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Bethesda weren't sure if they wanted Dishonored 3, so we got Deathloop instead

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
deathloop-julianna.jpg


rockpapershotgun.com/bethesda-werent-sure-if-they-wanted-dishonored-3-and-so-we-got-deathloop-instead​

Dishonored was Arkane’s breakout hit, the assassination sandbox that elevated the studio to the top table of immersive sim makers. Its success validated Bethesda’s decision to buy Arkane a couple of years earlier, and left the publisher with a promising new series. But despite critical acclaim, Dishonored 2 failed to bring the series to a wider audience. And after 2017’s standalone expansion, Death Of The Outsider, Bethesda decided to put the series on pause in favour of a shorter, more experimental project - according to Arkane founder Raphaël Colantonio, who spoke to me in an interview about their cancelled project The Crossing.

As Colantonio explains it, Deathloop was initially conceived as a “small game” to keep Arkane occupied and learning before it jumped into another big project. “Bethesda wanted us to do something,” he says. “They didn’t quite know where we were going after Dishonored. ‘Do we want Dishonored 3? I don’t know, let’s make something simple and short before, and let’s see.’” “And then [Deathloop] became a big thing, over the years,” he says. “That was the funny thing: ‘Nah, we don’t wanna do Dishonored 3, but if you can pitch us a small game, something that maybe has multiplayer so we can learn multiplayer, something that maybe has microtransactions, maybe something with a lot of recycling, like a roguelike.’”

At that time, Arkane’s Austin division had just made Mooncrash, the roguelike expansion for Prey. “And the roguelike thing was a little bit in the air,” Colantonio says. “Almost everybody in the world was into some sort of roguelike. So it felt like, ‘Yeah, maybe it’s the way to go, you recycle gameplay, you take some of the elements of the world and remix content constantly.’”

As a result, Deathloop became a game about a single repeating day on an island, in which four familiar levels were kept fresh by reshuffled loadouts, objectives, enemy placements and multiplayer invasions. And by the end, it was no longer a small project. “It would probably cost just as much to make Dishonored 3,” Colantonio says. “But back then it was not meant to be.”

Colantonio was no longer working at Arkane by the time Deathloop came out - instead, he’d left the developer to work on the wonderful Weird West as an indie. Arkane Lyon, meanwhile, remains committed to Dishonored in its own way: studio director Dinga Bakaba recently confirmed that Deathloop and Dishonored take place in the same universe.
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Bragr

Bragr

Banned
This interview reads like some dude-bro that is trying to explain something he doesn't understand. If Arkane is as stupid as he makes them seem here, then no wonder they are fucking up constantly.
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I've said for some time now, my guess is that Bethesda was hurting for money. Arkane never sold well. Publisher probably instructed Arkane to make a small game to keep people busy until they could move into Redfall, which was clearly a departure for them to try and make a more consumer friendly product.

My guess is that it wont be until the next project that we see Arkane doing what they actually want to do, without strings attached due to the MS purchase. Hoping they get far weirder and even more nieche, since apparently that's what they do well.
 
AV

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Not gonna lie, I loved Dishonored 1 but 2 fell flat for me at the time. Can't place my finger on quite why. Rather they tried something different with Deathloop even though it didn't quite pan out.
 
U

ungalo

Member
Deathloop is not the problem even though i don't really like it. As a project it was interesting, and with more work it could have been very good.

I think what was really unnecessary was the whole "standalone" phase that they had with Dishonored, Wolfenstein and the Wolfenstein VR game. Seems like they lost a couple years for nothing.
 
01011001

01011001

Banned
AV said:
Not gonna lie, I loved Dishonored 1 but 2 fell flat for me at the time. Can't place my finger on quite why.
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did you play it on console? because that would explain it.

the console version of Dishonored 2 was fucking awful. especially on base consoles due to the awful framerate, but even on the enhanced ones the input lag was really bad.
 
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GymWolf

GymWolf

Member
01011001 said:
did you play it on console? because that would explain it.

the console version of Dishonored 2 was fucking awful. especially on base consoles, but even on the enhanced ones the input lag was really bad.
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The game had bad performance on pc aswell if i remember well.
 
AV

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
01011001 said:
did you play it on console? because that would explain it.

the console version of Dishonored 2 was fucking awful. especially on base consoles, but even on the enhanced ones the input lag was really bad.
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Nah, PC. Performance was okay for the gear I had at the time, I think. Something just didn't click like with the first. Maybe I'll replay it one day.
 
01011001

01011001

Banned
GymWolf said:
The game had bad performance on pc aswell if i remember well.
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yeah but not 20fps with 200ms of input lag bad lol.

the PC version is nicely playable, on console it was an absolute mess of tearing and framedrops in the worst moments.

edit: it also looked worse imo than the first game due to the implementation of more "modern" effects like SSR, while the first game had really well placed planar reflections.
 
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GymWolf

GymWolf

Member
01011001 said:
yeah but not 20fps with 200ms of input lag bad lol.

the PC version is nicely playable, on console it was an absolute mess of tearing and framedrops in the worst moments
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I played the game at launch so it was playable, not sure about nicely unless you had a monster pc to bruteforce the problems.

I clearly remember people mad at the pc version aswell.

I loved the look of dish2, the only thing worse was the dready atmosphere.

I'm not even exagerating, i think that dish2 maxed out on pc look better than redfall on console...probably because the artstyle is like 234 times better.
 
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Robb

Robb

Gold Member
Does this mean they haven’t been working on Dishonored 3 at all? If so;
jim carrey attorney GIF


New IP is fun and all, unfortunately DL didn’t really land with me. I’d take Dishonored over it any day of the week.
 
SmokedMeat

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Love Dishonored, but I’m also one hundred percent behind Arkane trying different things. While I couldn’t get into Deathloop, I still have to commend them on just how damn good their games feel to play. For that reason alone I’m still interested in Redfall. I know the gunplay is going to feel amazing on PC with mouse/keyboard.

Dishonored 3 will happen at some point. It’s a given. Although I’d rather they go for another medieval style action game along the lines of Dark Messiah!
 
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L*][*N*K

L*][*N*K

Banned
I want Dishonored 3 to be fully Open-World, Dunwall is an amazing place and I really want to explore it, the gameplay and setting is fantastic for a Cyberpunk like Open World RPG
 
BadBurger

BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
Shame. I found Deathloop to be an extremely dull and uninspired game. It's so forgettable I honestly can't remember if I finished it. I guess I could go check my trophies but honestly who cares. I would have welcomed a new Dishonored.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Member
The Cockatrice said:
I mean its good, but Dishonored levels of good? Nowhere near. Doesnt help that you have to replay them over and over but thats the gist of the game I guess.
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No, of course dish and prey were better.

But it was good enough to carry the game for me since i really gave no fucks about the story, charas and even the shooting.
 
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