Here's what we know so far about Arkane's intriguing new game, Dishonored. It's a first person action game from the creators of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, co-created by Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith with art from Half Life 2's Viktor Antonov. You play as Corvo, a bodyguard framed for a crime he didn't commit on a mission to assassinate his way out of trouble using guns, gadgets and possessed rats .
Also, according to a new interactive map on GameInformer , there will be whales. Lots of whales. The whales have tentacles, and their explosive blubber is used to power the world's industries. If I ever write a stranger sentence than that, I'll eat my shirt.
"The strange tentacled beasts called whales in this world have rapidly become one of the most valuable and important commodities" reads the whale blurb in the Easternmost part of the map. "The oil from these massive beasts is highly volatile and can be used to generate energy in ways never before seen."
"Multiple sets of fins and other oddities make the creatures look as much like something out of a Lovecraftian Cthulhu story as something from our own real-world seas. Like petroleum in our world, the blubber of the whales has innumerable uses, only increasing the need for more whales to be killed."
The whales seem to form a central part of the economy of the strange steampunk world. "The new industrial surge being championed out of Dunwall is only possible thanks to the whales and the grizzled whalers who hunt them," reads an entry on the whale hunters. "Their vehicle is an unusual craft with a prow that extends and contracts from the ship to allow for bringing kills aboard. A hook pulls the dead whale up through a chute onto the deck of the ship, where it can be harvested for its bountiful supply of blubber." Lovely.
The other interesting part of the map is the enormous continent of Pandyssian. It dwarfs the inhabited islands of the Northwest, but is thought to be deserted. The description says that "in all likelihood, there are probably trader and merchant cultures living along the edges of this landmass. However, much of the continent remains an unexplored stretch of deserts and jungle, promising death to any who penetrate its borders."
If Pandyssian turns out to be deserted, I'll eat my socks as well. My bet is on a race of sentient walking whales. Dishonored is due out next year.
