Ahead of the latest State of Play presentation, there were more than a few people questioning why Deathloop - the first-person time loop action game from Arkane Lyon - would be getting a deep dive, seeing as how it had already been shown off several times before at various events. Well, with the possibility that Horizon Forbidden West could be delayed until 2022 (it is currently scheduled for a Holiday 2021 release, but it has been hinted that a delay could still happen), Deathloop could very well end up being the last big console exclusive for the PS5 this year, so it stands to reason that Sony would want to promote it heavily. Or it could just be that the game looks really impressive and deserves the attention. Whatever the reason, the latest State of Play gave us nine minutes of new gameplay as our protagonist Colt hunts down one of their eight targets, Aleksis “The Wolf” Dorsey.

Game Director Dinga Bakaba walks us through one possible way to take out The Wolf, who is spending the day preparing to host a masquerade party. Figuring out how to get to him involves gathering information about his whereabouts through various loops, overhearing key details by spying in on conversations between the other inhabitants of Blackreef. However, you also have to figure out how to get into position to pull off the perfect assassination, which involves a few techniques that may seem familiar to those who have played one of Arkane's other works, the Dishonored series...just with more grenades, guns, and hacking.

The latest clip, however, introduces a few new twists. For one, it seems as though players will come across mysterious glowing messages scribbled everywhere that it seems like only Colt can see, which might assist them in various ways. Then there are unlockable skills like Karnesis and Reprise, which allow you to fling enemies around or rewind time for Colt up to two times each loop, respectably. And killing Visionaries like The Wolf can unlock new abilities or upgrades, as seen with the boost to Karnesis after Aleksei's unfortunate demise. Killing enemies like them also earns Residuum for Colt, which can spent between loops in order to preserve gear and abilities, and unspent Residuum can be picked up if Colt should die, Dark Souls-style.

But while all of those are impressive gameplay twists, there's a notable twist story-wise when it comes to Julianna, the rival assassin (controlled by either another player or the AI) who can hunt Colt down and at virtually any given time and possibly kill them. Apparently, she's a bit chatty with Cole, contacting him on the radio throughout the game. More importantly, she's also the only one on the island not suffering from amnesia due to the time loop, and as seen at the end of the walkthrough, she also appears to have some history with Colt. What does all of this mean? We'll find out when Deathloop comes out for the PS5 and PC on September 14.