To be Dishonored

 Or 'to get re-dishonoured again' - redux edition

Today has been a year of incredible highs and humbling lows for many of the best video game franchises that our little industry has cobbled together. We've seen one of the riskiest niche games ever to be conceived come out to massive success, (and now grow enough of an ego to consider itself mainstream, as is probably deserved) and bottom of the barrel 'easy repetition' projects be shouted down as derivative drivel unworthy of any kind of serious regard. We've seen new heroes of creativity arise out of unsuspecting places, and old sure bets turn out pitiful performances that break hearts across the world. We've seen the fall of a company I would have bet still had a few good hits left in them- Arkane Studios. Not that Arkane is defunct or anything, thank god things aren't that dire just yet, but they've certainly taken an old hit to the ego that one would find humbling. All of it makes me ponder on old times.

Before the decent into abject madness which was the development process for Redfall. Back in the days when Dishonoured was the bread and butter of Arkane as a franchise worthy of attention from all corners of the video gaming world. Back when Dishonoured was the kid on the block, Arkane was widely considered the 'one's to watch' in regard to upcoming system changing developers. And they performed incredible work in their time for which I still think they didn't receive nearly enough praise and success. Their name alone should have been enough to bring people in for Prey, but for whatever reason this studio of genuine talent had to struggle to make ends meet every single production, which is why their partnership to Bethesda and later to Microsoft might just end up being a blessing after Redfall. Because as we all know with the games industry, your next game suffers the failures of your previous ones. (Pity it doesn't always work that way for successes too.)

Dishonoured was, in my mind, a spectacular piece of adaptation and modernisation for what is widely regarded as one of the single best video games of all times. The original Deus Ex had it's DNA splattered all over Dishonoured, from the very genre it inhabited to the somewhat complex conspiratorial narrative weaving it's missions together. Dishonoured was a game of robust dynamic scope wherein players were given tools and an objective but given freedom for the ways they could exploit their many talents to the most entertaining ends. I remember sneaking all around and through a bank, unable to find a sneaky way to the upper levels in which my target resided, before giving up and somehow sniping the man from across the courtyard with a pistol. That mission was built to test one set of skills which I totally managed to side-step because I saw another opportunity, which is the heartblood of these styles of game, which Arkane totally excelled at.

Dishonoured 2 brought greater scope and imagination to that basic formula, not exactly revolutionising the framework of the original in anyway but rather pushing that to it's absolute limits to legendary results. The developers built two entirely different protagonists and had to design levels that could reliably test the skills of both of them, in this genre that's an absolutely nuts proposal! But that is the charm of Arkane, they never rest on their achievements or laurels. As evidenced by the fact that team have recently abandoned Dishonoured in order to try their hand at totally different avenues such as the co-op time-twisting wise-cracking 'Deathloop' and the sci-fi Metroidvania style thriller survival title 'Prey'. And I'm sure before it fell into development purgatory there were some interesting ideas revolving around Redfall too.

But say that Arkane were to ever come back to Dishonoured, a proposition they have yet to show any interest in but one that bubbles around my head like mad, what would a game like that look like? To my mind, a Dishonoured of the future would have to branch itself out in a manner as significant as the original did, so let us identify the key areas to try and leapfrog. Dishonoured was mechanically robust yet malleble, it's levels were multifaceted and grand and the player's choice of playstyle had a direct influence on the good or bad ending available in the story. (There was a middle ending too.) Any follow-up would have to take these three pillars and build upwards from there, and I think we may just have put enough space between the then and now to try and give it a shot!

For one I think there's a surprising lack of elemental play available for the player to mess around with, in a game so very robust. There's no real fire spread, ice isn't really an available weapon and wind traps don't make it in until the next game. It sounds pretty standard, to throw in elemental manipulation, but I'm more interested in the cool ways it could work with the strange powers already available. What happens to fire that is stuck in time- how can that still flame be used, what happens to it after it's allowed to resume? What if you void-launch a dollop of water into an enemies path to create a makeshift electric trap? There's ways to make this more interesting than the bare basic implementation and I'm sure that's the next step this gameplay is yearning for!

As for the levels? I actually think that Arkane were dead set on the right path with the way that they handled Dishonoured 2. Themed levels shaped around a gameplay quirk that the player can work with to exploit or find their typical methods hindered, I suppose the only real way to improve from there would be to grow a grander scope. Deus Ex Human Revolution teased these unfurling levels that would grow grander and grander the more you explored them until you find yourself staring down at the other side of the wealth divide in a city psychically cut between the rich and poor, rising out of the dark into the considerably more dangerous and inhospitable blue-blooded gleam. Dishonoured has always been rather upfront and straightforward with their levels, with the exception of, perhaps, the mid-game twist of the original. (Which is incidentally my favourite level.) Grander levels, then- bigger dreams. 

Most of all I think Dishonoured would benefit from expanding itself out more. The story of The Outsider is done and dusted, and artificial inflation would be to the detriment of the integrity of the franchise. But I'm certain this franchise can prove it's value beyond the stories of the dark Arkane. I'm sure the mystics of the wild continent could carry something cool and trendy of their own, and given the example of Deathloop I'll bet that the team wouldn't lose any time rushing to get a new version of Blink to work in canon once again. I get it- if it ain't broke, why fix it! There is life in Dishonoured, and after losing sight of what made Arkane what they are just that little bit, maybe what we need is a triumphant stirring of that life to settle matters for good. (It would certainly be a safer bet than another new franchise, that's for sure.)