Yeah, I don’t think a ton of people care about it, but Zenimax bought the Prey license in 2009 and has yet to release a new game using it, so I imagine there’s some pride involved there, even if it is throwing good money after bad.
Bethesda owns Arkane so they get to dictate what the creative power at the studios has to do for them now, which bizarrely includes making an immersive-sim set in the Prey universe. Arkane Austin was a satellite studio that went through a massive hiring spree in early 2014. They have some major figures who contributed to Dishonored, developers like Anthony Huso, Steve Powers, Ricardo Bare, and Raf Colantonio, but they were only around 25 people, and some of that number, like their executive producer Julien Roby, have moved to different studios.
This game is going to be another masterpiece. I mean when I was thinking what I would like to see from Dishonored 2, this is the exact thing I had in mind - playable both Corvo and Emily, Corvo having a voice, taking place in new exotic location, more nonlethal options…
And it looks utterly gorgeous again.
Last month, I visited Arkane’s studio in Lyon to see what it looks like when you stick a ‘2’ on the end of Dishonored. The game they’re making is very much a sequel to the original: don’t expect an overhaul. Instead, I’m excited to have been given a sense of what happens when a talented group of people get a second go at a great idea.
I like to think that my faith that they’ve built the levels and AI and such so as to make it not god-awful is not misplaced.
I love that they’re doing this. I won’t play it, probably - I’ll play through with powers on hard difficulty once, if my recent history is any guide - but I love that AAA studios are supporting such things. And that publishers are paying for it.
Corvo’s new voice was cool, but I thought his characterization was kinda weird, like the part when he was complaining about how the anniversary is never easy for him, when really he shoulda just clammed the hell up and done his job so that the anniversary doesn’t become a twofer.
Corvo: gazes off wistfully into the middle ground Every year I think the anniversary of Jessamine’s death is going to be easier, but it never is. turns to emily You remind me so much of her, Emily, the smile, the eyes, the steak knife which is now jutting out of your torso for some reason…
Dishonored’s art director, Viktor Antonov, has left his role as the visual design director of Zenimax studios to join Darewise (founded by Ubisoft vets) as chief creative officer. Their debut game, ROKH, will be released on early access in September.
I’m oddly out of touch on this game, considering how much I liked the first - is it possible to go through killing nobody like the first one? I really enjoyed doing that.
I am 100% sure that’s possible. I suspect a lot of the marketing is “look at how crazy you can kill people!” to get the younger audience on board, but there has been many videos showing off ways to silently and non-lethally neutralize targets just like the first game. In fact, I believe like the first game your choices in such things impacts the later game setup as well as the ending, just in the first game did.
