Dishonored Ditches Thief Stealth Mechanics for Realism

Christophe Carrier, who is the lead level designer working on the upcoming Dishonored, has revealed how the title’s stealth mechanics work and why the team decided to use a system that might disappoint some fans of the Thief series.

Speaking to Eurogamer, the developer stated, “In Thief the light is very very important. At the beginning we tried to be in the same mood: use the light, use the shadows. But we realised that when you’re standing in front of an NPC like this it’s not realistic – we must admit that. In the real world it’s not like this.”

He expanded on the team’s approach by saying, “As we are a bit perfectionist we wanted it to work as in Thief and very realistically. With these two notions we got crazy and decided to eliminate the light parameters, because it was too difficult to have both.”

The fact that shadows are not always safe for the player might mean that Dishonored is more difficult than gamers expect, but the team is not afraid of testing skills and abilities as long as it makes the game world interesting.

Dishonored is a game that explores a steampunk-inspired city called Dunwall with a main character called Corvo, who is a master assassin that has been framed for murder and has since gained a number of supernatural powers.

Players will be given a set of tools, ranging from weapons to abilities, and will then have to solve a number of puzzles that involve infiltration and open battles.

Stealth-oriented players can complete missions without getting their hands dirty but the development team at Arkane Studios also gives confrontational types a chance to fight their way out of situation when they are discovered.

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