As you can tell by now, there’s no “right” way to do UI design in games. There are best practices, which both these games follow. One chooses a straightforward and simple approach while the other goes for stylish and flashy. As a result of the choices and freedom offered to the player, Dishonored 2 has a lot more to deal with in its UI. And it handles all of it with grace. Doom is a mostly linear experience with one way to play (save for variety between gunplay styles), so its UI doesn’t have to do much aside from just being there when the player needs it.

Final Thoughts

Imagine that you’re traveling and you walk in to a reputed restaurant to try out a couple of highly recommended items from a menu. Both the dishes are very good. The waiter for the first dish unassumingly brings the dish out quite plainly and leaves. But the waiter for the second dish not only brings out the dish, but starts telling you about the ingredients, gives you suggestions on what wine to pair it with, has a charming demeanor, and is willing to answer any questions you have about the local cuisine of the area. In this analogy, the dish is the game, the chef is the game designer, and the waiter is the user interface. They’re all catering to you — the player. The waiter doesn’t have to do much beyond serve the meal, but he can choose to make it an uplifting and pleasant experience for you and as a result, it makes the experience of the meal better.

If a video game is a conversation between the designer and the player, then the game world is the medium for that conversation and the interface serves as the interpreter to break down the complex language of the game into comprehensible chunks to pass it along to the player. Doom does just this and does it very well. Dishonored 2 takes an ambitious approach to not just do it, but bakes the tone and feel of its game world right into all of the UI. It delivers itself — game and UI — as one coherent package and absolutely nails the presentation.

Doom is the unassuming and plain waiter whereas Dishonored 2 is the elegant, graceful, and charming one. Just as the experience of the meal is heightened by the better waiter, the enjoyment of the game is enhanced by the interface that goes above and beyond. Dishonored 2 is a stellar example of game UI done right, and I hope more game studios take note of how significantly the game can be enhanced when the UI seamlessly integrates itself into the package instead of just existing to serve the message.