that you have to "wait a day" and try again (like Fia's bunker). Even when you don't mess up, the degree of "ok, now go to this other zone tomorrow at x time for the next step" felt gratuitous. A shame, because I liked the concept, the art style, and the two main characters. But now I'm getting that "I'll just finish it and delete it" feeling.

[@marvcollins7842]

I think Arkane wanted to test their systems with Mooncrash to then implement them in Deathloop, but then realized Deathloop was too ambitious for all those systems to work seamlessly and they had to make massive compromises i.e. menu screen stuff

[@boxhead6177]

NOPE!!! The studio team for Deathloop never worked on Prey Mooncrash... and the director himself said in an interview he started playing Mooncrash, realised it was a time loop game and put it down. He refused to play or watch any timeloop games/movies while working on his vision.

[@Dr.Moogle]

@@boxhead6177 Which is just as much a problem. I understand not wanting to passively or actively take elements of other timeloop games/movies but this also stops you from learning what other did wrong. Bioware did the same thing with Anthem. Among the many things they did wrong. Was not looking at other looter shooters. People were forbidden to mention Destiny and other games. Best way to put it is good artist borrow. Great artist steal. It's better to take inspiration or outright copy a mechanic from another game. Than it is to pretent they don't exist and fail in the same way they did. Even better would be learn from the past or you'll end up making the same mistakes.

[@marvcollins7842]

@@boxhead6177 well I'm glad he did what he set out to do. But perhaps it would have been best for us if he burrowed a couple ideas.

[@CommanderJaneShepard]

How the heck did deathloop get best art direction at the game awards, the other nominee were psychonauts 2 ratchet And clank rift apart, i think they had better art direction than deathloop.

[@jgooner894]

I mean the set design is inspired, it’s good but some of the others there were more deserving.

[@jon-umber]

I don't care much for Deathloop but its art direction IS absolutely phenomenal.

[@RomnysGonzalez]

Me neither. specially taking in consideration than Deathloop got the most generic art direction than have already be put on in millions of games already. Deathloop island is just a bunch of rocks,grass and random colors painting all over the places...huh sound like... Mad Max did it... or Rage 2... or the Far Cry 5 DLC.... A esthetic,color palette and art that we saw already and then called "OH IS THE 60-70's ESTHETIC". Something they themselves took away from a bunch of movies. They just copy and paste already existing concepts. Then you look at Psychonauts 2 who created one of the most interesting visually astonishing and unique worlds created from 0 and the same goes for Rift Apart. Giving the award to Deathloop convinced me than the Game Awards got paid by Sony so this game doesn't bomb after wasting years on marketing money pushing this 7/10 game. Deathloop didn't deserved to win any single award. Not game direction who stands for innovation and creative vision because this story wasn't anything new or special. Wasn't creative or well put together was garbage and unfinished without a climax that didn't worth the effort, not either Art direction. People would say "Bro relax. Is just a Game Award. That doesn't matter". It matters because all those people who buys just AAA games and are not into deep gaming look at this stuff and give exposure to those game boosting their sales. People watch those winners and said "Ah this game won an award. Should be good. Let me go and buy it". Broke my hearts than Psychonauts won't be the one receiving this boost. It Take Two won a bunch of stuff gonna receive a boost in sells and Rachet and Clank are already super popular exclusive IP meanwhile Psychonauts needed this the most

[@netrunner77]

it looks good but it's as generic as possible, I feel like I have seen the style they went for all over again, not that much in video games though, I give them that.

[@Revan-eb1wb]

guardians of hte galaxy was also not nominated for art direction. I dont understand it as well

[@sourcedestroyer2722]

Thank you for this critique because I left this game halfway thinking the same thing you've said while thinking "does this actually suck or am I missing something"

[@Doolsadooldool]

I just beat the game and watched the video I was a little bit disappointed to see you didn’t like it but some of the points you say make sense and made kind of wish there was more to the game like with the different enemies types, different ways to beat the game, actually having events happen around you in the world the only one I can think of is when the library opens after 6 odd minutes. Good video man

[@Hotshot2k4]

I always respect a review that's willing to go against the grain because that's how the reviewer feels about the subject of the review. The important thing isn't whether most people agree or not, but whether you can communicate why you feel the way you do about a game, and I think you've definitely succeeded here.

[@jarmaro2182]

For people wanting to discover some actually interesting, fascinating and well-made Time Loop story with a Main Character that grows with each loop, I recommend reading the story called 'Mother of Learning', which is a fantasy story about a young mage traped within a time loop. Not only a very good story, but also considered the best time loop story, period. And the best is that it's avaiable for free, as the author published it as a webnovel. Just throwing it out for people thirsting for some good time loop stories.

[@pratyushraj2441]

I recommend playing the game - Biomass for people who want that. One of the most ingeniously designed games of the decade.

[@nakedsnakes_842]

Well guys, it didn’t get better with the next game

[@KarlRock]

The first hour of Deathloop I was thinking, “This is overwhelming. Where’s the structure?” But then there’s the Leads system which helps guide you through the entire story. So I’m really enjoying the game and how the story slowly unfolds with each lead you follow. A metacritic rating in the 80s seems fair to me.

