Harvey Smith of Arkane Studios believes that labeling their upcoming game Dishonored as being a first-person shooter, doesn’t to the ambitiousness of this title justice.
Speaking to GamesIndustry, Smith referenced games like BioShock, Deus Ex and Thief as perfect examples of games (like Dishonored) that offer up so much more than your average run-and-gun shooter.
They are not first-person shooters; they are first-person games with depth. First-person action games are very immersive; they are from your perspective and they mix simulation, stealth and storytelling.
It is all about player freedom. We never want to make a game that is a linear canyon where you start here in this canyon, you can’t go left or right. You see lots of pretty scenery, but you always arrive at the end. We never want to make that game. We want to make a game where you can go behind the building, go on the roof, swim in the river and come in through the sewer drain and come up with a fish.
He goes on to add that because of this, titles like Dishonored shouldn’t be lumped in the same category as Call of Duty and other heavily guided first-person shooters.
We like games that are authored in such a way that they are systems. They aren’t just a shooting gallery with scripted pop-ups for the player. That’s really our goal with Dishonored; to empower the player so the player can play creatively. It requires more on the part of the player; these games don’t play themselves.
Look for Dishonored when it hits store shelves on October 9th.
