"You can make your path through the game, and you have a sense that there was a lot more going on. And therefore the sequence of things that happened to you are yours."
Dishonored 2 is hard to pigeonhole. For some players, it might be a combustive, otherworldly action game. While for others, it'll be a tense, nervy affair fraught with danger. It all depends on your play style.
Giving players so many different ways to tackle a series of ever-evolving situations might be one of the game's biggest selling points, but it's a design choice that means some won't even see half of what the sequel has to offer.
You'd be forgiven for thinking developer Arkane Studios would be disappointed by that fact. But, in a recent interview with Glixel, Dishonored 2 game director Harvey Smith revealed he relished giving players the chance to hand-craft their own unique journey.
"If you look at games, and some people do, as a cost-ratio kind of thing, some developers are like, 'I want to put every dollar on the screen.' We have the opposite approach," said Smith.
"You can make your path through the game, and you have a sense that there was a lot more going on. And therefore the sequence of things that happened to you are yours.
"They're your experiences. They're very intimate. You didn't have the same experience I did. That's really special to us."
It's about giving players the opportunity to live out their fantasy, he adds, not the fantasy of the developers. That's why he doesn't care if they don't hear every line of dialogue or see every ending. The journey as they say, is its own reward.
To hear more from Smith, including what he learned from Deus Ex director Warren Spector and why he adores Far Cry 2, head on over to Glixel.
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