By Alec Meer on July 7th, 2011 at 3:28 pm.
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…
07/07/2011 at 15:30 Wilson says:
Sounds interesting. Now we just have to wait and see how much of that makes it into the game, and in what form.
07/07/2011 at 15:32 MonkeyMonster says:
Well color me aluminum “It’s called Dishonored, and it’s going to be a real pain in the arse for any games journalist with their word processor set to British English.” Chuckle. I can imagine the potty mouth trash talk when that reared its head :D
07/07/2011 at 18:49 imirk says:
This way they don’t have to put “Made in USA” on the box.
07/07/2011 at 19:17 PopeJamal says:
LOL, proof that God hates the color of your superfluous U’s? I think so.
08/07/2011 at 15:34 roryok says:
superfluous i’s surely…
10/07/2011 at 05:49 lurkalisk says:
It would be a rather poor decision to choose the British spelling when their biggest market, by far, will be the US. I couldn’t care less either way, but it’s more than understandable.
07/07/2011 at 15:32 CMaster says:
Yay, it sounds like maybe the second time ever that somebody has tried to make a Deus Ex game without it literally being Deus Ex.
08/07/2011 at 15:34 roryok says:
Call me stupid, what’s the other time?
14/07/2011 at 00:28 Phasma Felis says:
I understand Snowblind was set in not-Deus-Ex-land. It’s got the whole nano-augments thing, but it’s a straightforward FPS, none of your inventory management and “RPG elements”.
07/07/2011 at 15:33 The Sombrero Kid says:
OMFG!
07/07/2011 at 15:33 simoroth says:
I have high hopes for this, but even if it fails/turns out crap Beths should be applauded for pushing new IP’s and not reboots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfSqsY6zxFU
07/07/2011 at 15:33 symuun says:
Yes please!
07/07/2011 at 15:34 Nighthood says:
Tentatively excited.
Dark Messiah was one of the best physical combat games I’ve ever played, though it was a bit lacking in story and art. I’m interested to see how this’ll turn out.
07/07/2011 at 15:34 mjig says:
Looks like the Citadel from HL2. Wasn’t surprising when you said the city designer is working on it. Arx Fatalis and DMMM are two of the most underrated games of all time in my opinion, so this is exciting.
07/07/2011 at 15:40 Donjonson says:
Yeah, it looks like it could be concept art for HL2.. luckily it’s a crockery and culinary simulator, that should distinguish it from it’s forbearers.
08/07/2011 at 02:23 soldant says:
My thoughts as well. I liked the original concept art for the Citadel and C17. The final iteration just looks too bright for my liking.
07/07/2011 at 15:35 LordCiego says:
Would like to know how much of “The Crossing” remains in this. Source engine surely not.
07/07/2011 at 15:35 Tori says:
Oh, this reminds me, what happened to that other game where Viktor Antonov was hired for? The Crossing? Something like that…
07/07/2011 at 15:36 Jim Rossignol says:
Shelved.
07/07/2011 at 15:42 tomeoftom says:
:( A cruel blow to cities in games.
07/07/2011 at 16:01 DK says:
Wouldn’t be surprised if this was set in the same universe as The Crossing. Possibly a future version of the Templar-rule-the-world 1800s.
07/07/2011 at 15:38 Srekel says:
Why not a “Dishonored” tag?
Sounds very cool though!
07/07/2011 at 18:11 Wisq says:
Because it’s not a word. ;)
Seriously, though, I hope they do actually release it with the correct local spelling in the rest of the world.
There was a time when we could call a game “UFO” in one country and “X-COM” in another (albeit for different reasons). Some games still do it, usually with even weirder cross-region name changes. Surely adding a single “u” to avoid making it look like you can’t spell would be okay.
07/07/2011 at 18:23 Rii says:
@Wisq
I disagree: it’s a proper noun and should be rendered as Dishonored regardless of which English-speaking nation one resides in. Only when translation into another language is required should it be altered. Same as Pearl Harbor.
08/07/2011 at 15:38 roryok says:
Widely known obscure fact: the Hungarian title for the film Alien was The 8th Passenger is Death
07/07/2011 at 15:39 Jams O'Donnell says:
British journalists, and other journalists who can spell, should call it “Dishonouured” in protest.
07/07/2011 at 15:39 Vexing Vision says:
I love Arx Fatalis. I love Deus Ex.
I’m sold. I don’t need to know anything else. Where can I preorder, and will it have GFWL?
07/07/2011 at 16:09 somini says:
Bethesda, so Steamworks most likely.
07/07/2011 at 16:23 Vexing Vision says:
That’s an excellent point, somini, and one that makes me happy.
