After confirming that Deathloop takes place within the Dishonored universe, Arkane Studios revealed a timeline of events ranging from the Empire of the Isles era to the mid 1960s with the AEON timeloop on Blackreef. The admission may have been a surprise to many fans, though Arklane Lyon studio director Dinga Bakaba did confirm in a recent podcast that Deathloop had a number of hidden Easter eggs sprinkled throughout the maps indicating this was indeed the case.
While both Dishonored and Deathloop share a number of similarities and what was once thought to be odd coincidences, the team began to wonder what would this universe look like in a post-Outsider world. Using environmental storytelling, players could even pick up on some history of Blackreef Island and how it fits into Dishonored's larger world of the Empire of the Isles. Following the confirmation of the Dishonored and Deathloop connection, Arkane has posted a timeline of events, showing the history of Blackreef from the days of the Outsider to the more modern era.
Prior to the events of Dishonored 2's standalone DLC Death of the Outsider, the island of Blackreef was but a simple fishing village, following suit with many other locations invested in similar pursuits like whaling. After the fall of the Outsider, whispers began circulating about Blackreef and some mysterious things that have rumored to be happening there like people going missing, strange anomalies, and more. Cut to 1930 when the Tyvian army has set up experiments on Blackreef called Operation Horizon, a logo and references players can experience while playing, to study the strange occurrences there.
In 1938, Deathloop protagonist Colt Vahn flies an experimental rocket into the Anomaly, but ends up vanishing into his own personal timeloop for 17 years. In 1955, Vahn returns to reality but finds Blackreef deserted, so he repairs a plane, returns to the mainland, and is met with disbelief from the masses regarding his story. While Vahn is institutionalized, the AEON program is founded by Harriet Morse, Egor Serling and Wenjie Evans in the late 1950s. Colt is released and joins Egor on Blackreef to study the remains of Operation Horizon and use the AEON Program to control the timeloop to protect humanity from a looming and uncertain future.
The rest, as they say, is history as the events of Deathloop take hold following the launch of the AEON Timeloop in 1963. For those who have yet to experience Arkane's time bending narrative, the Golden Loop update for Deathloop has added a ton of quality of life tweaks and upgrades, alongside new weapons, abilities, and much more. In addition, the update has seemingly doubled down on narrative with an extended ending and new environmental story telling with marks of the Outsider appearing throughout Blackreef.
Deathloop is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Bethesda
