Dishonored Is a First-Person Game with Depth, Dev Says

Dishonored, the upcoming game from Arkane Studios, is a first-person experience with depth, at least according to one of its co-creators, Harvey Smith, who revealed that it allows the player to immerse themselves much easier into a rich world that can be explored through all sorts of ways.

Bethesda and Arkane Studios revealed Dishonored last year and, since then, quite a lot of people wondered just in what genre the game classifies, some calling it a first-person shooter, while others compared it to an adventure game.

Co-Creator Harvey Smith believes that Dishonored is more of a first-person action game, as it allows players to do more than just shoot their enemies.

“Raphael Colantonio is my co-creative director on this project. He and I came together four years ago and we both have this strong philosophy around these first-person action games. 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,” Smith told Gamesindustry.

“It is all about player freedom. We never want to make a game that is a linear canyo n 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 added.

Smith highlighted some other quality first-person experiences, like BioShock or Far Cry 2, and revealed that the goal with Dishonored is to trigger the creativity of the player and motivate him to try new things.

“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. So that made it all easy to come together. 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.”

Dishonor ed is out on October 9, in North America, and October 12, in Europe, for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.