These days, it's tough to find an FPS that offers a unique gaming experience, but that's where knowing Arkane Studios's development history can help.
Arkane Studios is one of the few developers that creates FPS games outside of the military shooter genre like COD and Battlefield. While some of their titles contain flaws, their best provide some of the most unique gaming experiences available. Below are 8 Arkane Studios games that we’ve listed from good to great:
8. Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Wolfenstein: Youngblood - Free Roam Gameplay (by Throneful)
Starting at #8 is Arkane’s least acclaimed game (according to Metacritic) — Wolfenstein: Youngblood. It’s a spin-off title from the mainline Wolfenstein series, set 20 years after Wolfenstein: The New Colossus.
In it, you play as either Jessie or Zofia Blazkowicz, B.J. and Anya’s twin daughters. After their father’s sudden disappearance, the twins follow his tracks to Nazi-occupied France. Playing with a buddy or an A.I. companion, you run and gun through a futuristic Paris in search of your father and more Nazis to shoot.
Opinions on Youngblood are pretty divided. Several major gaming outlets have given it decent reviews, saying it’s more of MachineGames’ action-packed gameplay blended with Arkane’s open and layered level design. But user reviews paint a different picture.
Microtransactions, bullet-sponge enemies, a grindy RPG leveling system, and a shoddy companion A.I. were just some of the issues players said they had with the game. On top of all that, Youngblood just feels like an underwhelming diversion from an otherwise great story-driven shooter franchise. For those reasons, Wolfenstein: Youngblood sits at #8 on this list.
7. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider Gameplay (by StealthGamerBR)
At #7 is Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, a standalone expansion to Dishonored 2. In the game, players control Billie Lurk, a member of Daud’s Whaler Assassins. After the events of Dishonored 2, Lurk tracks down and saves her mentor from a group of Cultists who worship the mysterious Outsider. Daud tasks her with finding a weapon that can kill the otherworldly being. After receiving powers from the Outsider itself, Lurk works to steal the special weapon and kill it once and for all.
Death of the Outsider has similar gameplay to the previous games but includes several tweaks that make it a wholly different experience. Players are given three Void powers that are unlocked from the start of the game. You can also regenerate energy without consuming any potions. This makes the game a more streamlined Dishonored experience, giving you the freedom to experiment during missions.
Owing to its place in the Dishonored franchise, Death of the Outsider takes the #7 spot because it changes just a few mechanics, but doesn’t present anything fresh or new.
For fans of the series, it’s a quick refreshment, but also a cut-down version of the previous games. On top of that, it concludes the overarching plot of the series in a way that many fans found unsatisfying and cheap. In the end, it’s a decent expansion but doesn’t hit as high as its predecessors.
6. Deathloop
Deathloop- Stealth Kills - PC Gameplay (by Swifty Unknown)
The #6 Best Arkane Studios Game is their most recent release: Deathloop. In it, you play Colt Vahn, a man tasked with killing the Visionaries, eight people responsible for maintaining an eternal time loop on a research station in a subarctic island called Blackreef. Players must kill all 8 targets before midnight in order to close the loop or else they’ll repeat the same day all over again.
Simple enough if it weren’t for Julianna Blake, the Visionaries’ bodyguard, who relentlessly hunts Colt down before he can get rid of all 8 targets. As a multiplayer component, players can invade each others’ games as Julianna and kill other players so that they are forced to restart their time loops.
While not being the first game to do so, Deathloop shows off what’s best about Arkane Studios — their ability to bring a unique art style to their games along with new and inventive mechanics.
However, the game has too many tangible flaws to it, including numerous bugs and optimization issues, a clunky and unresponsive A.I., and a repetitive gameplay loop. Though Arkane attempted something innovative, it’s hard to say they delivered significantly more than Dishonored with more guns and a Sixties theme.
5. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Dark Messiah Gameplay Highlights (by nothing right)
At #5 on Arkane Studios’ list of top titles is Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Set in the fantasy world of Ashan, Dark Messiah has you play a wizard apprentice known as Sareth. You fight to protect the people of Stonehelm and seek a powerful artifact called the “Skull of Shadows” in order to prevent an army of undead from unleashing a horde of demons. In his quest to keep it out of the wrong hands, Sareth discovers his ties to the Skull and the fate of the world.
Dark Messiah is a first-person action RPG with a single-player story mode and an online multiplayer mode. The multiplayer includes team deathmatch and a 1v1 Colosseum mode. In the story mode, players build their characters according to their preferred playstyle by selecting specific skills such as magic spells, melee attacks, stealth abilities, and more.
The interesting thing about Dark Messiah is that both critics then and players today recognize how great its combat system is. There are numerous reviews stating how Dark Messiah’s fun and intuitive combat were the basis of multiple replays, making it a precursor for action RPGs like Dark Souls.
For its dated visuals and simple narrative, Dark Messiah stands at #5 on this list, yet its beloved combat design is a sign that, early on, Arkane Studios was a success in the making.
