The video game "Deathloop" is mysterious, but hides little secret.

In order to create something mysterious, it takes more than the withholding of information on display.

As a player you wake up in the role of the bearded leather jacket wearer Colt (fabulously spoken by Jason E. Kelley).

The name says it all because there is a lot of shooting in this game.

And knifed.

And blown up.

And poisoned.

And pushed.

Axel Weidemann

Editor in the features section.

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The player sees the world through Colt's eyes: at the beginning a snow-covered beach, later bunkers, tunnels, technical facilities, laboratories, libraries and living rooms in the brightly colored style of the sixties - shiny surfaces, round shapes, a touch of Frank Lloyd Wright and “Clockwork Orange” ".

This is strongly reminiscent of the video game "We Happy Few" (FAZ October 9, 2018).

Very soon Colt is contacted by a woman, her name Julianna (also setting the standard for video game dubbing: Ozioma Akagha), who wishes him dead.

Why?

We'd like to know.

There is talk of a loop and that Colt wants to break it and Julianna wants to stop him.

The two would make such a charming couple.

"Eternalists" and "Visionaries"

Colt's research leads him to different places on the subarctic island of "Black Reef" at different times and on the same (recurring) day. It is dominated by a gigantic metal structure that looks as if the cladding of a very expensive and powerful loudspeaker box has been forgotten. The island is populated by colorful, but somehow often unimaginatively masked "Eternalists" and eight "visionaries" who have to be eliminated one after the other. If you are switched off yourself, a helpful device rewinds the time by a few seconds and gives you a second and, if necessary, a third chance. Then it's over. You don't believe anyone who dies three times - or they have to start the respective loop all over again, and everythingwhat he had hoarded in the way of weapons and bits and pieces is perdu.

Before and during this aimless and extremely overwhelming scavenger hunt, the player should fill this large narrative question mark with information confetti, which he reads from slips of paper and documents, spotted on photos and maps, eavesdropped on dictation machines or conversations. All information is collected in a confusing menu, sorted by location and time of day. You can find out door codes, personnel routines, preferences, test arrangements and planned frauds. Everything as always. But all this information has a price: blood. Although the armed mask wearers can be skilfully bypassed, the overall presentation of the game poses the suggestive question: where would the fun be?

The developers at Arkane Studios often give their games an existential spin: If characters from other video games come from the world depicted there and are part of it before the game begins - that is, familiar with how it works, oriented and mature - the heroes often become here thrown into a strange or suddenly transformed world. In the "Dishonored" series, a former bodyguard has to work underground to help the heiress of the imperial throne to her ancestral place. In “Prey” (FAZ of June 18, 2017) the employee of a technology company has to find out why its orbital station is being overrun by liquid shadow beings. In “Deathloop”, too, the character Colt must first “bring himself into possession of what he is”,to grasp the scope of his responsibility to the world.

Does anything follow from this? Is it the change in his methods? No. Now the game has already thrown so many nice toys and special abilities to the side that liquidation gains the quality of an accelerated puzzle game: How do I get rid of as many mask wearers as possible as efficiently as possible? Do I choose the Nexus ability, with which I can connect several enemies with each other and thus the demise of one also leads to the passing of all those connected to him? Do i use grenades? Or do I hack a self-firing system and motion scanner, which then do all of my enemies for me? It all has speed and is grim fun on the first few meters, but soon these routines freeze. They are - perhaps just a matter of taste - not livelier by the nice gimmick that when you play in online mode,friendly players have the opportunity to hijack the game in the form of Julianna and hunt us down.

This shooter just wants to be too smart, wants to add a touch of old-school cool to a genre that has long been socially acceptable - and yet it can only hide its essence badly.

The video game "Returnal", which follows a similar approach - an astronaut stranded on a strange planet, and if she dies while exploring it, she (the loop) starts all over again - was more honest, simpler and at the same time more unusual.

Still, it holds more mystery than this cheeky spiral of death.

After all, the fact that even death is connected with the gain of knowledge is comforting.

Deathloop

is available for the PlayStation 5 and costs around 60 euros.