The Road to E3 2012: Dishonored
Dishonored is the new game from Arkane Studios and is to be published by Bethesda Softworks. It will be the first game developed by Arkane Studios to be published by Bethesda since they purchased the developer in 2010. Personally, I am a huge fan of anything with the Bethesda name attached to it, so I was very happy to hear about this one.
Dishonered is a 1st person action game in which you take control of Corvo Attano, a supernatural assassin. Corvo was once a legendary bodyguard for the Empress, but now seeks revenge against the Lord Regent who framed him for the assassination of the Empress. Corvo will have to utilize a number of skills in order to infiltrate and assassinate his many targets on the way to the Lord Regent. Arkane Studios has stated that there will be several ways to complete each assassination, whether you want to take a stealthy approach and kill your targets without being seen, or run straight in, sword swinging. Another option that you have which, I suppose, would be the pinnacle of completing the missions, is the ability to finish each of them with no kills. All of the enemies, including bosses, are able to be defeated non lethally. For instance, Arkane has stated that in one particular mission you are tasked with killing two brothers who own a wealthy mining company. Instead of killing them, as the mission states, you are also able to convince them to instead send themselves away to mine for the rest of their lives.
You can not only do combat with the traditional blade and arrow, but also through a variety of supernatural powers such as the ability to possess, corporeally, people or animals, stop or slow down time, and teleport a short distance. You are also able to combine those powers. For instance, you can summon a rat and in turn, possess it so that you can then sneak by the guards. Also a part of the game is the ability to peer into other rooms to gain your bearings on a situation or to eavesdrop on the people in the room to gain intelligence on your target. Just the openness to how you can go about each target will go a long way in making Dishonored a very deep game game.
It is set in and around the Neo-Victorian, Steampunk-esque town of Dunwall. It is said to draw heavily from a number of different modern classics including BioShock, Assassin’s Creed, Deus Ex, and Thief, blending elements from each one to create what has been called a ‘Frankengame’. In fact, the Lead Designer, Harvey Smith, is best known for his past work on the Deus Ex franchise as well as Thief: Deadly Shadows. This could be a really good or really bad thing depending on how heavily they rely on those influences and whether or not the game brings new things to the table or at the least puts it own spin on the things it uses. It appears that some sort of plague will play a heavy influence on the game, with the choices you make throughout the game having a lasting impact on the people in the city of Dunwall.
Not much else has been revealed for Dishonored up to now, so E3 will be the perfect opportunity for Arkane and Bethesda to show it off. I expect to see a playable demo at the Expo and can’t wait to see what it’s like. What do you guys think of Dishonored, so far? Tell us in the comments section, below.
Dishonored is currently slated for release on 10/09/2012 for Xbox 360, PS3, and Windows PC.
