Bethesda was acquired by Microsoft last week in a $7.5 billion deal for the studio’s parent company Zenimax. While this has caused a lot of focus on the future of RPG franchises like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, it also has implications for Arkane Studios, the French video game developer behind Dishonored and Dishonored 2 which were published by Bethesda.
The Dishonored games were well-received and considered by many fans to be a great spiritual successor to Thief while incorporating aspects of games like BioShock. However, now that Arkane Studios is under Microsoft’s wing, the series could go bigger than ever before. Here are some of the possibilities for Dishonored 3 if Arkane is given more time and a bigger budget than the first two games in the series.
The Dishonored games are great stealth and action-adventure games, but even when sneaking around and exploring all of the scattered audio logs and Easter eggs of Dunwall, the first game only takes around 20 hours to complete. Arkane has commented before that the game can be completed in around 12 hours by players who take a more direct route, which makes stealth seem like the more legitimate way to experience the game even though both options should be fully realized. Dishonored 2 is around the same length, taking between 16 and 20 hours for most players to complete.
If given a bigger budget, the next Dishonored game could be designed in a way that makes the choice between action and stealth not one between finishing the game quickly or getting more value for money. The games have been praised for their stealth and magic mechanics, particularly the way in which exploits weren’t removed during the development process but levels were adapted to accommodate them. However, the story of Dishonored as been criticized as predictable, and perhaps with more time the games could weave a more complicated narrative that is a little less paint-by-numbers than the first two games.
Not only that, but with a Microsoft-sized budget to back it up, Dishonored 3 could explore far more locations than the previous installments in the series. Dishonored 1 and 2 take place primarily in Dunwall and Karnaca respectively, with a lot of locations repeating throughout each game and the game map itself being relatively small. Not only could Dishonored 3 now expand the size of its maps, but this would also provide players with more ways to navigate the objectives of each mission and give players more freedom to develop their own strategies.
The game could also show players some parts of the world that they haven’t seen before by expanding the size of the world map seen in Dishonored levels. Both of the games so far have taken place in the Empire of the Isles, but there’s a whole New World-style continent called Pandyssia to the east that is believed to be unpopulated but was once covered with ancient civilizations that have left behind ruins. It could also still have a presence in the largely uncharted area of the world.
There are also more populated areas of the Isles that have yet to be explored. Even the isle of Gristol where the city of Dunwall is located has seven other major cities: Baleton, Driscol, Old Lamprow, Poolwick, Potterstead, Redoom, and Whitecliff. The cities of Bastillian, Cullero, and Saggunto also share the island of Serkonos with Karnaca from the second game, while the islands of Morley and Tyvia haven’t been explored at all.
Gristol is a rough counterpart to 19th century Britain, Serkonos has a more Mediterranean feel, but the unexplored islands also have their own unique designs that could be great to see in the next game in the Dishonored series. Tyvia is a cold island with a hostile ecosystem, comparable to Russia, with its prison camps resembling gulags in the Siberian wilderness and its natives like Anton Sokolov bearing Eastern European names. It also has a sharply independent streak, and many of the people there long for freedom from the Empire of the Isles, with many revolutionaries encouraged by the region’s exiled Princes.
Morley is another northern island not featured in the main games so far, but its history and relation to Gristol is brought up throughout both games. Morleyans can be seen in Karnaca in the first game, having escaped a famine in their own land, and that fact plus the island’s dreary climate, hearty food, and a history of rebellion makes it the rough Irish counterpart to Gristol’s Britain, with the famine representing the infamous Irish Potato Famine. With the devs confirming that the Dishonored franchise is not on hold, Morley would be a great locale to see.
It would be fascinating to discover and explore some of these locations and to see how the intense stylization of the Dishonored franchise is applied to their diverse cultures. Many fans will be hoping the next game in the series moves away from the purely urban settings of the first game two, giving more variety as players explore the world of Dishonored.
The next Dishonored game could also take advantage of a bigger budget by giving players more freedom. Perhaps the additional time would enable the developer to design the game in such a way that most of the missions can be done in any order. Arkane was invested in giving players more options in Dishonored 2, where they could choose between two different protagonists. It’s been confirmed that Dishonored 3 won’t star Corvo or Emily, so next game could allow the player to customize their character and choose which of the islands they hail from, and, if the game has a large world where the missions can be done in any order, which island they start on.
Whatever the future has in store for the Dishonored franchise, the purchase of Zenimax by Microsoft is sure to have an effect on the development of the next game. While some fans may be anxious about the acquisition, it is possible that it will allow smaller franchises like Dishonored to flourish in a way that they have never been able to before. For now, however, fans will have to wait and see.
Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider are available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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