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Best Arkane game?

  • Arx Fatalis

    Votes: 28 1.9%
  • Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

    Votes: 47 3.3%
  • Dishonored

    Votes: 339 23.6%
  • Dishonored 2

    Votes: 338 23.5%
  • Prey (2017)

    Votes: 613 42.6%
  • Wolfenstein: Youngblood

    Votes: 8 0.6%
  • Deathloop

    Votes: 66 4.6%

  • Total voters
    1,439

Stormblessed

Member
Feb 21, 2019
1,282
But then, as the video explains, there's no real choice at all, it's just an illusion.

It's not shitty design to make the player's choices meaningful.

In Witcher 2, about half the game is different based on your choice at the end of Flotsam. You get a totally different middle section. Is that shitty design that locks people out of content?

Or is it a meaningful choice that gives you a different experience?
Yeah but then most players miss out on a lot of the game. I have only played one route of the Witcher 2 just as I have only played one route of three houses. Just because content is gated from a player doesn't make it any better.
 

IIFloodyII

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,238
I like Dishonoured 2 more than 1 (also amazing), so it. I assume Death of The Outsider is included in 2, but I'd put it above 1 also, though it's very close between the 3.

Never played the games before D1, liked but didn't love Prey, dropped Wolf and Deathloop (though might return to it, but wasn't really a fan of it, it's pace is just not for me really).
 

Foxisdabest

Banned
May 8, 2022
1,050
I haven't played any of the other games, but i absolutely loved Prey so i voted for it. I'm lookint forward to what comes next, and from what i hear dishonored would be right down my alley.

Is there a ps4 version of dishonored?
 

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,279
Loved Prey so much. Tried to get into Dishonored after but didn't like them as much.
 

IIFloodyII

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,238
I haven't played any of the other games, but i absolutely loved Prey so i voted for it. I'm lookint forward to what comes next, and from what i hear dishonored would be right down my alley.

Is there a ps4 version of dishonored?
Yeah, got a remaster. You can usually get it and Dishonoured 2 and Death of The Outsider together for cheap.
 

astro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,230
Prey was great for a while, but about half way through it felt like it was dragging for me. I can't even put my finger on why, all I know is I've tried to play it three times... immediately get a great impression, soon get suckered in completely... then fall-off around the same point.

I don't really get the praise. Not played Mooncrash, though.
 

roguesquirrel

The Fallen
Oct 29, 2017
5,496
KarmaStar
1292710-img_0195.png


edit- My actual answer is Death of the Outsider, which also isnt on the poll. IDK if thats meant to be lumped in with 2. The "Go up every rung of a cult's ladder" conceit gives it a clearer focus than the big 2 DH games, & I love Billies condensed but multifunctional powerset.
 
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Cameron122

Rescued from SR388
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,293
Texas
It's Prey but I voted Dark Messiah bc it was the first time first person melee felt good to me and you can kick an orc into a pit of spikes
 

Nimby

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,228
Prey (10/10) > Dishonored 2 (9/10) > Deathloop (8/10)

Haven't played: Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah, Dishonored 1, Dishonored: DOTO, Mooncrash
 

Teeth

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,956
Having just finished Prey and wanting to love it, i'm coming to terms with just liking it instead.

It's a game that's all steak but no sizzle. Everything is perfectly systematic, but there's no high highs. It's an even-steven game all the way through, and it's too easy to fall into a very uniform groove through the entire thing. The game peaks with the Crew Quarters and then settles back into grey corridor crawls and another 7 treks through the Arboretum. Every out of the way cool secret place you find still just has another unexciting weapon upgrade point and pack of shotgun shells. Once you've got the agility upgrades and a couple other basics, most of the neuromod upgrades just seem like things that short-circuit actual analogue gameplay bits (like - you can now hack into something instead of searching for a password. Or now you can lift a heavy thing out of the way instead of finding an alternate route with judicious gloo placement. Or now you can one-shot an enemy instead of using the environment effectively to take it down). Alas, that's often a problem with all immersive sims.

But...

Dishonored 2 is a masterpiece. Amazing level design (and I even think A Crack In the Slab is wildly overrated), cool art design, awesome abilities, and two (times two characters) legitmately fully fleshed out ways to play it, each being super fun and super different experiences (high and low chaos).

D1 has some great levels and feels nice and tight, but it lacks the nonlethal gear and abilities that make one playstyle less fun than the other, and some of the cause and effect stuff isn't as fully fleshed out either.

That said, all Arkane games are great in their own way (Youngblood was a mercenary job, it doesn't count). But Dishonored 2 is easily one of the best games ever (with mouse and keyboard...the controller lag is pretty awful).
 

Deer

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,568
Sweden
Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider are masterpieces

the Thief II The Metal Age of the modern era

Dishonored 1 is good, Prey also but they have issues. Prey combat/sneaking gameplay is not fun most of the time and the atmosphere can't salvage that

not played the others
 
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Oct 27, 2017
12,374
Dishonored 2 by a mile for me.

I had no fucking idea they were involved with Wolf: Youngblood. That was kind of a not good game despite the great premise.
 

Arsic

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,730
Prey is next level and deserved a sequel. The rest of the games from this studio just don't do it for me.
 

jem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,757
But then, as the video explains, there's no real choice at all, it's just an illusion.

It's not shitty design to make the player's choices meaningful.

In Witcher 2, about half the game is different based on your choice at the end of Flotsam. You get a totally different middle section. Is that shitty design that locks people out of content?

Or is it a meaningful choice that gives you a different experience?
I don't have time to watch that video at the moment so I can't respond to their arguments directly. However, the claim that the choices the player makes in Prey are merely an "illusion" is most definitely a fallacy regardless of how it's argued.


