Dishonored is a great game that will make you love to hate it, or hate to love it.
Publisher: Bethesda
Developer: Arkane Studios
Platform: Xbox 360
Rated: Mature
Released: October 9, 2012
Visuals:
The visuals for Dishonored are quite great to look with it's steam punk art style which it's art style is also similar to such games like Bioshock, Half-life 2 and there is some similarities in the visuals of this game and Singularity well that game did use the same engine back when it was released but enough of the similar aspects of this game and the do look good. So now the detail to this game's environment and location and the detail to the character's and the detail of the made up City of Dunwall which is located on the Isles of Gristol and the detail to this city is quite impressive to look at and it is easy on the eyes and the texture popping to the environment are great and smooth and that is if you install the game to the hard drive and you should see these nice smooth texture popping and if the game is not installed you will still get nice visuals but the texture popping will not be that smooth and it will still be nice to look at regardless of whether you install the game or not. So the detail of every inch of this game environment really looks great from the Dunwall Tower, Estate District Holgen square to the Flooded district, Kaldwin's Bridge and even the Kingsparrow Island where a lighthouse is being constructed or has been constructed, and the game is just great to look at and the detail's to the environment are just stunning.
The detail to all the character's are all detailed well and the texture models of them are great and the lighting and the character shadow's are great and the detail with the character models and even the facials are all done well and they all seem a bit lively and in general it just nice to look at and the character models are just stunning from the (NPC's) main characters that you will interact with to the enemies. So in short for the visuals for this game is that the detail's to the environment and character's look so great with minor issues with the texture's of the environment's and character's and the visuals still look really stunning to look at.
Audio:
The audio for Dishonored is quite good and quite bad and the game does have a pretty decent musical score to like when you are in the main menu or even when you are in the game it self and the you have voice over work that just seemed off and don't get me wrong it was good voice work for most of the character's and some the voice work was just superb. So I'll start with the games musical score and it quite impressive and it helps set the mood and the atmosphere in the game as you make your way through part of this game. this game also as great sound effect from the sounds of your foot steps to the sound of movement from an mech like thing called a Tallboy or what ever the name of it is and with that said the f/x and musical score are great.
Now the voice work for this game was great for most of the character's and for the other character's the voice work seems a bit sloppy and they sound like that they do not want to be their at all or be part of the game. But overall for the voice work it is great to hear the cast bring these character's to life and kind of make you almost feel for some of them and they make you just wanna take them out. with the bad voice over work those character's just seem to be asking for it because they do not do any justice for the voice work that is great and you just wish that they did not even be part of this game at all and at time's the bad voice actor's were so bad and so disinterested in the part's that they were given to them and they even came off to being lazy. So in short for the audio for the game the sound effect's and the musical score was great and the voice work was great with most of the character's but a little lack luster with the rest and then their is no voice for the main character which was a bit of a bummer, but not as bad as the lack luster performances from some of the character's and really made the audio pretty decent at time's, but still great overall.
Gameplay:
So now the gameplay for Dishonored is quite good and impressive and has a pretty great new character by the name of Corvo Attano which you play as and from the beginning of the game you are betrayed and framed for murdering the empress which is who you in trusted of protecting and then the game put's you in role set for vengeance on the one's who set you up with the aid of some rebel's they will help you with your revenge on the one's who betrayed you and the ones who masterminded the whole plot and as you get the help from these rebels the betray you as well so the game is all basically set up around betrayal and revenge. So the story is great and it is also a bit bland and stale at times and for you the player you will either hate to love it or love to hate it that is the impression it left on me as I played it in way that was a bit stealthy with a mix of knocking out or even killing some enemies to get to my objective and in this game you are given choices which is what this game is about by taking any path you want by killing every thing in sight or just take your time and take a non-lethal approach and which ever approach you choose you get that satisfaction of what ever you choose.
So which ever way you choose to play this game you will have have about 20 hours of game play if you decide to take your time and take the stealth approach and even explore some part's of the game or you take a more action packed approach or even a little bit of both and so with that said their is a lot of game to be played here and you should be satisfied regardless. This game does play like some games that we have played before and you might have seen some resemblance from such games like Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Mirror's Edge and maybe Singularity and some of you might feel the gameplay is similar to other game's and not matter what we all might think which game's the gameplay might feel like Arkane Studios made it all work right together and every element in this game just worked out nicely. The gameplay for this game is nice to play and it does feel right most of the time and you get you use supernatural powers where you can unlock and level them up by finding runes and power you get to use or even get to choose are ranged from something called blink which is teleport and summoning powers that let you summon rats to devour a guard and their are a few more powers that you can use that are fun to use and their are parts in this game that might come off as a bit repetitive at times or even just boring that you the player might not want to finish playing through.
So in short for this game despite that this game is fun to play and it give's you the power of choice as you make your way through this game to kill or not to kill your enemy and you the player might find the game a bit boring or repetitive. But the gameplay for Dishonored in an overall stand point is just plain great and fun to play.
Overall:
The overall point for Dishonored is that the visuals are pretty nice and great to look at, the audio is just great even with some of the dull voice work and the gameplay is great and very Immersive to play with a great mix of aspect's from other amazing game's that were put together nicely. So in short for the overall of this game is that it is worth the price tag and for you the player you do whole it to your self to check this game out or even own this new IP, Great work Arkane studios keep it up.
8.5 out 10