Founded in the far away year of 1999, Arkane Studios has had a foothold in the gaming industry for over two decades. Every now and then the studio releases a fun experience, then slinks away into the shadows to craft something else. Arkane Studios’ developed some pretty standout titles, too, like Dishonored and Prey. But let’s take a trip down memory lane and examine every one of Arkane Studios’ games.
Redfall
Redfall, Massachusetts has a problem: vampires. No, not the kind that sparkles, but the kind that has no qualms over draining every last drop of blood from your body. This is Redfall, Arkane Studios’ upcoming open-world first-person shooter, which is slated for release on May 2, 2023.
Redfall features a colorful cast of characters armed to the teeth (pun intended) with all manner of vampire-slaying weapons, gadgets, and unique abilities. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to explore the island, find loot, and dispatch every bloodsucking menace you come across. It also has multiplayer, so if you want to bring a few friends, you can!
Prey
Prey is an interesting sci-fi beast, one that’s seemingly cut from the same cloth as Dishonored in terms of gameplay. Experimentation is a key aspect of the game, allowing for missions to be completed in a variety of different ways thanks to the tools and abilities at your fingertips. It was one of Dishonored’s strongest features, too, and more often than not, problems in Prey can be solved without ever getting hostile.
Given that the mysterious alien race called the Typhon have the uncanny ability of disguising themselves as inanimate objects, you can’t help but feel the urge to put a hole in every table, chair, and coffee mug. Prey insists you get creative with the levels rather than rushing in, guns blazing.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Wolfenstein: Youngblood was a joint effort between Arkane Studios and MachineGames set in the Wolfenstein universe. Twenty years after the events of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, the mighty B.J. Blazkowicz just up and disappears, so his two daughters, Jessie and Zofia, suit up to go look for him.
As Wolfenstein games go, Youngblood featured much of the same Nazi-killing goodness in titles past. However, the game shifted wildly from the formula by introducing co-op. Whichever sister you chose, a friend could jump in to offer assistance, otherwise the AI would take over. There are even RPG elements baked into the game via skill trees and a leveling system.
Dishonored
Welcome to steampunk heaven, featuring seedy London streets, an edgy assassin, and snobby aristocrats that definitely deserve what’s coming to them. You play as Corvo, a royal bodyguard turned assassin on the hunt for the Empress’ murderer and his kidnapped daughter, Emily. In this universe, magic exists, though only a small number of people can actually use it, Corvo included.
Dishonored is arguably one of Arkane Studios most beloved franchises, and did pretty darn well in terms of sales to justify multiple DLC and a sequel. It certainly helped that the game gave you a myriad of tools and supernatural abilities to dispatch your targets, in addition to the chaos system, which actively judged your decisions and determined the ending.
Deathloop
Deathloop oozes a Cold War-like style, wrapped in a first-person shooter roguelite. You play as Colt, who’s stuck in some bizarre time loop that he can’t seem to escape. Every night, the time loop resets and will do so for eternity, unless Colt kills off the Visionaries. They’re the ones who keep the loop going, so grab a gun and start shooting, right?
Unfortunately, there’s a problem: you aren’t the only hunter. While you’re trying to kill all eight Visionaries, their bodyguard, Julianna, is trying to kill you. When she succeeds, and she will succeed more than once, the time loops resets, anyway.
Arx Fatalis
Arx Fatalis is set in a world where the sun just disappeared one day. This obviously caused all sorts of panic in its inhabitants, so the races banded together, took a page from Patrick Star’s playbook and pushed their cities somewhere else. Since the surface was turning into a winter wonderland, their only choice was living underground.
Despite being Arkane Studios’ first title, it’s honestly a great example of good world-building. More importantly, Arx Fatalis features many gameplay mechanics that would go on to appear in many of the studio’s future games. Even in 2002, Arkane Studios was implementing multiple endings and a deeply interactive level design in its games.
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
Where Prey was a beautifully crafted sci-fi shooter, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is an action-RPG that treads the same tired fantasy tropes such as the “chosen one” plot. With that said, there is an undeniable charm to the game, even if the level design is rather linear and the story is shackled to the Might and Magic universe.
The fun of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic comes from its combat and physics, specifically the spells. They can be used in ways that modern titles are surprisingly lacking; for example Freeze does exactly what you’d expect: it freezes opponents. However, a more interesting and efficient way to use Freeze is using it on the ground in key locations, causing enemies to slip right off a cliff if you set it up properly.
Dishonored 2
To describe Dishonored 2 as “just more Dishonored” is correct, and that’s okay! Arkane Studios pushed the boundaries of Dishonored’s gameplay—new missions, abilities, and tighter stealth mechanics. In other words: if you enjoyed the first game, you’ll enjoy this one, too.
This time around, you get to choose between two characters: Corvo and Emily. Yes, little Emly Kaldwin is all grown up now, but a coup ended her reign as empress, which means there are now two edgy assassins lurking in the shadows.
With that, we close the book on all Arkane Studios games. It’s a pretty good track record, all things considered, though a few are admittedly average, at best. Even with the studio’s less-than-stellar titles, there’s a clear effort to craft games that allow players to interact with the world in really cool ways, like Arx Fatalis, Prey, and their upcoming shooter Redfall. What are your favorites amongst Arkane Studios’ catalog? Let us know in the comments!
