I enjoyed playing this game. However, just when your character's stats and powers are already becoming great, the game is already ending. I wish it was a lot longer or has a new game + feature wherein you retain your accumulated powers and stats.
Dishonored Review
Game Emblems
The Good
Taking Everything I loved about the Riddick games and amping them up Dishonored provides a fresh take on the genre.
Dishonored's engrossing world and intoxicating interplay of supernatural powers make it a game you'll want to play more than once.
The Good
- Great suite of abilities encourages creativity
- Spacious environments riddled with pathways and secrets
- Lovely design brings the city to life
- Superbly voiced cast of interesting characters.
Dishonored is a game about many things. It's about revenge; armed with deadly weapons and supernatural powers, you seek vengeance upon all of those who orchestrated your downfall. It's about a city; the plague-ridden industrial port of Dunwall is lovely to behold, exciting to explore, and seething with secrets. It's about people; an array of vibrant characters await you, and as you get to know them, you are drawn further into their intrigues, hopes, and heartbreaks. But above all, it's about choice. The incredible variety of ways you can engage or evade your enemies makes Dishonored impressively flexible and utterly captivating.
You play as Corvo Attano, former bodyguard to the empress and current death row inmate. The prologue chronicling Corvo's crime not only inflames your desire for revenge, but also sparks your affection for a vulnerable character. These dual fires foreshadow the choice you have to make each time you encounter an enemy: do you walk the bloody path of brutal vengeance, or take the nonlethal high road and rise above the violence that suffuses the city? Your actions have small, yet tangible consequences throughout your quest, and it's up to you to decide what kind of retribution you want.
A cadre of conspirators helps you escape imprisonment, and you find out that they are plotting to bring down the very men who wronged you. These characters embody familiar archetypes--the dutiful admiral, the egotistical nobleman, the cheeky servant--but Dishonored is not content with one-dimensional portrayals. An excellent voice cast (which includes a number of notable actors) and stylish character design help bring these people to life. As you listen to them talk (you remain mute throughout), read their journals, eavesdrop on conversations, and learn whispered secrets from an arcane, psychic item you acquire, you come to know the characters and the world they live in. This kind of knowledge is engaging, so even when the main plot follows some well-trodden paths, you're always interested and eager to press on.
Exploring Dunwall is another one of Dishonored's great pleasures. The city prospered from the whaling trade in the recent past, but has fallen on hard times since the influx of a deadly plague. Brick walls and wooden beams loom over alleys crawling with rats, while granite facades and metal barricades block off the cobblestoned plazas of the wealthier neighborhoods. Dunwall evokes a British city in the grip of the industrial revolution, but painterly coloring and slightly exaggerated proportions give the place a unique feel. Though some texture details can be slow to load in the console versions, the lovely artistic design is undiminished, making Dunwall an immensely appealing place to inhabit.
Of course, there are tangible benefits to exploration as well. Sewers, alleys, apartments, and estates all hide items that restore your health, reinforce your arsenal, teach you secrets, or allow you to gain new supernatural powers. The large areas you must traverse to get to your targets are riddled with out-of-the-way places to explore, and finding them reveals not only hidden goodies, but alternate routes as well.
Figuring out how to move through the environments is an enjoyable pursuit, and one of the first powers you get allows you to teleport a short distance. The quick pop and blurry whoosh of this power provides a nice audiovisual accompaniment to the thrill of defying natural law, and if you choose to supernaturally augment your jumping ability, your range of locomotion is drastically increased. Though you'll likely have some awkward moments as you try to go places that the game won't let you, Dishonored's level design is consistent enough to make such moments easy to avoid once you get the hang of things.
By
Chris Watters, Editor
With his Apple IIGS as the spark and his neighbor's NES the fuel, Chris Watters' passion for gaming caught fire early. Years later, you can find him aiming down virtual sights, traipsing through fantastical lands, and striving to be grossly incandescent while desperately avoiding sunburns.
98 comments
1 Like Bought it for about $25 and love the game, with that said it is way to short and simple to be worth $65
Love this game. I'm on hard and probably 50% way through the story. Art work is fantastic. Game play is both rewarding and succinct. Story is good (not great, but not bad). The options one can use to get from point a to point b is the key. Gaming (like movies, music, etc) is very subjective. I could not stand Dark Souls and returned it the same week I got it. Others think it's the best thing since sliced bread. If my options were Buy, Wait or Pass, I would definitely go with Buy.
This game immediately reminded me of Splinter Cell with the bottle throwing to distract enemies, the sneaking up from behind, and the hiding bodies just in an old age atmosphere. After playing a few levels as some had mentioned it got boring, and repetitive. There is some creativity in having 3, or 4 different options in how to go about an event. You can run and gun the entire game, but the feeling of excitement is more rewarding from the stealthy tactics offered. I personally was glad I rented.
One of the best games I have played in a long time.
Fantastic, styalised environments with a rich atmosphere that is hard to describe. Brilliantly creative gameplay, meaning you can approach a level in almost any way you choose, simply demanding that you try it again and again, just to see what the outcome will be.
Brilliant movement, even from the basic swings and dips whilst you are walking and jumping.
