Dishonored by Arkane

[Wirdschowerdn]

Raphael & Harvey interview @RPS

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/07/09/dark-futures-part-4-raphael-harvey-arkane/

 

[sea]

Looking forward to this one. As others have said, Arkane have a good track record. Bethesda as a publisher are generally pretty good with supporting their titles, and it's no worse than working with 2K, or Rockstar, THQ, etc., perhaps even better, as Bethesda seems to fuck around a lot less with their developers than others.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

Arkane is an exellent studio, though I hope stealth is better-done than in Dark Messiah, where it ended up sucking goat turd.

I'd rather see Arx 2. Please!

 

[Esquilax]

Looking forward to this one. As others have said, Arkane have a good track record. Bethesda as a publisher are generally pretty good with supporting their titles, and it's no worse than working with 2K, or Rockstar, THQ, etc., perhaps even better, as Bethesda seems to fuck around a lot less with their developers than others.

Interesting. However, I don't know much about Bethesda as a publisher, so I could be getting something wrong. I'm curious: what do you base your opinion on Bethesda as a publisher on?

Unfortunately, the titles they have published have tended to be utter shit, however. Can't recall a single game they've released that hasn't been panned by critics. Brink is a recent example, but there's also Rogue Warrior, which pretty much everybody hated.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Those who say that Bethesda is a good publisher might want to recall Dark Corners of the Earth. The game that had barely any publicity, barely any (if any?) patches and some other wacky stuff that I can't remember, but I remember clearly that Bethesda did a royal fuck up on that one.

Of course, it might be that their habits have changed drastically over the years, but remember Alamo.

 

[Cassidy]

I have a small hope stealth in this one won't be "press crouch to become semi-invisible in environment with no difference between staying in shadows or in plain light where sound from running/walking doesn't matter either and press AWESOME BUTTON to see the direction every enemy is facing in your quest compass, or to become invisible for a time then wait for cool down before pressing it again."

Will wait its release and see how it ends, and if it shows promise, I'll play its demo to see if it's worth buying(demo or "demo", depending on their decision about that). If it doesn't fail and sells well, that would be one piece of good news after the truckload of failures delivered in the last years.

 

[Roguey]

Raphael & Harvey interview @RPS

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/07/09/dark-futures-part-4-raphael-harvey-arkane/

Raphael Colantonio & Harvey Smith:...They’re afraid of unusual settings, new gameplay features, or in cases something specific, like, “post apocalypse.” Then Fallout 3 or Bioshock comes along, the perfect examples of awesome games that, according to common industry thinking, had every reason to fail: Cross-genre, weird world, slower-paced, story-oriented titles that took gameplay risks and gambled creatively in general.

However, for sure, the problem has come to pass that people have predicted for a long time, that games would get so expensive that only a few publishers would be able to fund large games, and that these would get super conservative in terms of taking creative risks…megalithic, tent pole events as Don Simpson describe in the sickening, but prescient film production book High Concept. Despite that, a few groups every year manage to awe us and deliver: Bethesda, Valve, Rockstar.

Uh huh...
I'm predicting this will turn out to be more like Dark Messiah: Elements. Y'know, the dumbed-down-for-consoles-and-console-gamers port that was released two years after DM.

 

[Burning Bridges]

It was not really a secret that Arcane was going to announce a new game. They have been talking about it for two years.

But this. I had hopes that it would be Arx2. But Bethesda could never allow them to make a better RPG, after they became Bethesdas slaves. (Perhaps that's why they call it "dishonored".)

I am getting MoMM vibes. A decent but consolified action game with Arcane qualities.

One must wait until more info is released.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Arkane had a project years ago with EA, but EA being EA just jumped off and the deal was dead. Same with The Crossing.

As for Dishonored, I think Smith once (before the announcement) described it as Deus Ex + Half Life + Ultima Underworld.

Sounds good enough to me.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/d...ve/2011/07/11/getting-to-know-dishonored.aspx

 

[Peter]

Beat me to it, Morgoth.

The fact that they keep emphasizing the involvement of Bethesduh is really annoying. I trust Arkane not to fuck up too badly, though.

