Just because I’mone of the few people who liked Redfalldoesn’t make me oblivious to the fact that it’s been nothing short of a disaster. While I was apparently sheltered from the game’s terrible performance problems and picked a character that let me approachRedfalllike a ‘Dishonored-Lite,’ out there in the real world Redfall has failed to fit fan expectations, and we can be pretty certain it’s not going to hit Microsoft or Arkane’s expectations either.
It’s clear that Arkane went well beyond its comfort zone with Redfall, but in truth you could already see the prodigious studio paring back on some of its ambitions inDeathloop—a game that had some cool ideas, but those ideas ultimately meant the game compromised on the spectacular scope and artistic vision of Arkane’s earlier works.
So with these tangential experiments out the way (to varying degrees of success), it’s time Arkane were provided the time and resources to work on the kind of stuff we know they do best. As it happens, years ago Arkane already created one of the most imaginative, elegantly fleshed out worlds in gaming. Seven years on from the last entry, it’s time they returned to that world they so lovingly crafted in theDishonoredseries.
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I’ve talked plenty about Dishonored—fromits power-trippy mechanicstoits granular difficulty settings, andI’ve even spoken to its creators—but really it’s the weird colonial steampunk-adjacent world that’s kept me coming back to it. I’ve rarely played games that manage to evoke so much of their world just through the dense levels you get to explore in them. There’s a reason why Dishonored has spawned multiple novels and comics; it’s because it’s one of the richest yet most uncharted worlds conceived for a video game. Those who have dipped their toes in its mysterious world of whale-powered technologies, witches and dark magic always want to go deeper, and Dishonored 3 would finally give us that.
In Dishonored 1 and 2, your missions mainly involve assassinating targets involved in various power-grab conspiracies, but each level is designed so that you have a vast chunk of city to explore freely—whether that’s a ghetto run by street gangs, the workers’ housing surrounding a grim whale slaughter factory, or a working-class neighborhood that’s dealing with a Blood Fly outbreak. In all these places you can learn about how people live (and, more often than not, how they die) by snooping around apartments, reading journals, listening to audio logs, and generally just exploring every nook and cranny of the rich environs.
Once you’re off the streets and in the main mission areas themselves—vast elaborate buildings like observatories, mental hospitals, ornate mansions of the super-rich, and high-class brothels—you can learn that the Dishonored world isvast, spanning a series of large islands known as ‘The Isles’ in the west, and a largely uncharted, ostensibly wild, continent known as Pandyssia to the east. Dishonored 1 and 2 took place in the capital cities of two of the isles, Gristol and Serkonos respectively, leavingso muchof this world just waiting to be explored. It’s a series that just begs for an Elder Scrolls-style treatment, where each entry takes place in a distinctive region of the world.
So where could Dishonored 3 take us?
First up, there’s Morley. Inspired by Scotland and Ireland (with cities like Caulkenny and its capital city of Wynnedown), Morley is known for its gloomy climate and fiercely independent people, and is notably a bit more technologically backwards than Gristol and Serkonos due to the fact that most of its whale oil (the glowing blue stuff powering most technology in the previous games) gets exported to more central parts of the empire. With its backwards sensibilities and gloomy climate, I could envision an entry here taking on a dingier tone more akin to the old Thief games (which, of course, were a key inspiration for Dishonored).
Or how about Tyvia, which I know from chomping everything edible in sight grows some of the best damn pears in the empire! Beyond the juicy fruit though, Tyvia is the harshest, coldest region in The Isles, and is inspired by Scandi and eastern European cultures.
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Finally, Dishonored 3 could gowayfurther afield out to the continent of Pandyssia, where explorers have reported back on land-based whales, giant serpents, and other ungodly sighting. The fact that those who ventured into the land’s interior have often come back insane gives it a mysterious Lovecraftian kind of vibe, where the rules of the regular world don’t quite apply, and the ‘Otherworld’ of the Void seems to thrum a little bit closer to the real world. The issue with this setting is that (for all we know, which is admittedly little) it’s largely uncivilised, so doesn’t lend itself to the kind of urban exploration that makes Dishonored such a joy. With that said, colonial explorers didn’t know everything, and there’s no reason that unknown civilisations can’t exist somewhere out there. The Pandyssian continent almost seems like it’s been left unwritten by Arkane so that its mysteries could be fleshed out in a game one day.
The reason I’m prattling on about Dishonored 3 now isn’t just because ‘I want it so it should happen.’ First up, it’s clear that Arkane needs a bit of a reset following recent experiences, and going back to what’s probably, on balance, their most beloved, most fleshed-out IP is a great way to do that. But there are also little hints here and there that thatmightbe what’s happening, or at least that Arkane would like that to happen.
In a weirdly foreshadowinginterview with Game Informerin January, Harvey Smith said that he’d like Arkane to “eventually go back to the very sealed kind of like immersive sim environments… I feel like we’ll pendulum back to what people know us for.” The foreshadowing part is where Smith seems to have some reservations about Redfall’s development, saying “I mean, like, why couldn’t we do what we do open world? You know, why couldn’t we? And then you get into it, and you’re, ‘you know, oh, well, there’s a reason why everybody doesn’t do this.'” At the risk of being an unprofessional sod, I also recall Smith saying in another view something to the effect of ‘We’ve been trying new things for a while now, so going back to Dishonored would actually be refreshing,’ but for the life of me I can’t find it any more (so, y’know, treat it as a rumour, even though it definitely happened).
More recently, according to ‘insider’ Jez Corden on Jeff Grubb’s podcast, there have been murmurs that Microsoft could see the writing on the wall for Redfall well before release, and was actually moving staff onto a bigger project that we now know is underway (via GameRant). That doesn’t necessarily mean ‘Dishonored’ of course, but when you join the bits and pieces together it seems that Arkane is looking to go back to its roots with somethingbig, and a new Dishonored game would fit those criteria beautifully.
Something that works against a Dishonored 3 is that supposedly the sales of the last game didn’t meet expectations, but I feel like it’s one of those games that steadily gets into peoples’ hands and works its magic over time. The first two games are currently on Game Pass, and have been given away for free through platforms Epic Games Store and Amazon Prime. Most who have played them seem to love them, and word of mouth means that people are likely to pick them up on the cheap in sales based on friends’ recommendations. The Dishonored Reddit community remains active, and both Dishonored 1 and 2 still regularly peak at over 1000 concurrent players on Steam,according to Steamcharts.
In their own underground way, these games continue to live on, slowly building up a well-deserved reputation as two of the best stealth games ever made, set in one of the most imaginative gaming worlds. It’s time for Arkane to go back to that special place.
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