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When you kick someone in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Deathloop, you really feel it. Hit the kick button next to an enemy and Colt's military boot emerges from the bottom of the screen, like some mighty denim-clad leg fist, and slams into them with the force of a thousand hurricanes. You hear a deep thud, and the unfortunate receiver of this brutal foot-justice is sent hurling backwards with a comical amount of force. Colt kicks like a freight train, and the resulting explosion of floppy ragdoll physics is exaggerated to great comic effect. The victim doesn't just fall over or fly backwards: they spin wildly. This is really the key to why kicking people in Deathloop is so fun: the extravagant rotation of an enemy as they twirl into the abyss. I've done it a hundred times, and every time feels like the first time. It is a violent delight.
The true beauty of the Deathloop kick emerges when you see an enemy standing next to a ledge or by a body of freezing, icy water. This is an invitation—nay, a command—to hammer that kick key with all your might and send that sucker soaring majestically to their doom. Whether they whirl into a bottomless chasm or get dunked in the deadly drink, there's no feeling quite like it. Deathloop is full of weird supernatural powers and outlandish weapons, but there's just something exquisite about the ferocious, brute force simplicity of that kick. When all else fails, or when you're in a tight spot, you can always rely on your boot. Surrounded by enemies and out of ammo? Batter that kick button and get the hell outta there. You can even unlock an upgrade for Colt's teleporting Shift power that accompanies every kick with a ridiculously powerful, earth-shaking sonic boom.
When it comes to great video game kicks, this isn't Arkane's first rodeo. In 2006 the studio launched Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, a cult action RPG with an equally satisfying foot-punch. Slamming your leather boot into knights, orcs, and zombies is immensely satisfying, and actually has a tactical benefit too. You can kick wooden supports, dropping barrels on enemies and crushing them to death. This is an early example of the kind of chaotic, emergent gameplay that would eventually come to define the studio's games. Dark Messiah's kick is sensational, but Deathloop is on a whole other level thanks to 15 years of advances in physics and animation. The Eternalists, Deathloop's bad guys, really sell it. It's also entirely possible, while hunting Colt as Julianna online, to kick him to his death. I haven't managed it myself yet, but of Deathloop director Dinga Bakaba pulling it off.
Kicking people in games is nothing new. Duke Nukem was doing it back in 1996 with his famous . But you can tell when a developer has really spent time making one feel good. Deathloop's kick is not only an incredibly useful tool for breaking that infernal loop, but a triumph of sound, animation, art, and programming. Every element comes together beautifully, and the simple act of sticking a boot-covered foot out and punting an enemy over a fence, into a pit, or out of a glass window becomes more than the sum of its parts. There's a lot I love about Deathloop: the level design, the retro aesthetic, the killer time loop premise, the asymmetrical multiplayer. But sitting right up there with all of that is Colt's chunky footwear of destruction. Firearms can jam or run out of bullets, but the power of The Boot is forever, and I will never tire of introducing it to the Eternalists' asses.