If you check out everything, and don't try to blast through the levels, the play time is more than enough. I don't know why people are saying its too short? I mean, yes, id have liked more... but isn't that just testament to the quality of the game?
It wont be for everyone, but if like me, you are getting bored of identikit FPS, RPGs and sandbox games; you want a bit of challenge and you can appreciate quality level design and artwork... then you WILL enjoy this game.
2 Like Looking at some comments here, I have to ask. Was I the only one that actually liked this game? I know it's not fantastic, but it sure as hell is a breath of fresh air.
1 Like I dont understand why ppl complain about short story. Not all games have to be 100+ hours content. Some games are played because they have other qualifications such as graphics
It's only a short story if you go plowing through it and killing everyone. Playing on total stealth made the game quite long for me.
@Lord_Tigger @jediclub agreed, my first play through of it i just used time bend and killed basically everything, or either ran past everything. one of the strengths of this game is that you can approach however you want to.
1 Like Those of you that have not played it, yet dish out dirt - shame on you. Dishonored is an absolutely fantastic game (yes, it may be short for the casual gamer). You can kill enemies creatively, voice acting is excellent and graphics and gameplay are brilliant. Completion Is hard (trophy wise) and the best thing is that you cannot upgrade EVERYTHING! Meaning you'll have to play it again, and try new tactics. So many ways to go round and pretty hard if you play it on the most difficultest level. I agree, there is not many bad things apart from the shortness of the game (mission times vary, to complete a mission fully - regardless if you want clean hand achievement - they do get long). To sum up in a couple of words: extremely fun and creative.
1 Like This game looks fun (I like that you can choose whether to kill or not), but I think I'll wait till the price goes down to buy it. Seems a little too overhyped, and this review seems anything but objective.
3 Like This game sounds good, but isn't this review in a way slightly bias stating how there's no "bad" section towards this review...
I mean it has a 9.0, a very good score, but what is the thing that it is lacking from being that one outstanding game and the last 1 point?
This game sucks ballz, too short and the AI is stupid. GS really dropped the ball with this review.
2 Like really? this game has nothing under THE BAD... lol, i really hope is some weird glitch
The game is amazing but it still has a flaw. Even with exploring and mapping out areas. Its too short. It goes by really quickly and yes it has a whole ton of replay value but that doesn't mean new missions or story line.
This game looks awesome! the powers, the gameplay ,the options, the enviroment... definetly a must buy.
finally a good game appear and a good editor review it in nice way ....... am going for this one after RE 6 for sure ;)
Seriously, no 'bad' aspect of the game?
Well, considering the same developers of Skyrim V, a game so big, complex and open ended that I'm STILL PLAYING 100++ hours to date, the graphics and first-person gameplay looks very familiar. Are they using skyrim v template for this game and adapt it to a more modern rendition?
The game looks great and I;m a fan of Bethesda's recent games :-D
@Dudelove276 Bethesda did NOT MAKE this game!!! They only published it - and it shows.
Is this available on the psn.... Seems to be the only way I buy stuff these days, impulse buys online when I got nothin getter to do... But this, AC3, and Hitman are my top three this season... Glad to hear it lives up to the hype!
3 Like I just hope this is not a Bioshock of sorts. I've really had a hard time liking Bioshock.
@franzito Bioshock WAS over-rated, I too did NOT enjoy it's gameplay as much as it was hyped to be. I even gave up near the end as it wound me up, poor gunplay, stupid splicer enemies. However what I can say is I would GLADLY play bioshock through 10 times rather than play Dishononored through even for an hour again! If you did not like Bioshock you will absolutely detest this game. It has none of the charm or inventiveness of Bioshock, at least that game made a decent stab at immersing you, this game is flat and dull and a rip off of elements of Bioshock, Half life 2, Deus Ex, Undying and many more much worse games. It wins 2012's 'most crappy overhyped game' award :)
Resident Evil 6
Dark Souls
Final Fantasy XIII & XIII-2
Uncharted 1-2-3
Dead Island
Heavy Rain
@EbeneezerGoode Thanks for telling me that, I've sold my Bioshock copy recently, just couldn't get through the game.
3 Like @franzito I thought I was the only one! I can really appreciate Bioshock and the world they built etc... I just didn't enjoy it.
@Ronaldo27 Its not developed by Bethesda, only produced. So it likely wont be plagued with fallout/elderscrolls style bugs.
@AshenSkies91 @Ronaldo27 it is also sadly not plagued by any decent game-play or longevity
@skornedwarrior No you won't HAVE to buy it and I'd advise you do not. Take these reviews with a pinch of salt. Save your money or buy almost any other decent game from the past 5 years - you'll have more fun.
@EbeneezerGoode @skornedwarrior
If someone has trouble deciding if this game is good or not, it's simple, go to Metacritic and read the USER's reviews as you can do it here too. And you can ask the user or check what other titles he reviewed to compare if you have the same tastes. Example: I love Skyrim, but I hated Dragon's Dogma, so, if I read a review from a user that thinks the opposite, it will not matter how bad he says about the game, I can't take his opinions as valid ones, am I right?
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Dishonored
Not Following
- Publisher(s): Bethesda Softworks
- Developer(s): Arkane Studios
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: M
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