Arkane Lyon creative director Sébastien Mitton just shared concept art for the studio’s upcomingBladegame, which was recentlyannounced at The Game Awardswith a brief CGI trailer.
There are three pieces of artwork in total. The first shows Blade on the rooftops, overlooking the burning Parisian streets. Futuristic airships monitor the city, and we can see a tower in the background with a neon sign warning citizens of the curfew that was mentioned in the reveal. This curfew and surveillance may be used to empty the city of civilians, much as the Arkham series continually evacuated Gotham.
The second piece of artwork shows Blade hiding around a corner in the lower streets, watching as people queue to enter a club. It’s hard to make out, but the bouncer’s teeth look pointed like a vampire’s, so this may be a setting reminiscent of the blood rave in the first Wesley Snipes Blade movie.
The third and final piece of concept art gives us a much clearer look at Arkane’s take on Marvel vampires. They have pale, ashy skin, glowing yellow eyes, pointed ears, and sharp fangs. We see a few of them lurking on the subway as Blade swings his sword at a swarm of bats on the platform outside of the carriage’s window.
The concept art comes courtesy of Sergey Kolesov and Jean-Luc Monnet, and while it isn’t in-game footage, it gives us an idea of what direction Arkane is taking. With how scarce details are right now as development is in its early stages, it’s unlikely we’ll see anything concrete for some time. Luckily, the concept art sheds light on Arkane’s vision of a vampire-infested Paris.
So far, we know that Blade will be a third-person game, a shift from Arkane’s previous work. And while the titular daywalker is seen brandishing a melee weapon in the concept art, he also has a revolver handy, pointing to a mix of combat styles.
As for his standing on the rooftop, perhaps we’ll seesimilar traversal and climbing to Dishonored and Deathloop, letting us reach high vantage points in semi-open, linear levels. However, what shape the world will take hasn’t been confirmed. All we can do is speculate, but the new concept at gives us plenty more to go off of than what we had yesterday.
