A developer interview about Dishonored, Arkane Studio’s newest IP (published by Bethesda), was released today. As I have done in the past, I will type out the main points of the interview for those of you unable to watch the video, or those who prefer reading it.

The video can be found here.

The interview includes co-creative directors Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantonio. Smith starts by describing the game as “a first person action game where you play as a supernatural assassin in a steam punk city.” Colantonio goes on to say that what matters most to them about this game is the amount of choices you have as far as powers and tactics go. You can play as a stealthy character or a action type character, and the environment makes for a lot of choices too. He says you can infiltrate a building “three, four, even five types of ways” which means you will have plenty of choices to make and plenty of outcomes to come across.

The game is made for the players who want to bust down doors and attack up front and powerfully, as well as the slower paced stealthy players. The AI in the game can help or hurt you, as in most games like this. You can ask around and get more information about your target, they may help you find different ways of accomplishing the goal. They can also hurt by seeing you sneaking around, or hearing you come through the window. Smith states that one very unique thing about Dishonored is that it’s fast. He says “People normally associate stealth games with slow pace, and we did not want to do that.” The sneaky way to play is just as fast paced as the power way to play. The city you play in is part of a string of cities that are somewhat inspired by the British Isles but they aren’t on Earth, the game is in an alternate reality. Everything in the game takes place in the city of Dunwall, and there is a plague going on. One of the powers Colantino speaks of is a power to control hordes of rats, the rats that are feasting off those dead from the plague around the city. There are plenty of mechanics that you can use in this game to make the gameplay less monotonous and more differentiated based on how you want to play.

This game is set to come out sometime in 2012 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Also, here is a link for the GT.com Pop-Block video for the Dishonored debut trailer. If you are unfamiliar with the pop-block videos, they are like the old VH1 pop-up videos, they show the trailer and have little clips that give more information. Check it out!