07/07/2011 at 17:52 suibhne says:
Are you still excited, knowing that Harvey Smith was lead on Deus Ex 2: Invisible War? ;)
07/07/2011 at 18:07 Vexing Vision says:
Yep. Deus Ex 2 wasn’t a bad game on it’s own. It’s failure was the Deus Ex-tag. Calling it Invisible War on its own and screw the Deus Ex association, and it would have been a really good selling game.
Anyway. I want to play Arx Fatalis again now. *checks on GOG*
08/07/2011 at 17:08 Chris Remo says:
Are you still excited, knowing that Harvey Smith was the lead on Deus Ex 1? ;)
07/07/2011 at 15:40 tomeoftom says:
YES. aaaaaaaAAAAAAYES!
YES!
Antonov is incredible, and you just know they’re going to use his genius to the fullest – the bottomless crypts in Dark Messiah? They actually made the crypt level fun. Incredible, even. These guys obviously respect and love good architecture, and I am so, so pumped. That’s without even beginning to consider the promise of the premise.
YES.
07/07/2011 at 15:40 Theory says:
That cover has “pre-rewrite City 17″ written all over it. The ground vehicle is the Combine APC with chunks taken out of it, the oblong thing with an orange stripe could easily be the cousin of the razortrain, and the first thing I thought of when I saw the mask was Civil Protection.
This is the complete opposite of criticism, by the way. HL2 is great, Arx/Dark Messiah are great, Deus Ex is great. A combination of all three is going to be nirvana. :-)
07/07/2011 at 18:30 sub-program 32 says:
I myself would very much like to be given Deux Ex-levels of freedom and exploration within City 17. Even if it technically isn’t.
07/07/2011 at 19:14 Lukasz says:
a steak is great
strawberry icecream is great
bendy straw is great
but you don’t want to eat a steak mixed with strawberry icecreams through a bendy straw?
07/07/2011 at 20:19 Theory says:
Someone call Heston!
07/07/2011 at 20:25 Koozer says:
I would eat beef flavoured ice cream.
07/07/2011 at 21:19 MaxwellKraft says:
But all those are vastly different. This is more like combining turkey, duck, and chicken. Steak-ice cream through a straw would be like a SpaceChem/RollerCoaster Tycoon/Quake hybrid.
07/07/2011 at 15:40 fitzroy_doll says:
Shiny!
07/07/2011 at 15:40 Wulf says:
First thought: “Egad, that thing on the right looks a lot like Daniel Dociu’s charr chopper. I suppose that immediately makes it awesome.”
And it is a very nice art style they have going on there, very nice indeed.
07/07/2011 at 15:55 tomeoftom says:
Dociu can be a total monster.
07/07/2011 at 16:59 John P says:
The thing on the right looks more like a close-up of a helmet/mask to me. Isn’t that a purpleish hand holding it?
07/07/2011 at 17:53 Davie says:
I wonder if Valve can get him to work on the nebulous next Half-Life installment? I’d never realized how much his style fit perfectly with that universe. And he is AWESOME.
07/07/2011 at 18:13 Wulf says:
I had not noticed the hand. I blame a mix of bad sight and the text obscuring it. I thought it was some sort of creepy cyberpunk face-tank.
Now I want it to be some sort of creepy cyberpunk face-tank and not just a helmet.
07/07/2011 at 18:43 Nick says:
charr chopper looks like a space marine helmet crossed with a propellor hat
07/07/2011 at 15:41 Dominus says:
“hmmm.. noise stopped, mush have been rats”
07/07/2011 at 16:06 Wilson says:
“Probably just the wind.”
07/07/2011 at 16:42 Bhazor says:
“Come out here! I’ll break your legs!”
07/07/2011 at 15:45 Lobotomist says:
What you said about risk of new IP’s
When will they realise that its not new IPs that people hesitate to buy. Its bad games.
Brink and Hunted were both highly anticipated. But they both failed (relatively) because of poor execution.
Not because they were new IP
Granted though that if you have well known IP you can make pile of shit (Duke Nukem, MW2) and still sell truckload. But it is not sure shot either.
07/07/2011 at 16:40 Bhazor says:
Actually Duke didn’t sell too well thanks to the overwhelmingly negative coverage.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35674/Take_Two_Estimates_Lowered_After_Disappointing_Duke_Sales.php
On a happier note the well meaning but poorly executed LA Noire has beat expectations. So hooray for new IPs.
07/07/2011 at 21:38 Spider Jerusalem says:
I’d say that The Witcher is an excellent example of how to pull of a new IP.
(the key is: don’t make a shit game).
07/07/2011 at 15:46 Rii says:
Oh my.
07/07/2011 at 15:46 Teddy Leach says:
Do want. Do want. Do want.
07/07/2011 at 15:56 ATwig says:
I love assassinating people with out killing anyone!
Also setting up traps and slaughtering people is one of my favorite past times (Dwarf Fortress anyone?)