[@sazzasputnik197]

One of the best games I played in ages.

[@user-tr2mb4xs7i]

I actually enjoyed how the mystery of the island slowly becomes unraveled and there are plenty of leads to follow so it doesn't get boring. Very fun from start to finish. Prey is alright, I've played it but it's not as good as Deathloop, cause deathloop is basically Dishonored but with guns. Why is everyone in the comments dickriding Prey Mooncrash so hard? It was mediocre.

You are everywhere lol! 😀

[@TheMrKeksLp]

Deathloop is pretty awesome. Obviously it suffers from the AAA "normie-ness" like every AAA game but I really like it. I haven't finished it yet but if you don't have to do a day where you kill each visionary by perfectly planing your route then I'm gonna be massively disappointed. The entire game leads up to breaking the loop, if the game doesn't actually require me to do it in one final swoop im gonna be pissed (I don't know yet though lol)

[@sazzasputnik197]

@@TheMrKeksLp You won't be pissed xD

[@statzg0d230]

The rapier weapon which is available anywhere one hit kills most enemies. I killed enemies and bosses alike with this not upgraded weapon for most of my time with the game.

[@LaigledeMeaux]

It also felt more powerful than the legendary sniper rifle right? At least, that's how I felt. THe rapier one shot people regardless of where you hit them. Shoot a guy in the foot? Dead. But with the Sniper it only one shot if you hit them in the head, otherwise it took two shots. Unless you got the version where you could charge up your shots that increase the damage. Very strange. It's so weird that I honestly think I'm misremembering it happen until I experience it the next time I played.

[@thedofflin]

Yep your analysis of the menu was exactly what I thought, I could see all the potential which was completely missed by having this menu as a central mechanic, and the terrible tutorial process which in 2021 is clearly antiquated. I expected to play this like it was Majora's Mask or something, where each character in the world (or at least significant characters) had a set path they followed over the course of a few hours, with very limited time windows to put yourself in the position to take them out safely and also have enough time to get to the following location, all in a single run - no visiting menus to change location or time of day, just one seamless experience. This game fell way short of a 'masterpiece', and I'm embarrassed that reviewers like IGN and especially GameSpot scored it so highly. This game was such an easy miss for me, I feel no shame in refunding it after playing about 4-5 hours.

[@JewTube001]

I played it after Redfall...and it was 10 times better than Redfall. Sure it's still worse than Prey and Dishonored, but it's amazing how much worse Redfall is in comparison.

[@redfin382]

I love to hear you tear apart and praise games. Something that I think but can't figure out how to verbally communicate it, you know how to put it into words. I can't believe the you went with the first logo you had... Did you design that?

[@RiverNihil]

This isnt a review it's deconstruction and vivisection. You've not only de-recommended me, but I'm now trapped in an existential loop of analysis where i can only focus on game design and will never be immersed again. Bravo.

[@Basket69]

God the blood effects are ugly. Some parts of the game visuals genuinely look good, and others just look half-arsed

[@MAGAMER1300]

2 games in a row now arkane on a streak

[@MightyManotaur22]

I'm playing through Returnal right now and it is dope. So much variety and challenge based on the enemies, areas, weapons, and augments you get in a particular run. Disappointed to hear that Deathloop lacks any of that depth.

[@fotografick]

completely different type of game. I'm not surprised at all.

[@tomaszsotysik9438]

@@fotografick It's got nothing to do with the type of game. Which, by the way, isn't "completely" different, as both require repetition in their gameplay.

[@porcin3proph3t4]

"a puzzle with one solution" was the biggest issue for me. Didnt feel like an Arkane game as a result. My worry is Arkane learns that the lack of what makes their games great is what leads to success.

[@Garbageman28]

Already happened. In a noclip doc they say they deliberately scaled back deathloop’s immersive sim elements significantly and internally consider Prey a complete failure. Unfortunately they’re gonna be making more and more stuff like this going forward, it’s just what brings the cash in.

[@FireGiantFoot]

@@Garbageman28 gotta pleased the wider audience and normies huh?

[@aravindpallippara1577]

@@Garbageman28 Fuck - prey had that bad sales? Oh Arkane what are you turning into

[@Garbageman28]

@@FireGiantFoot I do feel for them - they’re a subsidiary of Bethesda. They tried to make immersive sims a mainstream genre for a decade and with the exception of dishonoured 1 didn’t achieve much in terms of revenue. To the investor and parent company, particularly one as notably brutal as Bethesda, the only thing that matters is profit margins. I wish they’d done an obsidian and slowly built back up to being a mainstream name - but it looks like Raphael Colantonio’s new company is carrying the immersive sim torch forward with Weird West.

[@FireGiantFoot]

@@Garbageman28Damn that sucks. sometimes i applaud fromsoftware to never go for this route(maybe because soulsbourne game is so well known because of the "it just like dark souls" XD but still thank god for them for not going to the same route as arkane). But even that bandai still sometimes halt their game development like (ds1 and ds2). i hope bandai fully trust them now so that elden ring will be their most finished game.