There are many different philosophies when it comes to "player choice" with regards to things like skills and abilities - the style of design I think is shitty is that where your gameplay options are restricted based on arbitrary skill or ability checks*. For example: when you have rooms or spaces which are literally impossible to enter unless you dump enough skill points into lockpicking or something similar. This sort of design doesn't make the gameplay any deeper or richer - it simply reduces the amount of content a player can engage with in a given playthrough.

Prey's philosophy is one of choice without arbitrary limitations. The player's choices in Prey don't prevent them from completing any objectives, instead they change how the player goes about completing those objectives. The depth of the sandbox and the complexity of the level design means that if you're smart enough you can solve almost any problem the game throws at you with almost any of the tools at your disposal. That's the genius of the game. That's why it's so satisfying - It's a game about critical thinking and problem solving, not one of passing arbitrary skill checks.

Two players in Prey will both reach the same destinations, however, the means by which they get there and thus the experience as a whole can be vastly different. That is down to the choices those players make.



*I'm not at all referring to stuff like the Witcher 2's narrative choices - those are great.
 

bob1001

▲ Legend ▲
Member
May 7, 2020
1,560
All their games are good, but Prey is the best by far imo. Probably my favourite immersive sim.
 

Reedirect

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,065
I'm going to say the first Dishonored. The gameplay, setting and aesthetic felt very fresh at the time and the level design was flawless. Dishonored 2 may be better in some ways, but it didn't click with me the same way, felt like reiteration of the same structure, albeit a great one.

Prey is a strong second, just an overall fantastic experience with some minor setbacks in the opening hours before you fully immersive yourself in the world and its mechanics.

I was thoroughly unimpressed by Deathloop.
 

Hoggle

Member
Mar 25, 2021
6,127
Deathloop

Every other Arkane game involved me running around murdering every enemy in the area and then discovering a dozen hidden crawl spaces and pathways that would have made the whole process far easier and more interesting.

In Deathloop that happens and then the loop resets and I actually get to utilise all that amazing level design.
 

Izanagi89

"This guy are sick" and Corrupted by Vengeance
Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,864
Just wanted to pop in to see Prey was leading. Finally era chooses the right option
 

Senjuro

Member
Oct 10, 2019
1,100
Of those I played:
Dishonored forces you into stealth to get the best ending so you get little to no use out of all your most fun weapons and abilities.

Prey doesn't give you a single simple, reliable, damage dealing weapon. It means you need to be creative every single battle. Good in theory, becomes tiresome in practice. At some point you just want to point and shoot and all you get for that is a weak pistol or a shotgun with an effective range of an inch.

Only bad thing I can say about Dark Messiah is that it's old. Still the one I'd rather replay.
 

ioriyagami

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,371
The one with the Clockwork Mansion and time-bending Crack in the Slab levels (I e., Dishonored 2) Those are just the best level design in gaming.
 

kevinking94

Member
Oct 28, 2017
880
Prey for sure. The only thing I wouldve wished for would be enemy variety, but even still its one of the best games ever to me.
 

Valentonis

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 8, 2020
1,032
Surprised to see Prey in the top spot, I figured Dishonored was more popular around these parts. I completely agree though, Prey is my comfort game, it never gets old for me.
 

matrix-cat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,284
There's one level in Dishonored 2 where there's this incredibly complex lock mechanism blocking your access to the mansion where the next level lies, and the game nudges you into getting involved in a gang turf war, picking a side and helping them out against the other side until they finally help you out with a key or an alternate route. Pick side A and make enemies with side B, pick side B and make enemies with side A, play them against eachother, pick neither and just stealth your way into their hideouts, the usual ImSim routine.

OR you can actually try and crack the lock yourself, and it turns out to be a really fun (and surprisingly complex) Professor Layton puzzle. I had to get out a pen and paper and work the whole thing out. It's not even one of THE levels everyone remembers from Dishonored 2, but it's always stuck with me because I had such a great time with it.
 

Artdayne

Banned
Nov 7, 2017
5,015
Haven't played through Arx yet, I own it, but I've heard nothing but great things. Dishonored is my favorite game of theirs easily. Dark Messiah is a lot of fun too.
 

Deleted member 25606

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
8,973
I haven't played any of the other games, but i absolutely loved Prey so i voted for it. I'm lookint forward to what comes next, and from what i hear dishonored would be right down my alley.

Is there a ps4 version of dishonored?
I just bought the remastered bundle with Dishonored complete, dishonored 2 and death of the outsider plus Prey in a bundle for 20 dollars, PlayStation 4 versions on my PS5 so yes.
 
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Beelzebufo

Member
Jun 1, 2022
4,074
Canada
Dishonored in theory is my favorite. I just absolutely hate that you can't have fun with 90% the game's magic or combat if you don't want the bad ending.
 
Oct 25, 2017
1,037
Prey was one of the best games, if not the best game of last gen. Dishonored should have been right up my alley and I attempted like 3 different playthroughs, but I just couldn't ever get into it and never ended up playing the sequel. Played Deathloop once and never went back to it again.
 

jawzpause

Member
Nov 7, 2017
2,280
Deathloop is such a shit game man I'm still angry that i was tricked by reviewers into getting it
 

trashbandit

Member
Dec 19, 2019
3,911
It's a toss up between Prey and Death of the Outsider for me. DotO is like the extra virigin olive oil of Dishonored; it's Dishonored condensed into the best its ever been. Prey is a masterclass in immersive sim design though, and I think it edges out over DotO.
 

Brainfreeze

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,703
New Jersey
Dishonored 1 and 2 have some of the best level design of all time, but as a full experience Prey is just too special.

If we're including DLC, Prey gets an even larger lead for me.