 

[Zed]

They should make an Arx Fatalis sequel instead. A sequel without the dumb mouse-casting-shit.
On the other hand I'm glad they're attempting something that I guess could be considered "risky" in today's business.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Yes, because the world needs more sequels (Ultima Underworld ripoffs).

Dishonored seems to be set in some kind of 18th century Imperial Japan or something, judging from the first screenshot.

I'll play anything from Arkane, even if they decide to make a fucking Eurotrash teen bullshit romance simulator.

 

[Zed]

Yes, because the world needs more sequels (Ultima Underworld ripoffs).

Yes, the world needs more UU ripoffs. I'm glad we're agreed.

 

[hoverdog]

I really liked both of Arkane games, so I'm very much looking forward to the next one. I'd kill for an Arx Fatalis game with DMoMM-style fighting...

 

[Berekän]

I'd kill for an Arx Fatalis game with DMoMM-style fighting...

This.

Judging from the screenshot I don't know If I'm going to like the setting but if it is anything like Dark Messiah then I'm sold.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

I don't recall any Ultima Underworld ripoffs since 1993...

Yeah, we do need Ultima Underworld. Bad. Dungeon Crawl is a dead, but great, genre. Better than GoW clones.

 

[Tycn]

Hopefully the combat system won't be as simplistic as Dark Messiah this time.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Hopefully the combat system won't be as simplistic as Dark Messiah this time.

Press Y, B, L1 and R2 to slash once.

It will be Arkanes first console game.

 

[Konjad]

New IPs? Nah, we don’t do that anymore, sunshine. Too risky, see. People only want to buy things they’ve already heard of. Or is it that publishers are only prepared to invest enormous marketing budgets in what they consider surefire hits already, thereby damning their less-established names to relative obscurity even before they make it out the starting gate? I forget. Bethesda’s one of few big publishers still prepared to take a risk. Granted, Hunted was a bit of a misfire and Brink didn’t quite scale the heights we were hoping, but that makes it doubly pleasing that Beth are continuing to push new names.

Just as excitingly, this is the highly mysterious new game from Arkane -they of Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Bonus – they recruited Deus Ex veteran Harvey Smith as co-creative director. Bonus bonus: they also recruited the visual architect of Half-Life 2′s City 17, Viktor Antonov. It’s called Dishonored. We barely know anything at all about it. We’re really very excited.

The game’s detailed in the next issue of de facto exclusive-grabber GameInformer, but they’ve put out the cover and the broadest overview for us to thrill to in the meantime:

“It’s a game about assassination where you don’t have to kill anyone. It’s a game about infiltration where you can set up traps and slaughter the entire garrison of an aristocrat’s mansion rather than sneak in. It’s a game about brutal violence where you can slip in and out of a fortified barracks with nobody ever knowing you were there. It’s a game about morality and player choice where the world you create is based on your actions, not navigating conversation trees.”

It sounds like Thief and Hitman and Deus Ex and STALKER and none of them. It looks like Half-Life 2 (quite a lot, in fact) and BioShock and 1984 and none of them.

It’s a game, in a year in which we’ve so far only been told to be excited about things we already know pretty much what to expect from, to be excited about.

It’s called Dishonored, it’s due on PC and playboxes next year, and it’s going to be a real pain in the arse for any games journalist with their word processor set to British English.

Seems like a good time to revisit our interview with Harvey Smith and Arkane founder Raf Colantonio about the legacy of Deus Ex from last year, and pore over it for clues…

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/07 ... ishonored/
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/disho ... nored.aspx

 

[Icewater]

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Peter]

http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=61532

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

From neogaf

- The Outsider: "This supernatural being is the source of all magic in Dishonored's world, including the many powers at the player's disposal." It's described as being "part devil, part angel, and entirely ambiguous." They mention that you will meet the Outsider at some point.

- The Heart: "The so-called heart is a mystical object that beats faster as you face your objectives, giving the player some basic guidance to keep them on track in Dishonored's large levels. More disturbingly, it whispers directly into your mind, pulling secrets from the consciousness of others and sensing interesting things within the world that lie beyond mortal senses." They note that you can learn something about every named character in the game with it and that using it may come with consequences.

