Dishonored 2 was announced last year but Arkane Studios has kept the game close to their chest as far as information and mechanics are concerned. The developers have let loose small bits of information about how players can utilize some of the powers in the game to pull off some seemingly impossible feats.
Gamespot captured a few of the quotes from the co-creative director at Arkane Studios, Harvey Smith, where he explained that players can sometimes come up with combinations of powers that they simply never thought of, giving one example of a player who created a doppelganger and then attached it to three enemies using another skill, and so whatever happened to the doppelganger would affect the three other enemies. Smith explained...
She just assassinates it. And all three of the other guys drop, […] We had no idea this was possible, we never planned this. It's just one of those systemic game mechanic interactions that clever, creative players figure out as they start to experiment.
Another instance involving the doppelganger saw a player attach a mine to it and then lead several enemies down an alleyway where once they cornered the doppelganger and touched it, the mine exploded.
Dishonored 2 is supposed to be filled with these kind of emergent, player-driven moments. According to lead designer Dinga Bakaba, they've been designing the game around the concept of players coming up with their own unique ways to move the gameplay along.
A lot of times games are designed around restrictions – restricting players to certain pathways, to certain weapons, to certain kinds of tactics in order to defeat enemies, even if it means coming at the expense of gameplay variety or depth. The interesting thing about the first Dishonored was that it afforded players a lot of different options and pathways, in addition to having layered combat to give gamers their own sense of gameplay identity.
In fact, in the case of the Dishonored games, Arkane wanted to put fun and versatility at the forefront of their design endeavors, so that gamers can experiment with wildly creative weapons that have totally unpredictable results. It's a completely different approach compared to most other AAA titles.
In fact, Arkane is taking what worked in Dishonored and expanding on it in Dishonored 2, making the world more interactive and the combat more free-form so that players can feel as if they're the ones embodying Corvo or Emily and playing out the story and gameplay at their own pace and in their own style.
The sandbox approach is very similar to how the Hitman games are played, where there's a sandbox and then players are allowed to carry out the mission however they like, using whatever tools they can find to complete the mission.
Dishonored 2 is expected to make an appearance at this year's E3, with a lot more gameplay and its mechanics being showcased during Bethesda's E3 press conference set to take place on June 12. The game itself is set to release later this year for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on November 11.