07/07/2011 at 16:09 Rond says:
Maybe Dishonored will allow you to become a journalist, and assassinate peoples’ reputations in your articles. Now that would be something new.
07/07/2011 at 17:15 N'Al says:
Become a journalist, hack phones, join LulzSec.
Yeah, I’d buy that game.
07/07/2011 at 15:59 Squeeby says:
*crosses fingers*
Please don’t turn into another manshoot…
Please don’t turn into another manshoot…
07/07/2011 at 16:04 Bodminzer says:
Dark Messiah was fucking wicked and had great looking environments. This looks incredible. Games finally ARE their concept art and everythings wonderfu la nd blrglblr blrblr brrrr *soft click and record hiss*
07/07/2011 at 16:06 Rond says:
Both Arx and Dark Messiah were games of immersive sort, and that’s what we really need for a Deus-Exy game. And if its visual style will be similar to HL2′s, well, it’s even more interesting.
07/07/2011 at 16:13 mcnostril says:
Fingers crossed for a futuristic Arx.
07/07/2011 at 16:13 Ninja Dodo says:
Nice!
07/07/2011 at 16:22 lowprices says:
Well, I’m interested. Mostly because of the prescence of Arkane and HL2′s Art Director. I love Dark Messiah, and hope that, even though this is a stealth game, there will be the opportunity to kick people off of rooftops, or into fires, or each other.
The involvement of a Deus Ex alumni excites me less, as I never played Deus Ex all the way through. (I know, I know. Blasphemy, Burn the Witch etc. I only bought it recently and the combat and stealth were too imprecise and focused on invisible dice rolls for my tastes.)
I was thinking of skipping straight to Invisible War, since I’ve heard that one is much better.
07/07/2011 at 17:31 Flint says:
In which bizarro world is Invisible War described as “much better”?
07/07/2011 at 18:00 lowprices says:
Really? I heard everyone loved the way they cut back the rpg elements and reduced the size of the levels and…
Alright, alright. Enough trolling.
07/07/2011 at 16:27 ArcaneSaint says:
“It looks like Half-Life 2 (quite a lot, in fact)”
Which could be expected as they hired HL2′s visual architect (or one of them, atleast).
Or perhaps.. this is actually… Half-Life 3! (or Episode 3, or Half-Life 2.5 episode π)
07/07/2011 at 16:32 Wizlah says:
From that interview with the arkane fellas that rps did:
“Why do we like standing on a hill or on top of a skyscraper in some games, watching the sun rise? Why is it satisfying to see a ruined building in the distance, reach it, find a way inside and explore the rooms…to figure out who lived there and what happened based on the environmental storytelling clues left behind? First-person games that allow for exploration often provide the childhood thrill that came from sneaking into an abandoned house or a building at the edge of town.”
So, yeah, I trust them to do something interesting and compelling. Cool. I can’t wait.
07/07/2011 at 16:35 Lucas Says says:
So a reputable developer took Half Life 2 and mixed it with Deus Ex. And Bethesda’s publishing. Who do I give my money to?
Good on Bethesda for taking chances. It makes me want to go out and buy Hunted in solidarity. We shall overcome.
07/07/2011 at 16:40 El_MUERkO says:
New IP as detailed = “Woo” and “Yay”
Playboxes supported = “Awe” and “Boo”
Current excitement rating = “Hurrah”
07/07/2011 at 16:43 HermitUK says:
Intriguing. I was hoping their next project would be a glorious hybrid of Arx’s world and gameplay with Dark Messiah’s combat, but this sounds interesting too.
07/07/2011 at 16:47 lunegov says:
Antonov repeats himself. I thought he’s tougher.
07/07/2011 at 16:52 John P says:
This is instantly my most anticipated game. I’m totally on board with the design principles espoused by these developers. Can’t wait.
07/07/2011 at 16:54 John P says:
By the way, you could get some more clues from this Arkane manifesto that was published in a magazine a few months back, and is reproduced here: http://ttlg.com/shownews.asp?id=902
07/07/2011 at 16:53 Ricc says:
“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.”
I love this paragraph so much! Couldn’t be more excited. No year for the release date makes me sad, though. :/
07/07/2011 at 17:07 CaspianRoach says:
Good. now let’s hope playboxes won’t ruin the controls.
07/07/2011 at 17:15 Acosta says:
Can anyone tell those barbarians that they have written wrong “dishonoured”?
07/07/2011 at 17:20 Tyrone Slothrop. says:
Okay, I’m really, really, really fucking excited. This is now my most anticipated game right after Deus Ex: Human Revolution. For the love of basic human decency, I hope this doesn’t get fucked up; suffer from a woeful lack of polish, be infested with bugs or fail to sell well enough to establish a new ‘immersive simulator’ franchise.
07/07/2011 at 17:21 Dreamhacker says:
After Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah, pretty much any box with the Arkane logo on it is an instabuy for me. Those guys can make atmospheres and architecture on a whole nother level.
