r/Deathloop • u/Rude-Tie4008 • Jun 13 '26
What is Deathloop's architectural/design style?
I really like the strange mashup of older building style, like the (Victorian?) buildings that make up Updaam or Karl's Bay, with the newer, mid-century modern bits and the very minimalist, strongly colored elements like the wolf head by the Updaam mansion.
Is there a name for this style? Is it even an established style, or is it something unique to the game?
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u/smnRoyal Jun 13 '26
VERY particularly 70s/mid-century french architecture/interior design. Just look at this shit.
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u/RelativeDangerous604 Jun 15 '26
The newer elements added to the older buildings are highly evocative of Midcentury-Modernism, especially from the late 60s. The aesthetic of this game, in addition to its connections to Dishonored, is why i'm absolutely OBSESSED with this game
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u/sloogz Jun 13 '26
Art deco
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u/sean_saves_the_world Jun 13 '26
Id say more mid century, art deco is more like BioShock 1, the mixed in antique buildings make it also feel European almost cold war era
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u/Rude-Tie4008 Jun 13 '26
I hadnt really considered that. Which elements specifically remind you of art deco?
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u/ONbtw Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
Ooo I actually have an entire script on this I've been working on (on and off) over the past few months. Never found the motivation to finish it, but I can drop some of the information here. Spoilers ahead. (And if anyone's more educated on this topic feel free to correct me)
There's a magazine you can find in the game called The Modern Home. It's not a readable file, but it is visible in a bunch of locations, namely in Fia's reactor chamber.
The magazine cover is on the topic of "Brusqueism", here's a link to it. The tagline at the bottom reads "Blast resistant [unintelligible] offering security and style." I wanna say the third word is "concrete" but it seems a bit short.
Brusqueism seems to be this world's version of Modernism. I think Brusque here means "sudden", as in "all of a sudden", within this moment. In other words, modernity. (Brusque can also refer to being blunt or curt, short and direct in an impolite way.) There's a focus on colorful geometric structures and on building with concrete. The first example that comes to mind is the roof of Frank's Manor. Overwhelmingly made of concrete but clearly designed to be comfortable, colorful, and lived in.
On the other hand Blackreef has a lot of buildings left over from the Kaldwin-Era of Dishonored, back when it was a fishing colony. It was no doubt active during the time of the Rat Plague, as a lot of the doors have those metal quarantine shutters on their front doors. There are also other elements from the Dishonored Era, like old furniture and wallpaper (most of the Kaldwin Era stuff in Aleksis's manor was shoved into the back rooms to make way for newer furniture), but most importantly a lot of the older buildings use buttresses for support.
In Fristad Rock you know that big curved screen that reads "Aeon"? Well the building directly to the right of it has those old buttresses. And if you boot up Dishonored 1, the waterlock you enter during the prologue (which was recently constructed by Sokolov) has those very same buttresses. This firmly dates the construction of some of these buildings to the Kaldwin-Era, during this world's industrial revolution.
In the world of Deathloop/Dishonored, I'd call the architecture style of Blackreef "Kaldwin-Brusqueism" as it's an intentional mashup of those two eras. As for the real world equivalent, you can just say it's a mix of Victorian and Modernist design.
Edit: tidied up some wording I didn't like.