[@mauricedubois9390]

I watched the death loop reviews and was excited to play it on Xbox, when it releases. This is not what I expected at all! I thought it would be like the outer wilds with more shooting. An open world where I have to find clues myself and stitch together how to get the perfect run where I kill the main bad guys. Man, what a disappoinment :(

[@Mi_tala]

Never trust ign and other review,better trust him

[@Mantrahiroshima]

It’s not coming to xbox either

[@frickthefuckoff]

@@Mantrahiroshima um, yes it is

[@Mantrahiroshima]

@@frickthefuckoff according to who? Neither sony nor MS have said anything about that. If you’re referring to the blurb at the end of the state of play that’s no guarantee it will happen.

[@zagreus4866]

@@Mi_tala yeah but i just wish this came earlier

[@AceHaBeats]

Nah, Deathloop was dope. It was like untying a knot. Frustrating, and then exhilarating. Based on your review, I will play Mooncrash next. I adored Dishonored, so I adored this. Prey was a revelation, so I'm guessing Mooncrash will be too.

[@henseltbrumbleburg3752]

Mooncrash really is the definition of under-rated. It's a gem within a gem. I'm really excited for Weird West, which also looks to take a lot of inspiration from Mooncrash with the multiply characters.

[@mr.b89]

Genuine question: how is weird west? I'm interested in it but don't know if I should get it

[@michaeliniga7958]

​@@mr.b89 weird west is a great game, its only fault is no New Game Plus

[@labdG]

The way you spoke of how useable traps could be fun in invasions reminded me of a game mode in Sly 3. Two players play against eachother. One player is a thief and the other is a cop who hunts the thief. You could bait eachother into traps. Good memories. :D

[@hawkshot867]

I really appreciate you saying "don't listen to me, listen to the other 9 guys in the room" when you're like the 10th reviewer I've watched on KZbin who has said the generally same thing about Deathloop lol.

[@YaboiBrent07]

No need to apologize man this is exactly how you promote change. A video with a concise thesis, your to hard on yourself, your not rambling but some people do and/or just don’t make points or corrections they just say something is “bad.” Who needs balance?? The game got plenty enough praise. This video is about making a better game.

[@ronin_user]

I played every character in Mooncrash to the utmost. I loved the choices it gave you. I loved that game. I didn’t get to finish all of the story objectives. I got all five out. Just not exactly as required to fully complete the game.

[@SMJSmoK]

I recommend you finish it. The ending is really good IMO.

[@DRDev_VA]

I'm a simple man. I see Hunt: Showdown in a video, I press the thumbs up button.

[@c4sualcycl0ps48]

Skillup always does a fantastic job of describing all of the aspects of a game I want to know about; their successes, their flaws, and how they compare to honest examples. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum so it cannot be critiqued as if it is. While I am now dissuaded from trying Deathloop, Prey: Mooncrash has taken its spot on the list.

[@BurningAzure]

Aside from his No Straight Roads review where I'm not even sure if he even played the game.

[@SrtaWalker]

Just watching this review now for some random reason and man… bless you. I’m like you 100%. I love Dishonored 1 and 2. I ADORE Prey. I was playing Mooncrash the day it came out and I had to delete it from my PS4 after 8 hours because it was becoming an obsession. It was amazing. And when I saw this game I thought the same: mooncrash but period. Boy, I hated it so much I stopped playing after 5 hours or so. And I’m glad that I’m not alone. Thank you for giving me a bit of validation.

[@beeflethals]

hitman trilogy is basically what this should have been

[@jeremiahfigueroa5789]

Prey was so good and there were many ways to get in an un-accessible areas. That game made you think. You could literally scale walls with the glue gun and turn into a mimic and copy a object small enough to get through a grate. Was really underrated

[@lutherheggs451]

Prey was the opposite of good....Prey was pretty garbage, it was OK for about the first hour and then you realize there is only 1 enemy type in the entire game, that the AI is dumb as a bag of dildos and every room you walk into requires that you whack everything in the room to make sure there aren't any mimics hiding in the room before you get attacked by the wildly bland one enemy type that just has different strength flavors.

[@Raffze]

@@lutherheggs451 filtered

[@cancer7636]

@@lutherheggs451 git gud

[@happyfullfridge]

prey migh have been a good game but the console version is borderline unplayable with horrible motion blur and bad framerate, so now I won't get to play it for like the next year

[@shaid1111]

Oh my god finally. It's been a while since I've felt as gaslit by games media than with Deathloop. THIS is the most "original" game of the year!? Get out of here with that silliness. It's not terrible but it is the worst Arkane game and nowhere near as interesting as games media is pretending.

[@bloodczar9353]

Arkane helped with wolfenstien youngblood so def not the worst arkane game they worked on lol

[@shaid1111]

@@bloodczar9353 Nah at least fucking around in Coop is fun. The multiplayer in Deathloop is somehow the worst part...

[@unlyricallyrics4152]

Loved Deathloop and got the plat when it came out. Really fun game. A couple weeks ago I started Prey Mooncrash and wow. It’s a great dlc. Still love Deathloop and prefer it to mooncrash. Both solid imo