How Deathloop Works: Breaking Down Arkane’s Brilliant Game Design

In this video essay, Alex Van Aken breaks down the game design of Deathloop and how the game’s level design and time of day system work together to create an amazing immersive sim game. Like the best immersive sims, Deathloop encourages you to use its robust suite of tools to poke at its many systems and environments to differing results, which then allows you to piece together the best route through any place. However, unlike its predecessors, Deathloop doesn’t have one specific mission, ability, or weapon that stands out as the best part of the adventure; instead, it showcases how a game’s many elements can interact with one another to create a truly unique experience. Specifically, the Deathloop level design and time of day system work together to create a setting that invites exploration and houses adaptive characters to provide consequences to player actions. Add in a consistent ruleset and shared design language that permeates every aspect of Deathloop, and you’ll understand why the title is one of