Dishonored Developer Blames Gamer Fatigue on Lack of Variety

One of the main developers working on the upcoming Dishonored believes that the biggest problem with modern gaming is that players are tired of playing the same experience every year and that development teams have less incentive to innovate.

Harvey Smith, the co-founder of Arkane Studio and a director working on Dishonored, tells GamesIndustry that, “You could attribute it to gamer fatigue. How many games have been released now where you’re a soldier, or a space marine, or you’re surrounded by elves and wizards, or you’re robbing a bank in L.A.?”

He also mentions, “I’m still an optimist and I still have a great time playing games, but the truth is I play two AAA games a year, I probably really enjoy two indie games a year, maybe a couple of mobile games a year, because most stuff is just variations on things we’ve seen before. If you’ve been around a while you’ve seen it over and over and over.”

Moreover, Smith is disappointed by the way cutscenes are used to deliver the narrative in modern games, eliminating interaction from the experience.

Arkane Studios tries to take a different route with Dishonored in order to make sure that players have the freedom to move around the game world without any barriers and interact with the environment and with the characters.

Dishonored is a game about stealth movement and quick kills, but a gamer is able to use the arsenal of weapons included and the supernatural powers that main character Corvo gets in order to approach any situation in his own unique way.

The game also has a unique art style that combines Victorian elements with steampunk.

Dishonored will be launched on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 on October 9 in North America and three days later in Europe.