Whereas Corvo Attano, the protagonist of the main game, joined the ranks of mute player characters like Master Chief and Gordon Freeman, Daud continually comments of his surroundings and reflects on each mission after it is complete.

In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, co-creative director Raphael Colantonio was asked whether he would consider repeating what he did with Daud in future additions to the Dishonored franchise, or if he’s still ultimately married to the appeal of a silent protagonist:

One of the most common criticisms of Dishonored was that despite ostensibly being a stealth game that offered and even encouraged the player to take a non-lethal approach wherever possible, many of the supernatural powers on offer were designed for noisy and bloody creative kills. Those who were going for a ‘ghost’ approach were limited to tranquilizer crossbow bolts and suffocation as the only means of non-lethal takedowns. Colantonio admits that this is largely due to the non-lethal approach being something of an afterthought:

For us, Daud had just had to have a voice because he was so well defined by Dishonored. So we decided to riff on that and go deeper. Play with the character. With Corvo, we just wanted to make sure it was the player… Are we gonna go with a silent protagonist or not? Doing that with Daud was a way for us to test a little bit. See if people like it. So it will also depend on what we hear from players [after they finish Brigmore Witches]."

A different game with the same gameplay design elements as Dishonored actually sounds a whole lot more desirable than a simple sequel. Firstly because the player’s choices affect the outcome of the game, and therefore a sequel to Dishonored would face the problem of deciding which ending in particular it would follow on from. Deus Ex: Invisible War also struggled with this problem, and ended up trying to be a sequel to all of the available endings in Deus Ex - a messy and ultimately unsuccessful tactic.

A spiritual successor, on the other hand, could be to Dishonored what Bioshock Infinite was to BioShock: a new setting and all-new characters with a story that continues to explore some of the themes of the previous game, with a very similar gameplay style. A followup to Dishonored could also be done in the style of The Elder Scrolls series: set in the same world, but in a different country or continent. Colantonio suggests that this might be where the future of Dishonored lies:

Dishonored was part of an increasingly rare breed of AAA game that comes with a singleplayer campaign only, without even so much as an obligatory tacked-on multiplayer. When asked if Arkane would ever consider including multiplayer in the future, Colantonio replied that he wouldn’t rule it out, but it’s not a priority:

Implementing a decent story in a PvP multiplayer environment does present a lot of challenges, more so than a co-op campaign or even an MMO. It could be interesting, but there doesn’t really seem to be a huge amount of grass roots support for a multiplayer version of Dishonored; if anything, most gamers seemed to be pleased about the fact that all the developer’s resources were being poured into the singleplayer campaign.

“But yes, generally we’re more into single-player. Someone playing at their own pace, which is another thing that goes against multiplayer values. In multiplayer, there’s a group, so everyone has to worry about going forward or being shot at. But we’re also keeping an eye out for ways to do multiplayer the right way.

Dishonored fans - tell us what you’d like to see Arkane Studios do in a continuation of the series. Multiplayer or no multiplayer? Silent protagonist or talking protagonist? Stealth or action?

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Source: RPS