"Clocks for Den" by robstephaustralia is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Deathloop, released 2021, Developed by Arkane Studios, available on Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5, and PC.
Flow state has numerous points of origin. Leveraging a skill with which one is so familiar it does not require employment of the front lobe. Enjoying the sensory pleasureful clacking of metal keys as you input a recurring data set into its familiar home. Or, simply being familiar with a trail you’ve run hundreds of times. You know to sidestep past the dirt hole, know to tread carefully over the gravel, and know just how high to leap over the fallen tree, even if it’s pitch black and foggy.
I flow slowly through Updaam at night, up until the point where I see the first guard. Without looking I grab the bottle off a pile of boxes to my right and heave it over my left shoulder as I keep flowing through the alleyway.
The stopwatch in my head ticks to thirty and I flow more quickly, first up the side of a building, then across the rooftop to machete one guard, then silently shoot one just out of reach.
I am fully in flow. The clock strikes sixty. I slide down the angled roof to infiltrate a party filled with high-priority targets. Those fools keeping me locked in this time loop.
Deathloop is firing on every cylinder of flow. I am flowing because I have mastered its combination of parkour, gunplay, and supernatural abilities. They are second nature. I am flowing because sliding and jumping and snapping and shooting feels great. And, I am flowing because I’ve played this exact level a dozen times, yet I am not bored.
Here, flow is an opportunity for mastery. It is a catalyst for joy. Deathloop’s Clockwork Repetition is an unexpected delight in an industry obsessed with variance for variance’s sake, and a solution to my roguelike genre fatigue.
I love a love/hate relationship with roguelikes. If you aren’t familiar, and this is my back-of-napkin assessment, the gist is that your character plays through levels that tend to include many of the following:
A high degree of challenge and repetition. You will fail, learn, evolve your play, then try again.
Procedural content. This comes in the form of the level design, weapons and abilities to which you have access, and even enemies you face.
Temporary progression. Your character will grow in power and capability, but this is usually forfeit when you die.
Permanent progression. Though you lose most of your power, these games often entice additional runs with some form of permanent progression.
The love comes from all of the four bullets listed. Each run of a good roguelike is akin to opening the doors of an advent calendar. You obtain brokenly powerful combinations, encounter rare and bizarre situations, and clear a threshold to permanently obtain a critical power you need.
But, at some point I find myself stuck in a desert where I am far from my next meaningful progression (metaphorical oasis?) and up against a wall of difficulty (probably a wall?). This isn’t helped by the fact that I am sick of a cave that isn’t exactly like the cave I entered before, but it is pretty damn close, and the returns on the variance have fully diminished.
Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, at some point the day that never ends loses its charm. You just want to move forward or get off the ride.
I do not think I am the only person to be flustered by this aspect of the genre. Some courageous developer at Arkane advocated they strip procedural levels and enemies, and instead replace it with content that never changes. It is such a blasphemous thought in an industry obsessed with variance and content (see: open world bloat, RPGs that never end) that I’m shocked somebody mentioned it.
But I’m so glad they did. It’s a brilliant idea. Let me explain so that you have sufficient context.
Instead of a series of procedurally generated levels like those found in most roguelikes, Deathloop features four distinct locations, each of which can be accessed at four different times of day. If you visit Updaam in the morning, it is slightly different than Updaam at night in terms of enemy location, activities in progress, or even whether buildings are still standing (as they might have been destroyed at noon).
Updaam at night is always the same as a prior Updaam at night. While you might think this is limiting, having 16 (4 Locations x 4 Times of Day) incredibly dense, interconnected levels, each of which affect each other based on when you enter them and what you do, isn’t exactly a small playing field.
Note: By affect each other, I mean that certain actions have consequences that carry forward throughout the time loop. I might prevent a building from being destroyed, or kill a character in the morning before they take a pivotal action in the evening.
I love the time loop genre of films (Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Palm Springs, Boss Level), probably because in all of them, there is a moment when the protagonist executes a perfect, down to the split-second sequence of moves that are thrilling to watch. I cannot help but grin as I watch it. I know they are doing this because they know every second of the day they cannot escape, but it is awesome and it makes me smile.
Watching Andy Samberg approach the girl in Palm Springs with dance twists and drink catches is like seeing the shortest, most delightful heist in 30 seconds.
