Deathloop came out on September 14th, 2021, after years of trailers and anticipation. Fans of Arkane Studios got exactly what they expected from the studio; a bunch of large playgrounds to explore and uncover while learning different ways to play with the environment and AI. The game is also being exposed to lots of newcomers intrigued by the concept and drawn in by the impressively high critical reception.
While a lot has been said about the unique gameplay, the story is a whole other issue. Deathloophas great writing, but there are a lot of narrative threads that get lost in the shuffle while players are focused on killing all the Visionaries. The most confusing parts of the narrative are cleared up below for anyone confused by the story. Many of these questions are answered by hidden dialog, documents, and audio logs players might miss if they are mostly focused on accomplishing objectives.
6 Julianna And Colt’s Relationship
Players start out with a simple objective and little context. Colt only knows that Julianna wants to kill him over and over again. Throughout the course of the game, players discover the nature of Julianna and Colt’s relationship. Turns out, Julianna is Colt’s daughter. This bothers Colt at first because the earlier dialog makes him think they used to date.
Colt does not remember, but Julianna hates Colt because he started trying to kill her constantly in an attempt to get her out of Blackreef. After some time, she started to fight back and started endlessly tormenting him by killing him over and over again. The revenge against her father becomes sweeter because eventually Colt’s memory starts to go and he forgets who he is and why he even wants to break the loop.
5 Who Is Lila?
Early in the game Colt finds a picture of a woman by his terminal. He has no recollection of her. Later on, he discovers that this was his girlfriend. Not only that, but this is Julianna’s mother. She was working at operation Horizon, a set of experiments and research done at Blackreef before the AEON program started.
When Julianna finally reveals that Colt is her father, she also mentions that Lila eventually became sick and died after Colt already disappeared. The game reveals little about her other than this, but players do hear her voice in an audio log.
4 What Happened To Colt?
Colt does not know where he came from or who he is upon waking up on the beach at the start of Deathloop. When gathering evidence players put together a relatively solid picture of who he was before the game starts. Like Lila, he was similarly a part of Operation Horizon.
One experiment somehow sent him into the future and he ended up in an asylum. Eventually, the Visionaries broke him out to become a part of the AEON program as the head of security. This backfired against them because Colt started having second thoughts about the idea of the time loop, especially when it came to his daughter’s involvement in it.
3 Why Do People Forget And Colt Remembers?
On the official website for Deathloop, the game explains that the repeating cycle was not the AEON Program’s original intention. The residents originally retained what happened in the prior day, essentially giving them immortality. However, they all start developing amnesia because humans are not meant to live this long and the mind cannot handle the idea of a repeating day stuck in time.
Colt also succumbs to this, which is why he has no memories at the start of Deathloop. However, he does start to retain his memories again and slowly pieces together what happened to him. It is hard exactly to tell why he and Julianna can and others cannot remember the prior days, but Julianna clearly enjoys tormenting Colt by hiding answers just out of reach until she wants him to know.
2 The Three Endings
There are three endings to Deathloop. If players decide to kill Julianna and end the loop, Colt wakes up on the beach again having broken the repeating day. Julianna first acts like she’s going to kill him, but then turns away and leaves in disgust.
Alternatively, players can choose to simply restart the loop here, in which case players enter a new loop as if nothing happened. If players do not kill Julianna when the two characters are pointing guns at each other, Colt wakes up in the next loop and the two decide to spend valuable time together killing visionaries. None of the endings have been confirmed as canon, however.
1 Why The AEON Program?
Groundhog Day-style time loops are often things characters wish to avoid. However, the Visionaries voluntarily create the time loop for several reasons. The idea of immortality is intriguing to the different Visionaries for different reasons.
The scientists want endless time to continue their scientific pursuits. Other people like Aleksis and Frank just want an endless party. Regardless of their desires, they all end up with amnesia and repeat the same days over and over again.
Deathloop is out now for PS5 and PC.
