Rate top games10/10
Positively solid game. Graphics hold up years later, plot's still wonderful, the characters are well-written, and the replayability is outstanding. What I really love about Dishonored is how well-done the worldbuilding is, practically everywhere you go fleshes out Gristol and makes it feel like a living, breathing place. Every time I play this game, I discover a new way of dealing with obstacles and learn more lore. I love it.
Positively solid game. Graphics hold up years later, plot's still wonderful, the characters are well-written, and the replayability is outstanding. What I really love about Dishonored is how well-done the worldbuilding is, practically everywhere you go fleshes out Gristol and makes it feel like a living, breathing place. Every time I play this game, I discover a new way of dealing with obstacles and learn more lore. I love it.
Translated by
Microsoft from Deutsch
Microsoft from Deutsch
Review of Dishonored Game world and Graphics: The Scenario in Dishonored takes place in a very coherent Steampunk World. There, Antiquity and the Middle Ages blur with Modernity and Technology. Sometimes the Technological Part is somewhat reminiscent of the City "City 17" from Half Life 2 combined with Baroque Buildings and People.
The Graphic is not directly Cell Shading, but resembles a Painting with Watercolors, but this with high Resolution and good Textures.
I really like that, but it's hard to describe.
Story: The Story didn't impress me and is just Average. It's about Intrigue, Revenge and Power. All well told, but not very exciting or surprising. Even the Characters, although there would be a lot of Potential there, are quite pale and emotionless. Due to the interesting Game world, however, this Shortcoming is debilitated. I would like to see room for improvement here for a Successor.
Gameplay: I'd call Dishonored a First-person stealth action game. One moves in the Ego Perspective through a very interesting Steampunk World. You have three different Ways to Choose from, which of course you can also combine with each other at will.
First, – Gun Violence. Where you have only three Basic Weapons at your disposal. A Gun, a Crossbow and a Sword. The Pistol and the Crossbow can also be used with different Types of Ammunition.
Second – Magic Special Skills. This allows you to move faster, see through Walls, but also Incapacitate Enemies with Supernatural Attacks and much more. Some of the Skills are a lot of Fun, but are a bit too powerful, making the Game too easy, which is also a Criticism on my part.
Third, – Sneak. You can sneak up at Guards and then either kill them or just send them to the Realm of Dreams. Or even sneak completely past Guards without being seen. This also works very well, and is Fun, even if the AI sometimes fails a little. That doesn't bother the Flow of the game, in my Opinion, though. I find More Serious that if you are discovered, you can quite easily Incapacitate your Opponents thanks to your Abilities or Weapons.
Despite everything, the Gameplay is just Fun for me. And the Combination of Sneaking, Skills and Weapons plays with a 360 Controller of butter soft And has grabbed me after a short Time. Therefore, despite the too unbalanced Degree of Difficulty, I have a Recommendation for Gameplay.
Verdict: Despite the Criticisms I mentioned, I liked Dishonored a lot. The best thing was the interesting Game world that invites you to Discover. The many Ways to tackle a Level are also great.
-I Sneak past the Guards-I manipulate an Energy Tower and turn off the Guards,-I briefly turn into a Rat and bypass the Guards through a small Tunnel,-I Dug a few guards with Poison Arrows,-I just shoot my Way f Free,-I Teleport to the Roofs and thus bypass the Guards,-etc.
The Levels are designed to lead a lot of Paths to Success and there's always something to discover. That is why, once again, a clear Recommendation from me.
This one is for believers. And it hit us without anything. It just hit us and smashed our Half-Life 3 longing consciousness into the city full of rats and corruption.
«Blew my mind»
«Just one more turn»
Stupid rats, plague. Could the city get any worse? Chances are very good. Since you have to cut or sneak your way through Dunwall filled with guards, assassins, and weepers with no time to pause for whisky and cigars. Never doubt it – Dishonored is a great game that constantly keeps you wired.
Speaking about level design, weapons and spells, enemies, this is one of the best games I have ever played. Everything is well thought-out, and as a result you get much freedom when it comes to ways of accomplishing the missions. The game doesn't teach you much, it just explains how this weapon or that spell work and lets you use them as you please. So you can stop time, fire bolts and attach bombs to them; you can possess anybody and casually walk to a safe place to choke the poor guy down; you can acquire Shadow Kill ability (which makes bodies of those you kill turn to ashes immediately) and just kill everybody you see leaving no traces of a bloodbath behind; you can blink your way over the roofs without setting foot on the ground, coz, you know, the floor is lava!
[minor and major story spoilers below]
Although I don't understand the praise the storyline got (to me it was clichéd through and through), I can't deny that the characters and the setting are well-made. Even minor characters have background stories and hidden desires and fears that can easily be revealed with the help of one particular device. The world is a solid mix of dark fantasy, zombie post-apocalypses, and well-known dystopian novels with a bunch of retrofuturistic and steampunk elements.
