Marvel’s Blade concept art shows gritty, vampire-infested Paris

Courtesy of Arkane Lyon’s art director

Marco Wutz | Dec 14, 2023

Marvel’s Blade concept art shows gritty, vampire-infested Paris /

Arkane Lyon provided one of the highlights from this year’s The Game Awards with its reveal of Marvel’s Blade, a single-player third-person action-adventure game. Sebastien Mitton, who is the co-creative director as well as art director at the studio and has work on the Dishonored series as well as Deathloop under his belt, shared three pieces of concept art for the game on social media.

He wrote: “Your excitement following Marvel's Blade reveal means the world to us. Here's some exclusive eye candy from our Art heroes at Lyon!” He added that the studio is still looking to fill a few positions, calling for talents in several different fields to apply.

Marvel's Blade concept art. — Blade watching chaos unfold on the streets of Paris / Arkane

Depicted on the highly stylized pieces of art is a very gritty and a little futuristic version of Paris. We can see flying transports colored in black that are searching neighborhoods with spotlights from the air. Smoke is rising from the valleys of highrises throughout the city, caused by burning cars we can spot at the street level. Swarms of bats are visible, darkening the sky. Blade, who holds a pistol in one hand and has his sword slung over his shoulder, stands atop a roof, taking in the sights.

Another image has Blade sneaking around, observing a gang of vampires drenched in neon light. Once again he holds his revolver in hand, ready for a quick shot. Graffiti showing a human with a garlic head and crossed out eyes is present in both of these artworks.

The final piece of concept art depicts blade with his sword out, trying to fight off a swarm of bats while a train filled with vampires drives past. Half of them are asleep or passed out, which makes them fitting company for the vampires from the second image, who look like they’re waiting to be let into a club.

Aside from “well, it’s Arkane, so there’ll probably be some stealth and immersive sim elements” we can’t really draw any conclusions from this concept art, but it’s a nice first taste of the atmosphere the studio seems to be going for.

Arkane unveils Marvel’s Blade at The Game Awards 2023

Published Dec 14, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg