Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Immersive"

Dishonored is a love letter to stealth-action games. It pulls all the right strings and offers a host of ways to take out your targets, whether they be lethal or non-lethal ways. The city of Dunwall is very immersive and the story is surprisingly uplifting, giving you great reasons to kill your targets. For a game that seemed to pop out from nowhere, Arkane and Bethseda's new IP is very promising.

Dishonored opens with the empress being killed, the empress you were assigned to protect. The heir to the throne is whisked away and all hell breaks loose in the city of Dunwall. Plague is spreading, the government has fell victim to power-hungry maniacs and people are dying left and right. You play as Corvo Attano, the empress's bodyguard who is framed for her death and sentenced to die. You manage to escape prison and group up with a team of loyalists who want to restore the heir to the throne. To do this, you'll need to take out the corrupt politicians manipulating the government to their will and plunging the city into turmoil.

The game's story is well-done and gives you good reason to kill your targets. The characters are pretty well-done, but fail to be memorable due to the fact that you don't interact with them too much. The world is unique and feels like a big oil painting, giving life to a massive city in dark times. Sadly, the story takes a turn for the worst in the last quarter and turns to cliches to keep itself going. Also, the two endings aren't that original or rewarding.

Dishonored's graphics are very unique with a painted elegance that holds up its unique style. The worlds are big and very detailed, but the troubling problem is that the textures are very muddy. There is a lot of gray and brown and many colorful textures have a greenish tint to them. Mouth movement isn't spot on, but facial features are relevant to the art-style and manage to look great. Character animations feel a bit stiff, but there are a few times when they really shine. I also adored the effects, with blood spray and explosions looking spectacular and different from most games on the market.

Dishonored has some great sound design that really helps make silently executing enemies easier. Surround-sound headphones can really spotlight the sound design and you can hear enemies' footsteps approaching you. I found that the sound helped me sneak, because I could hear enemy movements and find places to hide before they came around the corner. The music is decent and really isn't worth mentioning. The song in the credits is also atrocious in my opinion.

Dishonored's biggest triumph is its gameplay. The levels are huge and Corvo can scale rooftops, sneak through buildings or just run straight into the scene and blow up everything in his sight. Dishonored gives you choice on how you approach your destination. Sometimes just killing all the guards isn't as pleasing as setting up traps for them and you'll find that Corvo's fairly small arsenal can be used in tons of adequate and explosive ways. Corvo is also given super-natural powers by a mysterious figure called The Outsider. These powers range from the ability to possess things to being able to conjure whirlwinds to throw your enemies around. Combining these abilities together can create awesome ways to murder enemies. Environmental entities, like massive electrical gates, can be either shut off in order for Corvo to progress or be hacked and used against your enemies. Sword play is also highlighted here and you'll find clashing swords with your enemies to be very satisfying.

Your targets can be killed off in a number of ways and there is always a non-lethal way you can approach the objective. You could always use your arsenal to dispose of your targets, but sometimes the environment or some scene-related events can be triggered to kill your target in gruesome ways. The non-lethal route is usually more rewarding and there are a lot of great ways to get your target disposed of without them meeting their ultimate doom. This is where Dishonored offers lots of replay value, for you can approach a mission in so many ways.

Dishonored is most certainly not an open-world game, but it offers side-quests that are usually short; but fun to play. A lot of them are integrated into the main quest an simply require you to go off the beaten path for a moment and kill someone or steal something. Dishonored also offers two endings depending on how you play the game. This system, dubbed the "Chaos" system, is restricting and forces you to play a certain way if you want the happier ending. If you want to go through the game killing everything, you are penalized. That totally goes against what the game stands for and feels very limiting to your experience. I took a neutral standpoint and only killed when necessary and still received the bad ending. The game would have benefited more if its ending was focused on moral choices, such as which lesser of the two evils do you dispose of?

Your trip to Dunwall is medium in length. My first playthrough clocked in at around 8 hours, but if you go off the beaten trail, do side-quests and tackle other opportunities in the world; you'll be rewarded with a longer game. That's not to mention that the game invites you to replay it and possibly find better ways to execute your targets. You can even play through the game without killing a soul, which is time-consuming and really tests your patience. Overall, Dishonored is a great game and despite some of its flaws, it's worth a play.




THE GOOD: Good story, original art-style, huge levels, good sound design, smooth controls, several ways to play offers many playthroughs, tactical stealth and deep combat.

THE BAD: Last quarter of the story suffers, characters aren't very memorable, muddy textures and environments, Chaos system is more restricting than opening.