The other joy of the time loop genre is that each of them is a puzzle. The fundamental crux of the movie is how to escape. It usually involves sacrifice, or personal growth, or defying a great evil, but there is a puzzle presented almost immediately.
I argue that all roguelike games are cousins of the time loop. Deathloop shares the big branch in the tree. But, who cares? Why does this matter?
Procedural content allows for mastery, but only in terms of tactical execution. Your strategic behavior follows best practices, usually inline with your play style, as you cannot control for the weapons you’ll gain or even the bosses you’ll face. “No plan survives contact with the enemy” is literally baked into the code.
Predictable content allows for both tactical and strategic mastery, both of which are essential to capture that 30 second heist performance and to solve the greater puzzle. My introductory vignette above is fairly spot-on for the game. Sure, you can go in guns blazing, which is sometimes fun and valuable, but you can also memorize guard patterns and placement. Without pausing to think, you can soon pop a guard in the head while flying through the air seconds after teleporting past a gap before which you snapped a neck because you knew it would all be there and decided it would be coolest to take this path.
A really good run in Hades means you happen to get an amazing combination of powers, happen to fight perfectly against a variety of bosses, and happen to see the right items in a store.
A really good run in Deathloop means you followed a route to your objective you chose, with weapons you chose, and powers you chose, to conclude the piece of the puzzle you chose to solve.
The One Cool Thing
Deathloop shifts the roguelike genre ever-so-slightly by introducing Clockwork Repetition.
I am not saying Deathloop is a better game than Hades - or any other roguelike, for that matter. But, I am saying that it explicitly favors player choice and designs for the consequences of this structure. I love a roguelike…until I get stuck. The repetition is still there in the tick tock of Deathloop’s time loop, but the love never waivers.
The repetition aggressively supports my creativity, which is a more dominant need than seeing new things.
Procedural content is somewhat like the metaphorical broken clock, in that it’s right twice a day. Deathloop feels right 24/7.
Season 2 Finale
Each season of Play Kaizen consists of five posts in which I detail One Cool Thing found in five different games. At the end of the season, I gather all of these things and pitch a game that incorporates all of them. I pitched Ghost Parkour for Season 1.
If you want to catch up before the Finale, all five posts from Season 2 are shared below. I encourage all of my readers to also participate and share their ideas in the comments!
The Forgotten City: Tiny Open World
Chorus: Challenging Cheating
Firewatch: Constantly Changing World
Grand Theft Auto V: Three Main Characters
Deathloop: Clockwork Repetition
The schedule ran a bit away from me this season due to dad stuff and work stuff. I’m going to make Season 2 the final season of 2022 and invest in a Season 3 that can release on a more consistent schedule in early 2023. I will [try to] write some bonus posts on a variety of topics until then.
Currently Playing
I started Life is Strange: True Colors and am very intrigued so far. It has a very gripping story that combines typical human drama and relationships, but with a slightly supernatural twist and some disasters that are clearly a catalyst.
Unlike Oxenfree or Firewatch, where you’re constantly moving and engaging in dialog, Life is Strange is a combination of pure cinematics, cinematics with dialog choices (with degrees of impact), or small open areas to take in worldbuilding or gather clues for minor puzzles.
The writing is excellent so far, as are the performances, and the Switch execution is very impressive. But, I wish it were just a hint more interactive. I love how Oxenfree never takes control away from me. It’s what I love so much about the Uncharted series, for example. But, I am engaged and will absolutely finish.
Recommendation
I love Thanksgiving. Ignore its origins and mythology and think about the notion of gathering with family, eating delicious food, and appreciating the good things in one’s life.
Children of Morta is a game that is fundamentally about family and taking care of each other. Mechanically it is a top down action game with a style that is simultaneously retro and sophisticated. It is a roguelike, in which you will fight your way through random levels, fail, grow in power, and return.
There are two things I loved about it. Firstly, you get to use a wide range of characters - the members of the family. Each of them plays very differently, but also, as you improve the individual characters, they help the rest of the family. Secondly, you return to the home after each mission, win or lose, and there are constant small, touching, intimate moments.
I played and loved it on the Switch, but it is available on all platforms.
Edited by Joshua Buergel.