Dishonored takes place in an industrial city Dunwall, following an assassination on the Empress and her daughter the rightful heir to Dunwall being kidnapped it falls under the rule of an oppressive regime. A philosopher named Esmond Roseburrow discovered that whale oil is a valuable resource of power which the government has used to fuel powerful weapons and has created corruption within the government as well. The city has also fallen victim to a plague caused by an infestation of rats that are killing the poor and leaving the rich as they are harder to get to, the infected are known to the people of Dunwall as “Weepers” that cry blood and become violent. The government uses the plague to keep the citizen of the city under their control and to get rid of the poor; the rich are protected by the City watch, barriers known as “Walls of Light” that disintegrate anyone that tries to pass and Tallboys which are officers on long legged mechanical contraptions.
A group of loyal activists plot to overthrow the government and find the Empresses kidnapped daughter to place her back in charge this is where you come in you play as the empresses bodyguard Corvo Attano who has returned home early from his voyage to seek aid for the plague and he is also a legend for his skills. Corvo ends up framed for the murder of the empress and is placed in jail and sentenced to death but the loyalists come to Corvo’s safety and helps him to break out before the execution, Corvo is then taken to where the loyalist have set up a base and aggress to help them find and return to the throne the Empresses daughter Emily a who Corvo cares for as if she was his daughter and there was a small mention that she could have been. Corvo is given magical powers in a vision/dream by a man called the Outsider these abilities help Corvo on his mission and can be upgraded by using The Heart to help find Runes to unlock and upgrade more magical abilities.
The controls for the game where easy to use with the thumb stick’s to look and move, L1 to use your ranged weapon or magic power, R1 to use your sword, R2 will allow you to block with your sword and open the enemy for a critical blow, L2 opens up a selection wheel mixed with your different weapon and power options. You can jump and climb over obstacles but the jumping can be a bit clunky. The game is played from a first person point of view with an emphasis on stealth, you can use magical abilities that you acquire to help you snake around or help flank around enemies to kill them without being seen. Even though the game has an emphases on stealth don’t feel that you need to be stealthy the game on normal mode was easy and you would have not too many problem’s if you did want to play the game with a more aggressive and full on style of play.
The objectives in the game take place in different parts of the city and sees you making your way through different sections of the city to get to the objective, you get transported from the loyalists base to the city on a boat but you can only get so close to your object by the boat but sticking to the roof tops makes it quick and easy to get around enemies within the game. You have a health and mana bar which deplete when you take damage or use your magical abilities but 20% of the mana will recover if you give it enough time between using your powers but you can also find Piero’s Spiritual Remedy or drinking water while using the “Spirit Water” bone charm, health is recovered by using a potion called Sokolov’s Elixir or by upgrading to health regeneration ability but it will only refill your health to the amount it was at before you get hit so if you have full health and get it will go back to full but if you get hit twice it will only regenerate to the stage below full.
The enemy A.I in the game was up to par with a lot of the better games out today, they would try an flank you whenever they had they chance, attack you in large groups to make it harder for you to kill them or get away. They would also be smart and use their pistol or crossbow if you were running at them so they could damage you before you get close and the pistol does do a fair bit of damage and should not be seen as a joke weapon. There are a group of assassins called “the Whalers” who also have magical abilities similar to Corvo and they always like to teleport behind you and hit you in the back so when fighting more than one of them be careful because they do like to attack you from behind the majority of the time.
The enemies will also try to set off alarms to make other guards aware that you are their so if you can be sure to kill them before they trigger it, there are also enemies called Tallboys that are normal offices in mechanical suit connected to long mechanical legs this gives them the ability to move faster and they have rockets that they will not hesitate to use so it is best to avoid them but if you do get seen by them using your Blink ability to teleport away makes it really easy to escape them. You will also have to watch out for the animals in the game because if you get too close they will attack you so if you do need to get close make sure you attack them first to get rid of them.
