Bethesda’s Latest Release is Hiding Something
“Welcome to the Aeon Program! Picture your perfect you!” is the opening line to Deathloop‘s story trailer, unveiled at today’s Playstation 2021 showcase event. Scattered between the cheesy propaganda videos for this definitely-not-evil corporation are flash-forwards – a violent future that you’ll be playing through. The scattered clips become more and more prominent until the main character’s voice comes in, tells the clips to shut up, then cuts to black.
A strong start to be sure – while the setting isn’t a wholly new concept, the real gem seems to lie in execution. Deathloop, set to release in less than a week, uses mystery as the main driving force behind its plot. Playing as an amnestic Cole (who might have, at one point, been the head of security for this facility?), you’ll work your way through the chaotic and the cryptic in your quest to figure out what these people want from you.
The trailer sets up a ton of potential plot threads. Who broke all the airplanes? Why is everyone wearing masks? Those “mysterious messages” Cole mentions will likely be a core aspect of the game’s plot, considering the impact they’ll inevitably have on play (How much do you wanna bet that the origin of the messages was Cole all along? He’s amnestic after all, and the game’s got a heavy focus on a time loop).
On one final note – this might be a bit conspiratorial, but there another hint you may have missed on your first watch. Cole seems to have a designated spot where he wakes up after a loop reset. And when he does, the camera always pans over a pile of scrap. The arrangement of the scrap there seems a bit too intentional – two identical round bits above a long triangle? It has the same kind of geometric simplicity you’d see in a corporate logo. It feels like it was deliberately placed, but the surrounding context claims that it’s a random arrangement of parts. If you decide to pick up Deathloop, I’d advise keeping an eye out for logos like that. The trailer never said what it lead to, but it’s gotta lead somewhere.