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Arkane Studios is well known for its love of systemic game design, which allows players to approach combat and puzzles in multiple ways. Titles like Arx Fatalis, Dark messiah of power and magic, and Dishonored helped the studio build a massive cult following, and now the team is taking their artistic approach to game design and building something new: Deathloop.
Set on the cold island of Blackreef, Deathloop is a story about a secret society that invents an eternal time loop. There’s just one catch: most people caught in the cycle have no recollection of previous loops. Colt Vahn is the hapless hero who actually remembers everything that happens overnight, and if he is to escape that torment, he must assassinate all eight program leaders. Unfortunately, everyone on the island also wants to kill him.
For this month’s cover, we take a look at the creation of Deathloop. We spent several hours with the designers and artists working on the game and left with a better understanding of Deathloop’s gameplay hooks. Over 14 pages, we break down our exclusive demo in detail, highlight many of Colt’s phenomenal powers, and explain some of the many approaches players can take in the open environments of Deathloop.
But Deathloop isn’t the only reason to dive into this problem. We also review all of the big announcements from BlizzCon 2021, explore the Blaseball phenomenon, and fill six pages with rad gadgets in our spring buying guide. Kimberley Wallace chats with developers at CD Projekt Red, Insomniac, and Ubisoft about their approach to open-world map design. Jeff Cork examines how Team 17 is working with multiple museums to help arcade game preservation efforts. And, Joe Juba works with Axiom Verge 2 before sharing his impressions. Spoiler: The game sounds great.
Print subscribers can expect their issues to start happening in the next few days / weeks. The digital edition of this issue will be released tomorrow afternoon, March 9, for PC / Mac, ios, and google play. You can also get the latest issue through third-party apps on Corner and Light up. To subscribe to the digital or print version, click on here.
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