4. Arx Fatalis
Arx Fatalis - Gameplay (by John GodGames)
#4 is Arx Fatalis, Arkane Studios’s first released game. It is a first-person action RPG that was inspired by the games of Looking Glass Studios, known for famous immersive simulation titles like Thief and System Shock 2.
The game is set in a fictional world with a failed sun, causing all creatures on the surface to find shelter in giant underground caverns. In one of these caverns live several races including Trolls, Goblins, Dwarves, and Humans, each inhabiting different levels of the cavern.
Your character awakens in a prison cell and escapes, only to discover that you must defeat a God of Destruction before it arises and destroys your home. Following this is a non-linear plot where you explore the cavern and collect items to forge a sword that can defeat the God of Destruction.
With influence from immersive sim games, Arx Fatalis includes crafting systems, point-based character progression, and open-ended gameplay that allows players to choose how they complete quests, with each choice leading to different consequences.
For a first game, Arx Fatalis is a great reflection of the immersive sim genre while also adding its own innovation to the genre - the mouse gesture spellcasting system. A simple but amazing idea that shows Arkane, even in its beginnings, has been among the most unique game development studios in the industry.
3. Dishonored 2
Dishonored 2 - Brutal Gameplay (by Volound)
#3 is Dishonored 2, the sequel to the highly-acclaimed stealth-action game. The story is set fifteen years after the first game, with Emily Kaldwin peacefully seated on the throne with her father Corvo by her side. But when a mysterious killer begins eliminating her dissenters, Emily is suddenly deposed by a Brigmore Witch named Delilah, who reveals herself to be Emily’s half-aunt and true heir to the throne of Dunwall.
Escaping from the dreary isles of Dunwall to the Mediterranean-inspired locale of Karnaca, players get to face new enemies, traps, and environments as either Corvo or Emily. Players must search for a way to remove Delilah from power and return Emily to the throne — hopefully without killing too many people along the way.
Dishonored 2 deserves its third place, as it's still an amazing game with excellent visuals, more stealth-action fun, and several new ways to play and experiment. But the original had a simple story of revenge and rescue, with several expansions that built upon the amazing setting and lore of Dunwall and its Empire.
In its sequel, motivations seem repeated and plots retreaded — fight and/or kill bad guys and put Emily back on the throne. A good sequel stands apart from its original, playing off its narrative and mechanics well, but also taking new and adventurous risks.
2. Dishonored
Dishonored Stealth High Chaos Gameplay (by StealthGamerBR)
The #2 spot goes to the first Dishonored, one of the best modern stealth-action FPS titles in the past console and PC era. Set in London-esque Dunwall, the game places you in the silent boots of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress of the Isles. When the Empress is killed and Corvo framed for it, he becomes an outlaw to clear his name and take revenge.
With the help of a mysterious being called the Outsider, you gain a set of supernatural abilities that turn you into a fearsome assassin. But will your bloody work spell doom for the city or bring it back from the brink?
Dishonored’s stealth is above average compared to most other stealth titles, but its combat and supernatural abilities blend together to reward player experimentation and mastery of the game’s mechanics. To this day, there are videos of players performing insane speedrun assassinations using the game’s various mechanics.
While most developers who made FPSs were focused on bringing action-packed shooter experiences to players, Arkane presented something new. Dishonored’s art style was singular for its time, while its gameplay mechanics begged for multiple playthroughs and experimentation.
The story itself isn’t anything special, but its world and atmosphere are enough to make players feel immersed enough to keep coming back for more. Among their many other titles, Dishonored is a tough one for Arkane to beat, but the easiest to have fun playing.
1. Prey
Prey Walkthrough Gameplay (by PLAYGAMES)
The #1 spot goes to one of the most successful reboots in gaming, Arkane Studios’s Prey — not to be confused with Human Head Studio’s 2006 game and its tragically unreleased alien-bounty hunting sequel.
Prey, released in May 2017, is a first-person shooter containing elements from numerous genres, including RPGs, open-world, stealth-action, immersive sims, and Metroidvanias. These coalesce to create a title that is rarely seen among FPSs, much less contemporary games.
The game is set in an alternate timeline when the 1960s Space Race led to humanity making contact with alien lifeforms known as the Typhon. After researchers were killed in an attempt to study them, the life forms were abandoned.
Decades later, you play Morgan Yu, brother/sister of a researcher at TranStar Corporation, Alex, who invites you to Talos I, a space station where TranStar now conducts research on the Typhon once again.
The violent creatures get loose and cause havoc throughout the station. Stranded and in serious danger, Morgan has to find ways to fight and destroy the Typhon, then somehow get off the station alive.
There is a lot to say about Prey, but it can all be summed up by saying that it is a one-of-a-kind experience for gamers. It takes elements from all of Arkane’s past titles and influences, then blends them together to make a game filled with deep, intricate systems that support and react to your decisions. And that is without mentioning its mind-bending plot and amazingly diverse environmental and level design. There’s so much to say, but not enough room to say it. Just play Prey. You won’t regret it.
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