DEATH LOOP

Game director Dinga Bakaba reveals why we’ll have time to kill in 2021

Where other developers find comfort in the conventional game narrative, the A-to-B race to the credits, Arkane Studios looks upon this structure as a thing to fight against. Its past games, such as the Dishonored series, have enabled us to play with a sense of freedom but in small specific ways. Deathloop explodes its narrative into tiny pieces and expects you to pick up all the bits.

“The structure is a little bit more crazy,” understates game director Dinga Bakaba. He refers to Deathloop as an “experimentation,” a game that builds on Dishonored’s approach to player agency but in new ways. Deathloop represents the crossroads of the old and new for this French studio. Like the art direction, which blends retro-kitsch decor and fashion with sciencefiction technology, Deathloo represents an appealing mix of the old and new.

“The main thing we are experimenting with is the playerdriven campaign,” says Bakaba, who explains how the structure is unexpected. “And because we want to focus on time loop gameplay and the invasion of Julianna, we have a small cast of characters, we have one place so you can build some familiarity, there is one big event and one goal. In a way it’s something more focussed than an epic tale of empires and countries.”

GOING LOOPY