Deathloop Will Occasionally Trip You Up With Inconsistent Time Loops

As it turns out, Deathloop won't feature a time loop that acts as a perfect clockwork system--even your best laid plans may become unraveled because of a little déjà vu. In an interview, game director Dinga Bakaba reveals as much, adding that this will result in inconsistencies in the time loop based on your actions.

"This time loop is a dirty process," Bakaba said in an interview published in PlayStation Official Magazine's February 2021 issue. "There is a limit to this, so an experienced player will know about all of the computations. These are rare, and most targets have a predictability."

As an example, the game director talks about how a Visionary--one of the main targets you must kill to end the loop--may go for a gun after you mess with them, only for you to gun them down. In the next loop, this may cause the same enemy to suffer a case of déjà vu and get the funny feeling that hunting you down won't work out for them. As a result, they may try something else even if you interact with them in the same way, forcing you to enact a contingency plan.

To help you out a bit, there are some ways that you can break the rules of the time loop as well, ensuring you don't always start out from square one at the outset of every loop. "Very early on Colt will find that this island has a few weird rules and the time loop is not the only thing influencing the island," Bakaba told POM. The game designer remained coy about what this other force is, only adding that it would allow you to upgrade Colt in more permanent ways before jumping into another loop.

"And because of that 'thing' there is some progression, it's not a roguelike," Bakaba clarifies. "There are powers, perks, weapons, and upgrades to unlock… you can basically build an arsenal." We'll have to wait and see what that something is, though not for much longer as Deathloop is scheduled to launch for PS5 and PC on May 21.