07/07/2011 at 17:37 The Hammer says:
Hmmm. Judging from the cover, it’s looking a bit too much like City 17 for my liking; striders, civil protection, Combine APCs, and the sci-fi/contemporary domestic mash-up are all present. Not that I don’t like Half Life 2′s setting (on the contrary I adore it), but if the rest of the game looks like this, it’ll feel too like deja vu for me.
That, and Dark Messiah made a loaaaaad of design mistakes. Is Arkane good enough to live up to the expectations this is bound to court? It could end up like another Bioshock, if so (decent in its own right, but a far, far different beast to what was initially touted)
07/07/2011 at 17:43 Tuco says:
So… a Deus Ex/Thief with a cyberpunk setting similar to City 17, from the creators of Arx fatalis.
All aboard the fucking hypewagon!
07/07/2011 at 17:57 suibhne says:
With both Arx and Dark Messiah, Arkane have shown themselves to be highly skilled at level/world design. I particularly love the way DM’s levels link together and/or visually refer to one another. Sure, there’s a lot of linearity going on in the game, but the level design is so wonderful that it hides many of the gameplay problems. I imagine Antonov’s addition to the project will only strengthen Arkane’s skills in this area.
I’m more concerned about gameplay. Harvey Smith gave us DX:IW, for which he was the lead, and I’m not sure that’s the right way to go. And DM had some gameplay issues and even more problems with narrative framing and storytelling.
So…cautiously optimistic. But either way, I’m sure the game will be a joy to explore.
11/07/2011 at 00:45 ResonanceCascade says:
It’s true that Harvey is fighting an uphill battle after his last couple games. (Except maybe Deadly Shadows, which was flawed compared to the first two games, but still really good.)
Listening to him talk about Invisible War and admit that mistakes were made makes me a little less wary, but I’m still not sold on this the way I would be if it had, say, Doug Church’s name on it instead.
I think it’s somewhere in this interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTWvsGA77T4
That said, the tidbits about this sound great IF they can pull it off.
07/07/2011 at 18:19 Wulf says:
Also…
“It’s a game about assassination where you don’t have to kill anyone.”
SOLD!
Can we have more games like that please?
07/07/2011 at 18:51 Vadermath says:
Err, so we’ve got the Combine Train, the Combine City Scanner, the Portal turret, and the Combine Car. Oh and the gigantic Stalker. Well, at least those rat-like things weren’t in the Half Life universe.
…Or Were They?!
07/07/2011 at 19:08 RagingLion says:
Well this makes me sit up and take an interest.
07/07/2011 at 19:18 JulianPierce says:
Harvey Smith is a guy who likes to talk and appears to have good ideas but always fails at execution. He has a very bad track record. It truly confuzzles me why he is held in such high regard.
08/07/2011 at 04:15 John P says:
DX:IW failed in its execution, yes, but the design principles were admirable. Perhaps people are excited because Harvey Smith seems to understand the strengths of gaming as a medium and isn’t interested in making a Call of Duty railshooter or an romance simulator RPG? Even if it does fail at execution, it’ll be worth more than a highly-polished but utterly vacuous shooter.
07/07/2011 at 19:33 Jason Moyer says:
Arkane are 2 for 2 with me when it comes to making great games. Less interested in seeing Harvey involved but we’ll see how that pans out.
Also, did anyone else actually play Hunted? I went into it without any sort of expectations, and ended up being pleasantly surprised that it was Gears of Hexen.
07/07/2011 at 20:36 Iskariot says:
Well, this sounds very promising. It sounds exactly like a game I might like very much. I’ll be patient.
A lot of games to play Deus Ex 3, Batman AC, Prototype 2, LA Noir, Mass Effect 3, The new Lara Croft, Assassin’s Creed Rev., Skyrim, Rage etc etc etc.
I think I will be forced to quit my job to play all these promising games.
07/07/2011 at 22:59 Handsome Dead says:
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
08/07/2011 at 00:07 Pinky_Powers says:
I like everything i hear, except for the last bit “not navigating conversation trees.”
If they simply mean the moral choices of the game are not done in the brutish Mass Effect way, where the blue option is Good and the Red option is Evil, then I’m all for that. Subtly like we see in Deus Ex is always better. But if they’re dismissing conversation trees entirely, then I’ll probably write this game off.
Like Deus Ex, your actions should shape the world around you. But if this is meant to be an RPG (which I notice we have no word on), the social gameplay is paramount. Without it, what’s the point?
There’s no purpose to moral choice or a deep story if you can’t participate in conversations and dialog. You might as well just give us the gameplay and cut out all the story.
08/07/2011 at 07:19 Hybrid says:
Looks pretty cool! I really enjoyed Dark Messiah. Go Arkane!