CRUELTY LOOP - A Reviews by the Myself
6Deathloop is a very different game than anything Arkane has ever done. It might use a lot of Dishonored's gameplay. But, the game underneat is nothing like them. What it is, is actually hard to define. It's kind of a roguelike, only without much randomisation. In fact, there's a lot of buzz words, like ''asymetric multiplayer'', that could be used to define it. But, it's so hard to categorise that it confused many reviewers into giving it a perfect score, based on uniqueness alone.
Despite that, it's not a complicated concept. The core idea of it is very simple, to some degree. It's basically just a single player experience, with partial permadeath, where other players can invade your game. It's very obvious that the idea behind the concept came first and everything else was built and written to accomodate it. But, the execution of said idea is kind of exemplary. Arkane's talents and, to some degree, even their flaws are on full display, here.
It feels like an Arkane title trough and trough. One big caveat being the stronger emphasis on action. Which, at first, I was kind of miffed about. But, once I put a bit more tought into it. I actually saw it as some sort of benefit. As impressive as Dishonored may be as an action game. Its narrative acted kind of as a deterrent to a lot of the fun. I'd want to go around creating a Rube Goldberg machine of chaotic fury. But, my little bleeding liberal heart simply wouldn't be able to take it.
Which brings me to Cruelty Squad. How does it bring me to Cruelty Squad? It sort of doesn't... But, there really is no appropriate context to talk about something as insane as Cruelty Squad. Usually, when talking about two games at once, I'd try to give them both their own section of the video, like a regular human would. But there ain't nothing regular or human about the creative vomit explosion you see on screen.
It should be mentioned that Cruelty Squad was at no point intended to be part of this review.
It's presence in it is as violating as everything else in the game. It is an anomaly that very confidently walks ass backwards into a level of brilliance the likes of which humanity as never seen. The only real connection between it and Deathloop is the fact that they're both immersive sims with a dedicated button for kicking. But even the immersive sim stuff is debatable. Deathloop isn't really quite deep enough in it's core gameplay to compare to something like System Shock or Dishonored, in my opinion.
Technical issues aside, Deathloop is one of the most well oiled machine I've ever seen. It's true masterful game desing trough and trough. It's just not very interesting. It has some of the most human characters in an Arkane game so far. But, it's nothing memorable and, outside of its rather unique concepts and overall structure, it's hardly anything special. It's a very good popcorn flick, and little else.
I liked it. But, it's far from my favourite Arkane title. And, as a shooter, it's not very interesting.
As for Cruelty Squad? Well... I HAVE NOT HAD A CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE IN MY LIFE LIKE SURVIVING EDGED WEAPONS. It might be the greatest immersive sim I've ever played. It's everything I love about System Shock 2's gameplay mixed with everything I love about video games in general.
It's 90% miserable, ugly and terrible and 10% an absolutely unskipable masterpiece that will stick with you all the way into your grave and long after.
The game is an off-putting, disgusting experience that no other medium could ever hope to replicate. I don't think a movie where the protagonist casualy goes around eating people and selling the remaining organs on the stock market would do well on the box office. But, in a game, it's the kind of insane satire that somehow manages to make a strangely powerful statement. I don't know what that statement is. I'm not even sure that statement would be translatable to any human language. But it sure is powerful.
Am I the only one who considers Mortal Kombat 11 to be the greatest fighting game of all time? Is that a controversial oppinion? I'm not necessarily a fan of fighting games, in general. I love Dead or Alive 2 a whole bunch and I guess Tekken 3 is nice. But, I mostly don't care for them. That being said, Mortal Kombat 11, despite me being somewhat lukewarm on the previous two entries, just wont let go of my heart.
I absolutely love it.