Publishers fear one thing and one thing only: that you'll get bored, give up, and go play something else. That's why multiplayer modes, battle passes, and DLC roadmaps are now a standard part of any big game launch. It's also why a lot of these games treat you like you've never played a video game before, with mandatory, long-winded tutorials, intrusive messages constantly popping up to remind you of basic game systems, and distractingly obvious telegraphing of interactive objects—whether it's a glowing lever or yellow paint smeared conspicuously over every climbable piece of scenery.
Games have been like this for years, of course. Who can forget Dead Space telling you that, to kill its enemies, you have to cut off their limbs three different ways in a single minute: a tutorial pop-up, a character repeating the information over the radio, then the words CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS written in blood on a wall. Y'know, just to make triply sure you don't stand there shooting idiotically at their torso, wondering why they aren't dying. Things aren't that bad today, but modern triple-A🌳 games are still guilty of this kind of🎃 tedious, patronising hand-holding: which makes me thankful studios like Arkane exist.
Bethesda deserves some credit here, bankrolling games like Dishonored and Deathloop, which other, less adventurous publishers might consider too weird, clever, or offbeat to take a risk on. As a developer, Arkane is special because it makes games that feel big, lavish, and exciting—the defining characteristics of a so-called triple-A game—but with depth, craft, intelligent design, and most importantly of all, confidence in the player. That's an uncommon cocktail, and the reason why whenever I see the Arkane logo after firing up a game, I know I'm about to experience something that looks, sounds, and feels premium, but has substance too.
Arkane games are defined by their freedom of choice. There's always a framework there—an objective or an assassination target—but it's the freedom you have within it that makes the studio's games so compelling. It's a design philosophy rooted in the immersive sim genre, whose DNA runs through every Arkane project. Like those games—timeless classic Deus Ex being the most famous example—you're given an interesting set of tools, placed in a dynamic, simulated, systems-driven world, then encouraged to solve problems creatively. Dishonored, Prey, and now Deathloop are true sandboxes, and incredibly rewarding to play as a result.
There are other developers making blockbuster games that don't insult your intelligence—FromSoftware being a prime example—but Arkane takes it to such an extreme, I'm amazed it gets away with it sometimes. This is a studio with a deep, unwavering trust in the people who play its games. You have to work really hard to see some of the best stuff in the Dishonored games, like the deliciously ironic, non-lethal ways you can deal with the game's assassination targets. If you don't, well, that's cool. A lesser developer would spell it all out for you, fearful that you won't see absolutely everything its game has to offer. Arkane, on the other hand, respects your right to choose how you want to play.
Deathloop launches next week on PC and PlayStation 5, and based on our 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:early hands-on, it's shaping up to be another great Arkane game—with the same kind of respect for the player that has come to define the studio. In an industry where mainstream games are becoming increasingly safe, predictable, and homogenised, Arkane is a rare beacon of creativity. From game design, to art direction, to writing, its games are a step above pretty much everything else in the business, and I hope Bethesda keeps throwing money at it. The games industry would be a much darker, sadder place without Arkane.
