It takes special design to keep players exploring, and game developer Arkane, known for its refined aesthetic, has some unexpected sources

This year, there is one game world I have enjoyed exploring more than any other. We’re so spoiled for visually rich open environments these days, it takes something special to keep players immersed, to keep them wandering about looking at stuff, just for the sake of it. Deathloop is a shining example. Developer Arkane is known for its highly refined and individual approach to game art, thanks to the astonishing Dishonored titles, set in a steam-punk dystopia of rats, robotic guards and ornate classical architecture. This time around, the team created a strange Groundhog Day-like adventure set on an island populated by mad scientists and spoiled billionaires, all looking to gain immortality by living the same day over and over again, thanks to a localised space-time phenomenon.

The island of Blackreef, where the whole game takes place, provides a fascinating example of how Arkane works. At first, the team built a timeline to explain the variety of natural and human-made features in each region. The location itself is a remote, wintery outpost, heavily inspired by the Faroe Islands, with craggy cliffs and windswept grasslands. On top of this are the militarised buildings constructed by a group of military researchers who arrived in the 1930s to investigate the strange phenomena. And then, decades later came Aeon, a cabal of rich tech bros, looking for a new playground. “It was kind of like if Elon Musk had said, ‘let’s go to the Bermuda Triangle and study it’!” explains art director Seb Mitton. “They came with all this money and realised they could create these strange events. They said ‘we’re going to start this loop and we’re going to live forever.’”