Gameplay is, indeed, king, particularly in titles with combat as refined and timing-based as Demon’s Souls. Bluepoint Games’ 2020 PS5 remake is about as polished a remake as one can find, with a complete visual overhaul, more balanced combat, and a re-recorded orchestral score elevating the 2009 classic to current-gen standards without sullying or obscuring the original vision whatsoever. The Soulslike wave is currently one of the liveliest subgenres in the industry, and From Software’s Demon’s Souls, the gnarled, punishing, poetic masterpiece that helped start it all, still stands as one of the best games of its ilk. The guns, Slabs, and Trinkets you employ throughout the campaign make for a truly flexible gaming experience that allows you to play in the style you want (a promise many games make but don’t keep) and harnesses the power of its mind-bending concept exceptionally well. But what Arkane has put forward here isn’t a simple retread, with the time loop element adding a palpable sense of both permanence and impermanence to the game world and the stealth gunplay. On its surface, Deathloop looks and plays a lot like Dishonored, which isn’t a bad thing. And the payoff to Colt and Julianna’s homicidal tango is one of the most unsettling and divisive twist endings in recent memory. The time loop concept is handled perfectly, with Colt’s looping day on Blackreef opening up unique gameplay opportunities (like sticking and unsticking items in time via Residuum) as players attempt to uncover the true nature of the events on the island piece by piece. It’s difficult to elevator-pitch what’s so brilliant about Deathloop because its greatest virtue really lies in the sum of its parts. But in truth, the thing that brings the whole game together and acts as the glue that makes Astro’s latest adventure so memorable is the infectious soundtrack, which somehow makes the PS5 and its synthetic innards seem cute. The meta-ness of the game’s environments (GPU Jungle, SSD Speedway) is a charming way of showing off the sheer power of the console while also establishing an emotional connection between the player and the hardware they’ve just spent an inordinate amount of money to get their hands on. It’s one of the most polished, inventive, adorable games you can play on PS5, and it serves as a beautiful welcome gift for those hopping aboard the current-gen hype train. But this PS5 hardware showcase, starring the eponymous bobbly robot, is precisely that. When it comes to console pack-in games, we don’t necessarily even presume they’ll exist, let alone be an essential title in the console’s library (á la the iconic Wii Sports). It’s not that Astro’s Playroom blew away expectations.
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