Although I'd say that there are some unfinished storylines within the game: like you'll never truly understand who the hell Granny Rags is. Sure, she is the old scary witch that could earn some respect even from The Witcher's Ladies of the Wood for her creepiness. But given how detailed some parts of Dishonored is, you always wait for some kind of an explanation and Granny Rags gets none. The same goes to Daud, the leader of assassins. When you manage to ‘neautralize’ him in a ‘non-lethal’ way by stealing his pouch, you kind of wait for his reaction to be ultimately revealed. Was he scared to death that you had got so close but spared his life? Did he shit some bricks? Was he furious with his bodyguards that couldn't stop Corvo coming?
My biggest resentment comes from the thing that needs a bit of explanation for those who haven't played the game. Dishonored lets you choose you own way to complete missions – that's true – but how you tackle them affects the course of the story and the ending. As the game puts it, killing lots of enemies will cause more rats and more weepers in the streets, while adopting a stealthier approach will lead to a happier and lighter outcome. At the same time, if you decide to neutralize Campbell in a non-lethal way (which is ‘good’), you'll find him later as a weeper, living the last days of his life in some swampy dump. So I think killing him in the first place could be actually more merciful. Fates that are worse than deaths will await at least half of your targets if you choose the ‘non-lethal’ way, so at the end of the day you feel like a true monster.
And in the end, when the game counts all chaos you caused in the city, you expect something more, since the game told you in the very beginning that it would affect the finale. But all you get after you rescue Emily (or let her die) is some stop-motion scenes of Dunwall citizens ranging from dark to happy with Outsider narrating what will happen afterwards. To me it was very unrewarding, it actually killed any mood to replay the game with a different chaos-level. And what was more irritating – I never learned what had happened to Havelock since I just rendered him unconscious like I always did with my targets. Did he go to the prison? Was he executed? Was he pardoned? Did he manage to escape? We'll never know.
[spoilers end here]
All in all, this is truly a great game. I can't put an ‘exceptional’ for everything stated above. But I do recommend it to anyone who appreciate solid stories, interesting characters, an inventive gameplay, and stealth games in general. It's the best game about an assassin with a creed, and it's too bad an appropriate title was taken long before.
Speaking about level design, weapons and spells, enemies, this is one of the best games I have ever played. Everything is well thought-out, and as a result you get much freedom when it comes to ways of accomplishing the missions. The game doesn't teach you much, it just explains how this weapon or that spell work and lets you use them as you please. So you can stop time, fire bolts and attach bombs to them; you can possess anybody and casually walk to a safe place to choke the poor guy down; you can acquire Shadow Kill ability (which makes bodies of those you kill turn to ashes immediately) and just kill everybody you see leaving no traces of a bloodbath behind; you can blink your way over the roofs without setting foot on the ground, coz, you know, the floor is lava!
[minor and major story spoilers below]
Although I'd say that there are some unfinished storylines within the game: like you'll never truly understand who the hell Granny Rags is. Sure, she is the old scary witch that could earn some respect even from The Witcher's Ladies of the Wood for her creepiness. But given how detailed some parts of Dishonored is, you always wait for some kind of an explanation and Granny Rags gets none. The same goes to Daud, the leader of assassins. When you manage to ‘neautralize’ him in a ‘non-lethal’ way by stealing his pouch, you kind of wait for his reaction to be ultimately revealed. Was he scared to death that you had got so close but spared his life? Did he shit some bricks? Was he furious with his bodyguards that couldn't stop Corvo coming?
My biggest resentment comes from the thing that needs a bit of explanation for those who haven't played the game. Dishonored lets you choose you own way to complete missions – that's true – but how you tackle them affects the course of the story and the ending. As the game puts it, killing lots of enemies will cause more rats and more weepers in the streets, while adopting a stealthier approach will lead to a happier and lighter outcome. At the same time, if you decide to neutralize Campbell in a non-lethal way (which is ‘good’), you'll find him later as a weeper, living the last days of his life in some swampy dump. So I think killing him in the first place could be actually more merciful. Fates that are worse than deaths will await at least half of your targets if you choose the ‘non-lethal’ way, so at the end of the day you feel like a true monster.
And in the end, when the game counts all chaos you caused in the city, you expect something more, since the game told you in the very beginning that it would affect the finale. But all you get after you rescue Emily (or let her die) is some stop-motion scenes of Dunwall citizens ranging from dark to happy with Outsider narrating what will happen afterwards. To me it was very unrewarding, it actually killed any mood to replay the game with a different chaos-level. And what was more irritating – I never learned what had happened to Havelock since I just rendered him unconscious like I always did with my targets. Did he go to the prison? Was he executed? Was he pardoned? Did he manage to escape? We'll never know.
[spoilers end here]
All in all, this is truly a great game. I can't put an ‘exceptional’ for everything stated above. But I do recommend it to anyone who appreciate solid stories, interesting characters, an inventive gameplay, and stealth games in general. It's the best game about an assassin with a creed, and it's too bad an appropriate title was taken long before.