Arkane Studios hopes that next-generation stealth games will feature better player perception/awareness


Arkane Studios is one of the few that are pushing the stealth – and melee – gameplay elements to their games. It’s been a while since we got Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a game that offered a variety of gameplay mechanics and thankfully, Dishonored seems to be the next big thing for all those seeking a game with varied gameplay. Although there aren’t many developers focusing on stealth mechanics, Arkane Studios’ Raphael Colantonio believes that the upcoming stealth games should feature better player perception/awareness.
In a recent interview with SneakyBastards, Raphael expressed his opinion about the next-generation stealth games:
“For one, better player perception/awareness of his environment/state. So far, in first-person or third-person stealth games, there is often an ambiguity when it comes to “Am I hidden right now? Can I be heard?” So we often rely on UI like stealth gems, NPC emoticons, etc, as a means of conveying that feedback.”
Raphael went on and said that it would be great if players could determine whether they are hidden or not by relying exclusively on NPC behaviors and environmental affordance. Raphael admitted that something like that would require a crazy high level of fidelity before we could get away with these things without using UI, and that’s precisely why we hope to see this kind of stealth games in next-generation platforms.
Dishonored is currently planned for a 2012 release on current generation consoles and PC and promises to be a great mix of an action and stealthy game!