Deathloop is not the first game to deal with time loops, nor the first game to be set in the 60s, though it might be the first to combine those too, but as this is Arkane, that was not enough, so they added an extra mechanic for players to deal with, Julianna Blake, an assassin who is leading the island in their hunt of you.

How you first meet Julianna, well I won’t spoil, but you will see her again and again and again, in fact she will pop up near you, should you be on the path of one of the Visionaries. Should you visit a location where they are not in, the odds of running into her are slim, not zero though, more on that in a bit. Julianna is like you; she has powers and has a mission, only her mission is to kill you, why is something I can’t talk about, but she is taking it quite personally.

The reason why Julianna is such a danger to you, is that she is relentless in her pursuit, driven by the game, she will stalk you, meaning that if you think you are alone, you are probably not. While she is quite determined to kill you, she is not a terminator, meaning you can kill her and if you do then your Reprise ability, the one that lets you rewind time a little, gets refilled, allowing for you to keep on kicking longer. That ability alone is going to be a blessing because Colt is alone on the island, with Julianna, the eight Visionaries and the hordes of foes in your way, Colt will have a hard slog the whole time.

The most dangerous part of Julianna though is that she can be controlled by another real-world player, so if your settings allow it, someone can invade your game and then the ultimate game of cat and mouse is on. The game is thinking of you though, you can have it set to all, so anyone can join, or you can choose to have it set to friends only, meaning only those in your circle of mates can take part, or you can ignore all that and leave it off, letting the game take control of her.

But again, she is like Colt, she has powers, she has skills, and she also has a game mode of her own, everything you have seen in trailers and such so far, has been from the point of view of Colt, in what Arkane are calling the ‘Break the loop’ mode. If you want a change of pace, you can take on the ‘Protect the loop’ mode, where you become Julianna and must take down Colt. It is important to note that playing this mode does not progress the story, there is no secondary tale to be told, but the game will reward you for taking Colt down.

Perhaps the most unique thing about playing as Julianna, if you see Colt in the world, but you can’t quite get to him, you can tag him, which tells all the NPCs on the island, where he is, letting them go after him, whilst you get ready for the encounter. The same also happens when you are playing as Colt, if you are spotted by any NPC, they can radio into Julianna, which summons her to the area and if someone is playing as her, they will get a notification on their map to say Colt is over there.

When I play, I am sure to let someone invade my game for the sake of seeing how it works out, but I am also likely to turn it off and just deal with the AI, but what about you? Given the unique dual nature of the game, with options to protect the loop or break it, what side of the divide will you fall on?

Deathloop will arrive on PC and PlayStation 5 on September 14