New Ideas: Dishonored

I’m one who hardly ever posts news posts. I’m too busy to scour the net for exclusives, and I’m not paid nearly well enough (at all!) to care about reporting on new things. Besides, it’s not like we have any new things to ever report on.

Or do we?

Apparently, the next issue of Game Informer will feature exclusive information (those bastards!) about a new Bethesda project from Arkane (developers of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic) teamed up with Harvey Smith of Deus Ex fame and Viktor Antonov, who did graphic design work on Half Life 2.

Here’s with what Game Informer titillates us:

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.

Which sounds a lot like Deus Ex, and a lot like a game I want to play right now.

And frankly, we live in a world where there aren’t that many new games. I mean, even this is basically a modern day attempt at Deus Ex, but let’s not get pissy. This is a brand new IP, and I have to applaud Bethesda for being one of the few publishers who seems willing to take on new projects instead of just reiterating over and over (for the record, I’ll give some points to EA (reluctantly), THQ, and Sony for doing the same). Even if I wasn’t rabidly interested in this game, which I am, I’d have to applaud Bethesda for releasing more new IPS at retail in the past year so far than every major publisher combined.

Furthermore, let’s applaud them again for taking a chance on Arkane, who’ve made some really neat games in the past (Arx Fatalis was a favorite of mine years ago, and I’ve heard people say good things about Dark Messiah of Might and Magic to me) that have been doomed to obscurity by lack of support. It’s good on Bethesda for giving people like them and Obsidian chance to ply their craft in new and inventive ways, because they make vital games.

So the basic gist of this post is good on Bethesda. In an industry devoid of good guys, where publishers consistently fail us by removing modding tools or getting rid of player hosted servers or dumbing down their games to get more console sales, it’s lovely to see a company so dedicated to gaming, and hardcore gaming, in general. It almost makes me want to go out and buy Hunted in a show of solidarity.

The second gist of this newspost is that Dishonored is the next big thing. Yeah, there’s a little bit of a getting on the Deus Ex train as Deus Ex: Human Revolutions spirals into our lives, but let me be perfectly frank: this is a type of game that hasn’t been made for years. There aren’t enough games where you have the freedom to go about situations in different ways (no, flamethrower or shotgun doesn’t count as a choice), and I’m glad the genre is making a comeback.

It’s games like this, announcements like this, that make me glad to be playing games.

One Comment

  1. As a fellow huge fan of Deus Ex, I agree, this sounds pretty good.