Arkane’s Deathloop team are making a Marvel Blade game

After the disastrous launch of Redfall, you’d have thought that immersive sim experts Arkane would have wanted to bust open the curtains and stay as far away from vampire games as physically possible. And yet here we are, with tonight’s Game Awards reveal that they’re making a Marvel Blade game. What are the chances? Will this second bite at making a (hopefully good this time) vampire game be the one? It’s still early on in development, from the sounds of things, but here’s the reveal trailer.

There’s really not a huge amount to say about what Blade will look or play like yet, as the teaser trailer is, unsurprisingly, quite light on details. It’s being made by Arkane’s Deathloop team, though, and studio director Dinga Bakaba said in a post-reveal stage chat that it would be “an immersive third-person action adventure set in Paris”. Here’s hoping it’s more like Deathloop than Redfall, then? We can only hope.

There have been some strange rumours surrounding Marvel’s Blade game. Last year, it was rumoured that Ubisoft of all people might be making it after some Instagram shenanigans with a motion capture artist seemed to suggest a link between the publisher and the project. That rumour was quickly quashed within 24 hours, though, and since then we’ve heard neither hide nor hair of it. Until now, that is.

““As a kid of mixed origins, I felt a special connection to Blade – a hero with a dual heritage himself,” said Bakaba in a separate statement on Arkane’s website. “The opportunity to put our spin on this character is a dream of mine and a challenge that our team embraces with a passion. We couldn’t be happier to put players in Blade’s boots, as he becomes the champion of my hometown of Paris, one stake at a time.”

Personally, if Arkane’s Blade captures even a tenth of what made Deathloop so gosh-darn fun (he better have a great hoof kick as well as a good sword arm, I’m telling you now), then this could be a pretty all right Marvel game. When will we hear more? Goodness knows. But hey, at least Arkane are still in business. Here’s hoping Blade isn’t the game to make them bite the dust (sorry).

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