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Its another beautiful morning on the Isle of Blackreef.
This is how every day starts inDeathloop.
Occasionally, as in theDeus Exseries, it means talking yourself into and out of trouble.
Befitting its name, Deathloopis also a time-loop video game a laGroundhog Day.
In another way, the game is utterly humdrum.
Thats not all, though.
How, then, to explain this sudden deluge of deja vuinducing video games?
BothDeathloopandTwelve Minutes, the two most popular titles that employ this equipment, offer an answer.
But in video games, death can mean little more than the player has made an error.
Its a metaphor for fucking up in a medium reliant on win-fail states.
But theres nothing about win-fail states actually inherent to video games.
It was, and remains, a taut, perfect loop in itself capitalism and virtual entertainment seamlessly entwined.
At various points, the protagonist conveys their growing frustrations, intended to reflect how the player is feeling.
InTwelve Minutes, a puzzle game at its core, this is eerily accurate.
Theyre all loops, he toldInput Mag.
The protagonist just doesnt realize it.
Theres also another difference.
Video games, in the broadest possible terms, arent great at exploring such shifting interiorities.
Deathloopis truly a delightful puzzle box in this regard, filled with all manner of gorgeous tactile interactions.
However, its bread and butter is typical video-game fare slicing and dicing through enemies.
raversof the early 1990s (the loop is an excuse to party ad infinitum).
Only by killing them all at once can you break the loop.
I ask myself the same question each day.
Whats brilliant is that this loop simply feels part of the unknowable strangeness of time at a cosmic level.
It is deeply, existentially terrifying, just as any time loop would be.
Deathloopcharts a different path.
Its content with being a video game as video game, one, ultimately, of insularity and self-reference.
