New ‘Deathloop’ deep-dive video provides first look at multiplayer

Protect the loop as Julianna

Bethesda has released a new video providing a first in-depth look at how Deathloop‘s multiplayer works.

In Arkane Studios‘ first-person shooter, the protagonist Colt is trying to break a time loop by assassinating eight targets. One of these targets is Julianna who is tasked with protecting the loop by taking out Colt.

Players are given the choice to ‘Break the Loop’ or ‘Protect the Loop’, with the latter letting them play as Julianna, who will invade another player’s campaign, in a similar fashion to the invasion mechanic in Dark Souls.

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As Julianna, players will start in a hub where they can customise her appearance, as well as her weapons and powers loadout. They will then have a choice of invading a random player’s timeline or a friend’s timeline.

Whereas Colt has a Reprise mechanic that lets him rewind up to two times after dying, effectively giving him three lives, Julianna only has one life, though she will have access to Colt’s other powers.

In the video, game director Dinga Bakaba says this will generally encourage Julianna players to be “more careful, a bit more devious, and use things like traps, deception, misdirection”, and other tricks.

“The ultimate test of the game is playing against someone that is as strong as you, and trying outsmart or overpower them depending on what your playstyle is,” he says.

Deathloop
Deathloop. Credit: Arkane Studios

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Julianna can also be controlled by an AI, although playing as Colt it is also possible to just hide or extract from the map. However, there is also a great incentive for killing Julianna, as she can drop very rare loot, including powerful weapons, power upgrades, and Residuum, a resource used to keep weapons and abilities across loops upon death.

Bakaba also emphasised that playing as Julianna is an optional mode so no progression is gained towards the campaign. The incentive, besides getting to play as the antagonist, is “for the fun of it, creating cool, interesting and memorable stories with other players, and looking cool while doing it”.

Deathloop released on PS5 and PC on September 10.

Elsewhere, Doom Eternal is getting a 6.66 patch, which introduces a new Horde mode.

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