Arkane Studios has shown a knack for developing boundary-pushing first-person games, combining mechanics in new and unexpected ways time and time again. Now, the studio has recently joined the Xbox Game Studios family, followingthe completion of the Xbox-Bethesda deal.
Arkane’s heavily anticipatedDeathloopshares a lot of similarities with its spiritual predecessorDishonoredgames. The availability of the games on Xbox’s Game Pass service makes it one of the best times to revisitDishonoredor better yet try it out for the first time in anticipation of what’s coming. It’s worth noting thatDeathloopis exclusive to PS5, due to existing contracts, but that shouldn’t stop multi-console owners from checking out Arkane’s pedigree ahead of time.
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A Great Appetizer For Deathloop
Dishonoredserves as a great appetizer forthe upcomingDeathloop,having equal parts original ideas and similar ones.Dishonored, just likeDeathloop,is played in the first-person perspective and players need to use their wits and skills to get around the world in an effort to complete the objectives at hand.
Deathloop’s abilities seem quite similar toDishonored, with the Blink ability working in exactly the same fashion. In addition to this, Arkane has already stated thatmultiple abilities fromDishonoredwould be making a return. Thus, players spending time withDishonoredwould get a firm sense of what to expect fromDeathloop, as well as some well-needed practice.Dishonoredfeatures a whole host of options for tackling the assassination at hand, containing both low and high chaos options. Arkane encourages players to experiment with these abilities quite often by way of gated content such as additional opportunities and multiple endings.
Deathloop’s clockwork conceptwould require players to experiment quite a lot with different routes, methods, and abilities to escape the loop. Having previous experience with such replayability concepts would certainly help gamers a lot.
It’s The Best Time To Play Dishonored Anyway
While playingDishonored for theDeathloopsimilarities is perfectly fine, it seems to be the perfect time to revisitDishonoredanyway. The heavily-anticipated acquisition of Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax Media has finally been completed.Xbox has added 20 highly acclaimed Bethesda titles to its Game Passcatalog as a token of gratitude for its fans, and theDishonoredgames have luckily made the cut.
In addition to this,Dishonoredhas also made the cut in receivingFPS boost patches on the Xbox Series consoles. Fans ofDishonoredwould remember the sub-30-fps performance of the original release on the Xbox 360 and the PS3. The loading times for the game also proved tiring, as it could take up to a minute to get back into the game. Considering the frequent deaths and reloads that the player is expected to have, experimentation and retries can become quite the chore.
The next-gen upgrade in the form ofDishonored Definitive Editiondid little in the name of improvements, falling to the same issues that plagued the original release. However, players on an Xbox Series X/S get the best possible console version of the game.Dishonoredruns at 60 fps without any hiccups, and it takes just a couple of seconds to get back in the game. Players who were put off by these issues now have a solid reason to revisit the title on next-gen hardware, as well as newcomers can enjoy the game without any of the performance issues.
Deathloopis set for release on PC and PlayStation 5 on July 15, 2025.
