i always liked how dishonored didn't just directly borrow from a particular time period or fashion of Earth and instead just does this extremely unique aesthetic that borrows little bits and pieces from different european eras mixed with some other cultures. everything looks both familiar and different at the same time. not just standard "victorian steampunk on an alien magical planet".
Yeah, it's an absolute masterpiece of art direction. It's pretty much one of the best arguments for why "beauty" in video games has nothing to do with overall graphical fidelity and having fancy 4K textures - Dishonored was made on UE3, can run on some pretty ancient PCs, and still looks fucking great, years after it was released.
I still remember the first time I got to the High Overseer mission and realized I couldn't determine the time period (which is something I like to do in media where there isn't a stated period) because of the fluorescent spotlights in the guard checkpoint combined with the steampunk-esqe (Whalepunk I suppose) technology around them. I love the Dishonored series and Arcane, I hope they make a sequel to Prey and a new Dishonored because they are so good at world-building, environmental storytelling, visual style, and character writing.
The moment i realized it was whalepunk my (normally very bad) suspension of disbelief shot up. Crazy whale-oil powered stilt dudes? sure. Weird psychic powers granted by a mysterious god that lets on EXTREMELY little in the way of exposition? don't mind if I do. When games decide to go for alternate realities they're so much more free than if they chose to stick to the kind of "realism" fashy HEMA youtubers love to be mad about.
i always liked how dishonored didn't just directly borrow from a particular time period or fashion of Earth and instead just does this extremely unique aesthetic that borrows little bits and pieces from different european eras mixed with some other cultures. everything looks both familiar and different at the same time. not just standard "victorian steampunk on an alien magical planet".
Yeah, it's an absolute masterpiece of art direction. It's pretty much one of the best arguments for why "beauty" in video games has nothing to do with overall graphical fidelity and having fancy 4K textures - Dishonored was made on UE3, can run on some pretty ancient PCs, and still looks fucking great, years after it was released.
I still remember the first time I got to the High Overseer mission and realized I couldn't determine the time period (which is something I like to do in media where there isn't a stated period) because of the fluorescent spotlights in the guard checkpoint combined with the steampunk-esqe (Whalepunk I suppose) technology around them. I love the Dishonored series and Arcane, I hope they make a sequel to Prey and a new Dishonored because they are so good at world-building, environmental storytelling, visual style, and character writing.
whale punk is good
The moment i realized it was whalepunk my (normally very bad) suspension of disbelief shot up. Crazy whale-oil powered stilt dudes? sure. Weird psychic powers granted by a mysterious god that lets on EXTREMELY little in the way of exposition? don't mind if I do. When games decide to go for alternate realities they're so much more free than if they chose to stick to the kind of "realism" fashy HEMA youtubers love to be mad about.