The weapons in the game are made up of your sword, crossbow with normal bolts, sleeper bolts and incendiary bolts, you also have a pistol with normal or explosive bullets, and grenade’s and spring razes. You also get the ability to use supernatural powers to help you navigate the city or help to get the advantaged against enemies these powers are Blink used to teleport forward and upwards, Dark Vision that allows you to see through walls and highlights people, animals and machinery as well as showing sight cones of the people. Devouring Swarm allows you to summon rats that attack people and will eat their corpse to help hide it, Possession allows you to possess animals and people, Bend Time allows you to slow or stop time to avoid or even pluck bullets out of the air, Windblast can blast back groups of enemies, break down doors, blast bolts back and even kill enemies if they hit a solid object. Blood Thirsty gives you an adrenaline boost that allows you to use brutal melee attacks or kill multiple enemies in melee, Agility allows you to jump, climb, run and swim faster as well as taking away falling damage and Shadow Kill makes stealth killed enemies turn to ash when they dies or makes all killed enemies turn to ash. Some abilities will only be accessible when you upgrade them to their second tier level.
You will need to collect Runes which are pieces of whale bone to unlock and upgrade you’re abilities and the amount for each varies, you can only collect a maximum of 38 ruins in the game but would require 58 to upgrade and unlock everything so choose your powers wisely. I used blink tier 2 and swarm which were really helpful for stealth and against large groups of enemies, you also collect Whalebone Charms that allows you to acquire extra helpful skills I did not feel they were to helpful but there Is no harm in using them since they are given to you. You start off with the ability to equip three charms but can upgrade this to six by purchasing upgrades with money and they are not that expensive so you will not have a problem getting it even very early on.
The sword play was ok but nothing really special I would like to have seen more options for sword like weapons and more of an emphasis on using it like reducing the amount of ammo you can find or buy so you have to use it more because the crossbow was really powerful you could get a fair amount of one shot kills with it if you were sneaking around, then you could also pick up some bolts that you killed enemies with them.
The graphics for the game where good nothing spectacular but still up to the standard of most triple A games on this generation of consoles, although some of the models where lacking details and made them look cheap but for the most part they were fine and you should be happy with them but from what I heard about the game I thought they were going to done to a really high standard. There was not a big use of colour in the game and I get that there is a plague ravaging the city and there’s an oppressive regimes in power but I think adding colour in would have help the overall look of the game as a lot of the models used a lot of greys and different shades of greys seemed to be used for the majority of the colouring.
The voice acting for the game was good everyone that had a part done a good job and it was done to a good standard they gave each character a very different personality which helped give you a sense of what each character’s personally was like and helped to make you trust and or doubt certain characters no matter what they said. Corvo himself did not have any voice acting which was a shame especially when you could pick what you wanted to do and the other character would respond to your choice I think if they made Corvo actually speak it would have helped connect with him more and help with answering questions by it not seeming as strange that they knew what you had chosen without saying anything. The sound effects in the game were good too there were no problems with them at all and they fitted in very well.
Overall I would give this game a 5 out of 10 it was ok I expected a lot more out of it from what I heard about the game, the story is nothing really new, the game will only last you around 6 hours that’s with doing all the side objectives. If you enjoyed Bioshock Infinite I would suggest you pick it up, I have spoken to people that have enjoyed it more than me and the thing about reviews it’s all personal opinion so if you feel you would like it I would pick it but if you are a bit sceptical I suggest you wait and try and get it when it is on sale. I can see what they were trying to do with the game but I feel they should have made the stealth a more emphasis part of the game and made it more of an open world game as well as making the game heavier on sword play. To me the game was average it wasn’t outstanding but there if they do make a second one they do have things they can build on and make it a really good game.
It’s a shame, really, that so few games have “borrowed” Dishonored’s Blink – in the right hands, such a power could be game-changing.
There was a small game called Aragami that “borrowed” the blink, that was a good game.
Unfortunately I heard the sequel wasn’t good so I stayed away from trying it out.
