A look at Dishonored’s many UI options

Dishonored is often referred to as an “immersive” game, and that can imply a lot of things — everything from a first-person perspective to, say, dynamic sound design. For Arkane, it means a commitment to all aspects of the word, and that involves the user interface.

While Dishonored features a robust interface to support its rich mechanics, it also affords you the option to tweak the UI for a fully immersive experience. In addition to the general gameplay options — which you can take a look at here — we wanted to reveal the full slate of interface options you’ll be able to enable and disable individually in all versions of the game, as well as some PC-specific features. Click through for the second page of the options, as well as some comparison screenshots.

Some of these selections involve multiple options, such as the crosshair style — “Normal,” “Simple” and “Off” — and the Health/Mana gauges (“Always On,” “Context Sensitive” and “Off”).

Below is a look at the game with the interface fully enabled. In the bottom left you’ll notice the stance icon that changes when you are in stealth mode, as well an icon pointing you to the next objective. In the lower right, context-sensitive icons appear when you approach enemies, doors and other objects you can interact with. The top left is reserved for your health and mana status, as well as your currently equipped power or gadget.

And here’s a look at the same situation with the UI elements disabled via the options menu:

While we’re at it, we also wanted to give you a preview of the PC-specific “shortcut” bar. This bar appears when you hit one of the shortcut buttons — which are mapped by default to the 1-10 keys — and then fades out just as quickly, giving you a more familiar interface to select your powers and gadgets. You still have the option to use the standard Quick Access Wheel, which defaults to “mouse wheel click” on PC. And of course Dishonored also supports the use of a gamepad.

A few options not featured in these screens that we also wanted to mention:

  • The FOV slider for changing your field of view. (PC Only)
  • Controller and mouse sensitivity options, as well as four different options related to auto aim strength and aim assist.
  • The mouse smoothing/acceleration slider and enable/disable options. (PC only).
  • Graphics options for the full spectrum of monitor resolutions, anti-aliasing, and various other graphical toggles. (PC only).

If you have any further questions about the interface — or anything else Dishonored-related — let us know in the comments!

Reader Comments

  1. THANK YOU so much for treating the PC of this game the right way. From FOV to UI tweaks, I cannot say enough how excited I am for this game! Most anticipated GOTY for me, hands down.

  2. All lot of us are waiting for a Collector’s edition before deciding whether we should pre-order the game *now* (changing a pre-order from the standard to the collector’s edition is often a pain, if at all possible).

    Could you guys maybe at least give us a hint of whether there will be a Collector’s Edition ?

  3. I know the chances of this happening are stupidly slim, but a FOV slider on console would be so awesome because I play my xbox at the exact same distance from my monitor as you would a PC, which makes 90% of consoles even more horrible and straining.

    • Don’t get too excited. According to the new blog from Arkane, it only goes from 65-85. For those of us who play at 90 or higher, it’s a small comfort.

    • I assume it means that the directional controls for climbing are relative to the position of the camera rather than the position of the character on screen. For instance, if looking side-on, pressing right may actually make the character move forward.

  7. Amazing, amazing job! if only all developers put this much care into their design. Dishonored is day 1 buy 100%.

    I will definitely play without HUD, love the immersion.

  9. Fantastic! Been a while since I’ve seen that many options. It sounds dumb, but this article has brought me within a hear’s breadth of pre-ordering the game.

  10. I still don’t like the Health/Mana bars, looks so out of place :/
    Hope you could make them vials or something, might fit the games’ setting a little better than those “scars” :)

  13. Well most of these are supposed to be mandatory for PC releases anyway so I don’t know why everyone is jizzing themselves like this is the second coming of jesus.

  15. Hi

    Dishonored is looking slick, I am very excited that we are getting a Bethesda BShock*, but two things stay on my mind..

    1. Why put Dishonored out, in that quarter, in competition with GTA5? Allegedly, even 2K/Irrational moved Infinite not to compete with GTA.

    2. When will Fallout 4 be announced? I’m not even asking for a date, not even a screenshot, but SOME reassurance it is in the planning stage, ~please.. please.

    thanks

    Dava

    *Adding to the new “Genre” of Steampunk FPS, Like Activision who did “Singularity”. Welcome to the Genre, Dishonored!

  17. Awesome bethesda,

    thanks for all these pc- centric options in the game.

    Thank god for Fov sliders, no messing with .ini or config files this time yes!

  19. FOV! YES! Finally, a PC game that gets it right – even acknowledging that a living-room FOV is not the correct thing to do on a PC monitor feels like such a refreshing change.

  21. A FOV Slider is FANTASTIC news; loved in in Human Revolution and love it here too. Please make sure it goes high enough though, that is up to at least 95 : )

    No matter, FOV means day 1 purchase from me, if not pre-order.

    Thank you for thinking of us PC gamers!