Having seen Dishonored at QuakeCon, I got to experience the many ways the game can be played. But Bethesda's new Creative Kills video shows off plenty more ways to eliminate enemies than I thought of, many as amusing as they are deadly.
My benefactors want Lady Boyle eliminated. Her crime? She is an ally to the corrupt Lord Regent. I was not told how to carry out the deed, just make sure she was out of the way. Tonight posed the best opportunity, as the Boyle family was having a costume party, allowing me to easily fit in with this mask I wear. Convenient. The problem, however, is there are three Lady Boyles, a mother and her two daughters. I must decide how to get into the estate, find out who my target is, and eliminate her. All in a night's work.
Such was the quandary posed by the new Dishonored mission I played at QuakeCon 2012. I had to get into the Boyle estate, mingle with the guests and not only find out the correct identity of my target, but also the costume she was wearing. The good news is that I was given pretty much unlimited time to play through the mission, allowing me to try numerous tactics. When I was finally done, I had played through the mission three times, and each playthrough was completely different. And in talking to others who gave it a try, I found that their tactics were even different from mine.
Bethesda Softworks has announced the Dishonored voice cast, and the line-up is a pretty impressive mix of award winners and well-regarded thespians. It includes Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, Golden Globe winner Brad Dourif, and Emmy winner Carrie Fisher, just to name a few.
In most FPSs, getting out of a sticky situation is a simple matter of firing bullets at faces until they fall off. Arkane's Dishonored has a few more options. Three approaches to one big mess are on display in a new trailer, filled with teleporting, stunning, possessing, peeking through keyholes, and other delightful things.
There is little more exciting in video games, we all know, than a robust options menu. How thoroughly splendid, then, that Arkane has crammed Dishonored full of options for messing with everything from field of view and mouse smoothing to objective markers and even outright disabling the UI.
There are a lot of games out there that promise a great deal of player agency and choice, but it's rare to find a shooter that seems to seize on that notion as effectively as Dishonored, the upcoming first-person stealth-action game by Arkane Studios. Most who saw the dual demos for the game at E3--one focused on stealth, and one on action--came away quite impressed with the variety of approaches the player can take, and how those approaches actually have narrative and gameplay implications as the game progresses.
Both of those E3 demo videos have since been released into the wild, so that you can get a closer look at how different styles will allow players to approach each area as they see fit.
With E3 almost upon us, trailers created for that odious event are starting to creep in early, lest they be lost in the kerfuffle. The first gameplay trailer for Arkane's first-person emergent 'em up Dishonored arrived last night, and it's oh so lovely.
When we had a chance to get an early look at the stealth action game Dishonored late last month, we really like what we saw with the different styles of game play. And now we have a launch date to build our anticipation.
One of Dishonored's biggest selling points is its unique take on the steampunk aesthetic. At a recent preview event for the game, Sebastien Mitton, the game's art director, and Viktor Antonov, visual design director for ZeniMax Media, explained how this strange world came into being.
Dunwall, the city which players explore in the game, has been heavily influenced by London. (The city itself is set in the Isles, a clear reference to England.) Although inspired by an iconic real-world city, Arkane Studios wanted to create a place never seen before on any medium.
Dunwall is a Rat Plague-infested Victorian city, ruled over an oppressive regime led by the villainous Lord Reagent. Framed for the murder of the Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, you step into the shoes of Corvo Attano, a former bodyguard turned assassin. But you are no mere mortal--you have been granted supernatural powers by a mysterious deity named the Outsider. Thus sets the events of Dishonored, Bethesda's upcoming first-person action/stealth game developed by Arkane Studios.
Video game dystopias are a dime a dozen, but we don't always see the sheer brutality of them. A new trailer for the upcoming stealth action game Dishonored certainly doesn't shy away from it though. In four minutes of story sequences, we see a stacked legal system, flame-throwers used on civilians, and insta-death fences. Ouch.
The no-kill playthrough is a way to challenge yourself, brag to your friends, and earn some Achievements or Trophies in the process. If you're a stealth-loving challenge seeker, you may be pleased to know that Dishonored will let you sneak your way through the entire game without killing a single hapless guard. And thank goodness, because that guy was just one day from retirement.
"Our goal is to let you ghost the game. The extreme extremes are slaughter everyone, high chaos, or ghost the game. You can actually complete the game without killing anyone," said co-creative director Harvey Smith.
Arkane Studios was working on a new game when it was acquired by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax last August, and now we finally know a little about it. The maker of Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic has been busy working on Dishonored.
Very few details are offered, with Bethesda simply describing it as "an all-new first-person action game." However, Game Informer magazine, which features Dishonored as its August cover game, elaborates a little, describing it more excitingly as a "first-person stealth/action adventure." Read more »
ZeniMax Media has added another feather to its cap with the purchase of veteran independent game developer, Arkane Studios.
Best known for developing Arx Fatalis and the PC version of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (and some involvement with Bioshock 2's development), Arkane Studios is the latest developer to join the Zenimax family alongside respected developers Bethesda Softworks and id Software. Read more »
The Crossing, Arkane Studios and Valve's first-person shooter planned to meld singleplayer and multiplayer with "crossplay," is officially on hold, reports Joystiq.
"We ran into an unexpected financial challenge some months ago and we had to put The Crossing on hold," says Arkane Studios CEO and creative director Raphael Colantonio, "Since then, we shifted our efforts to other very good projects." Read more »
"The same guys, who made Bioshock 2, made this, so it is bound to have similarities.Although the ..."
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