The sequel changed some of the mechanics from the first game but it was still a very polished and enjoyable experience. You should definitely give it a shot sometime. The game's currently on sale on Steam
Okay thanks for the heads up, will look out for it being on sale one day.
I really did like the first and played it back to back as soon as I finished the first play through.
Dishonored's engaging lore, creative levels, and timeless gameplay are well worth revisiting for fans of the immersive sim and stealth genre.
The new-look Arkane could still learn from its own past.
I would say Prey and Dishonored both are their best work. Dishonored for the player movement and Prey for the world gameplay antics and freedom. Both for their amazing level design and player freedom and top shelf art direction. I would put them as equally deserving to continue.
On a side note. Please, if your going to continue PREY (you god damn well should), can you guys change the name to NEURO SHOCK? The Prey name did it no service whatsoever. Not only does it not really fit, but it created bad faith because of the original IP.
The best part is that the name Neuro Shock fits with the narrative of the game, the style of the game, it links it to System Shock and Bio Shock, and it also connects it to the novel Neuromancer. The book about hackers fighting a rogue AI that inspired System Shock's main conflict between the Hacker and Shodan...Seriously. WTF? It was right there...
Anyways, Dishonored and Neuro Shock...Now that's a couple of games worth investing on.
I love Dishonored
I was hoping for a third game which would take Corvo to a new location, possibly North and it would focus on the Outsider where we'd learn more about him. A game to wrap up both their stories in one last epic adventure.
However they basically rushed the Outsider storyline in the DLC for Dishonored 2 and wrap things up quickly which made no sense, it was a great basis for a third game. I really don't see the point wasting things in DLC, id software did the same thing with the Doom Eternal DLC.
They also said Corvo's story was done which again seems silly to me as the second one really fleshed him out as a character, why waste that. With the Outsider gone, how will anyone get the Outsiders mark for their powers now.
They shouldn’t dismiss what they have learned. I like that they change IPs like underwear. Hopefully a future game will be heavily influenced by dishonored and prey. They need a couple big hitters first though. Deathloop is arguably their worst game of the bunch but it sold the most.
It’s like Hollywood, you have to make that one blockbuster to fund all of the other political garbage nobody want to buy. Except dishonored and prey aren’t garbage, they are great games that nobody bought. Hopefully red fall is a success and we’ll see a return to the prey/dishonored formula even if it’s not a return to those specific IP. They will have enough money for multiple projects. I think stacking your IP is a great idea. It adds more value and it’s a fresh start pallet cleanser. I also think branding recognition is highly overrated when it comes to gaming IP.
dishonoured is simply awesome. takes a while to get used to the type of stealth it uses ie high medium low stealth but ends up being an awesome title love the visuals its unique
Criminally low score for this game. The game isn't about sword play or gun fights. Or killing really. One of the most rewarding aspects is going full stealth with no kills or contact of any sort other than your targets. I also love the fact that the game supports all play styles.
Really excited for the sequel. Hopefully there will be one.
Seems a bit harsh to tell the truth. Also, having online as one of your grading criteria is kind of lame, no offense. A good game doesn't have to contain online capabilities. In addition to what InTheLab said, the game focuses on pushing players to make creative and thoughtful decisions, so of course the sword play isn't going to be the strongest mechanic. Anyway, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the game, hopefully you will find one that is more to your playing style.
Did we play the same game? You say you want more emphasis on stealth, and then in the same breath claim you want more emphasis on swordplay. I played the game about 7 or 8 times (getting the platinum trophy) and everytime I tried to vary my playstyle. In my experience, swordplay was as emphasized as you wanted it to be, as was stealth.
"The graphics for the game where good nothing spectacular but still up to the standard of most triple A games on this generation of consoles"
4/10?
Your scoring makes no sense...
It felt like this score was meant for a game you described as "Average."
Since a 5/10 would pretty much be described as average, the score fits the review. I personally would have given it a few more points. It's a solid gameplay experience that is just riddled with some flaws.