The island of Blackreef is caught in a timeloop, and for the main single-player campaign, you play as Colt. A guy without a recollection of the day before. He’s the perfect mirror image of the player, both confused and unaware of what’s happening. You’re told that 8 visionaries need killing to break the timeloop. How you do that is up to you. It takes some time to understand how Deathloop works, but that moment it clicks – my god. Don’t feel stupid if all the menus and discoveries don’t automatically make sense. They didn’t for me. There’s a hell of a lot to get your head around, but the rewards for your patience more than make up for it.
It never takes itself too seriously. The voice actors for Colt and Julianna are magnificent. So too are the weird and wonderful Visionaries. If I had one negative, it would be the AI is pretty dumb. Stealth is far too easy, and they’re not always aware of you, even if you’re in their peripheral. Other than that, Deathloop is easily one of the best games of 2021, and there’s a reason Bethesda has been promoting it as much as they have.