- The powers that you do have won't include stuff like fireballs. One of the powers gives you the ability to summon a swarm of AI controlled rats that react realistically in the world. They'll clean the bones of downed enemies which will make it easier for you to hide them. They point out that the swarm could cause trouble for the player if an NPC freaks out since that could cause more guards to come to the area. The rats can also attack the player if there isn't a more appealing target. You can also possess one of them in order to escape through tunnels

- You'll be able to possess animals or humans. Humans will have to be unaware of your presence in order to possess them

- Other powers will include Bend Time, Windblast ect.

- Powers can be upgraded with runes. They note that you won't find enough runes on a single playthrough to upgrade everything.

- Gadgets will include spring razor traps, sticky grenades, and different types of ammunition like sleep darts.

- You'll be able to collect whalebone charms that will give you certain buffs like mana refill or a health boost. You'll only be able to find "12 or so" of the 40 whalebone's in a single playthrough. They'll be selected randomly from a master list.

- They refer to the AI as "analog AI". They'll have a number of characteristics that are modified on the fly instead of having a simple alert or neutral as you find in most games. One example is that two guards talking to each other will have narrower "vision cones" and their hearing will be duller in comparison to a guard patrolling on his own. Light, mental state, ambient noise ect. will all impact how the AI reacts.

- They're trying to avoid having the player feel like the AI is cheating. One way they're doing that is by rarely spawning new enemies, and when they do it'll only be because an alarm went off. When they do spawn they'll try to make it realistic such as having reinforments come through the backdoor of a mansion instead of just magically having them pop up near the player.

- They talk about different ways to disable a watchtower. One is a traditional way of avoiding the spotlight and enemies while moving slowly. "In Dishonored, however, you could alternatively climb a building and use a combination of celerity (supernatural speed), your natural double-jump, and blink (a short-range teleport) to cover a surprising distance in the air and land on the top of the tower itself."

- Their lead level designer wanted them to remove celerity-double jump-blink combo once he saw it being used because of a fear that people would use it to get out of the map

- They note that the levels are designed to encourage a lot of vertical experimentation

- On the type of experience that they want to deliver "Games can either be described as rollercoasters - which is all crafted and very high-drama - or that time when you were 16 and you and your friend broke into an abandoned house and you had the most intense moments waiting for the door to open, and then there were moments where, 'Ah, I expected something grand to happen but nothing happened; it was just an empty room.'" He (Harvey Smith) said that they want the latter.

- Listening to random conversations going on in the world may give you hints on how to complete objectives differently

- At one point in their demo they were shown a thug going after a woman in an alley. If the player just went right in they'd be ambushed by the thugs friends. You have multiple ways to rescue her, one of which is to find and take out the ambushers before rescuing the woman

- You can go around causing a lot of bloodshed or you can go with a much more clean/stealthy route. Causing lots of bloodshed will cause chaos in the world. "You'll be notified when your actions have raised or lowered the level of chaos, but it's an under-the-hood story mechanics rather than an explicit light/dark or paragon/renegade score with gameplay effects."

- "Whatever the specifics may be, the fate of this grim world is determined over a linear series of levels that largely revolve around eliminating one target or another within the Lord Regent's corrupt regime. This isn't an Elder Scrolls game that turns you loose to explore the world at your leisure, though everyone's experience will be different as they choose their path and affect the simulation in radically different ways based on their gameplay choices."

- There are only a few dialogue choices in the game and they only come up when you need to make a real choice. Most of the cutscenes are handeled while you stay in first person.

 

[MetalCraze]

The fact that they keep emphasizing the involvement of Bethesduh is really annoying. I trust Arkane not to fuck up too badly, though.

When you hear them saying that primitive shooters like Bioshock and Fallout 3 are great games that had reasons to fail (LOL!) - you can already expect their game to be shit with regens, quest compasses, enemy radars and other crap like neverending cutscenes that retards here love.

 

[Jasede]

Come on Skyway, you know that's not true. I certainly don't love any of those, and I'm sure neither do most posters! Sure, there's a few that play what we call "the new shit", but hey, can you blame them? It's either that or, god forbid, find a different hobby.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Yeah skyway, go for a different hobby if you hate games so much.

How about volunteering unearthing some land mines on the farmland nearby your village? Go step on one.