Deathloop Blackreef island was inspired by Edinburgh

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Deathloop's island of Blackreef was inspired by Edinburgh in Scotland, developer Arkane was revealed.

The developer revealed the small new fact about the island of Blackreef earlier today on November 1, through the tweet you can see just below. It's interesting to note that developer Arkane particularly took inspiration from Edinburgh's dark stone buildings, which in particular are peppered throughout the Royal Mile area of the city itself.

#DEATHLOOP Dev Insights:Blackreef is inspired by Edinburgh, Scotland, with dark shades of stone facades made from the rock present on the island. Arkane also took inspiration from the Faroe Islands, to give it that “isolated village” feel. pic.twitter.com/BzBiqTaDm9November 1, 2021

Additionally though, Arkane also took inspiration from the Faroe Islands for Blackreef. Part of the Kingdom of Denmark, the nation is comprised of 18 islands in total, located between Iceland and Norway in the North Atlantic Ocean. This, the tweet from Arkane says above, went a long way to forming Blackreef island's "isolated village" feel.

Even after dozens of hours exploring Blackreef island, it's still fascinating and eye-opening to find out the chief inspirations behind Arkane's new creation. When you've spent hours combing Blackreef as both Colt Vahn and Julianna Blake, gunning down scores of foes as you go, it's nice to step back from the chaos and carnage for a moment and appreciate your surroundings.

Deathloop does have some aesthetic similarities to Dishonored, Arkane's series of the past decade, and there's some speculation that the games actually share a world. One easter egg seems to heavily imply that both games takes place in the same world, but when you consider the nature of Deathloop's time loop, anything could be waiting in the wider world outside Blackreef.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.