[ALL] Dishonored

[Handleit_44]

Link: Game Informer August Cover Reveal

Bethesda’s next game is a first-person stealth/action adventure, and we’ve got the first look at it in our upcoming August issue. There are dozens of reasons why you should care about this weird-looking game you've never heard of. A few of the most important ones are after the jump.

Arkane Studios and founder Raf Colantonio have made memorable games in the past (Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic) that ultimately suffered from a lack of publisher support. Bethesda Softworks believes in their vision and is giving them all the time, money, and development help (regular meetings with guys like The Elder Scrolls' Todd Howard don't make your game worse) they need. Harvey Smith, one of the main minds behind the first two Deus Ex games and a legendary veteran of game development, shares the vision and is on board as Dishonored's co-creative director along with Colantonio. Viktor Antonov designed Half-Life 2's iconic City 17 and is lending his talents to Dishonored's world. This is a perfect storm for creating a game that shatters the mold that first-person action games have built for themselves in the mainstream.

We've seen the game running, and now we share Colantonio and Smith's vision too. Dishonored is the antithesis of a edge-of-your-seat roller-coaster ride. It's a game about assassination where you don't have to kill anyone. It's a game about infiltration where you can set up traps and slaughter the entire garrison of an aristocrat's mansion rather than sneak in. It's a game about brutal violence where you can slip in and out of a fortified barracks with nobody ever knowing you were there. It's a game about morality and player choice where the world you create is based on your actions, not navigating conversation trees.

[A Tasty Burgerr]

I dunno if it's coincidence just based on this artwork but there are definitely elements of City 17 in the cover.

[padman59]

I dunno if it's coincidence just based on this artwork but there are definitely elements of City 17 in the cover.

Yeah. If it didn't have any context about the article inside, you'd think this might have info about a new Half-Life title.

[Twigg4075]

We just talked about exclusives in magazines on the last podcast. How relevant!

This game looks interesting.

[StealthShot]

This game looks like it will be up there for GOTY can't wait to play it.

Here's the box art for the game:

[Buzzman]

Is there a trailer?

[padman59]

You didn't see this a month ago?

[Pitty]

Definitely more steampunk than HL2.

[Handleit_44]

[Handleit_44]

[spiker]

When does this come out?

[Swarley]

[jms493]

games looks very interesting.....with BioShock combat. I hope it turns out ok.

[Handleit_44]

Eurogamer Preview

Dishonored boasts a real sense of place, and a sense of your place within it. For me, it's something that other like-minded video game spaces have lacked; for all of Rapture's beauty, I still felt as if I was being funneled from one gunfight to another rather than exploring a place that had been lived in. Dunwall, on the other hand, feels utterly alive.

It's alive with possibility, too, and the authenticity with which Dunwall has been conjured makes your exploration of it often feel truly subversive. Levels are self-contained sandboxes that are designed, it seems, to accommodate any play-style, and it's here that the comparisons to Thief bear most weight.

Outside in the streets you can dash across rooftops using a short teleport enabled by the Blink power, or scurry with the rats through damp gutters. You can confront those guards or concoct comedic demises by slowing down time and possessing their bodies. You can fight the Tall Boy, or simply skulk past in the shadows.

To infiltrate the party you can sneak through high windows, pick up a discarded invite or use cold, brute force. You can mingle with guests, eavesdrop on conversations or simply stalk the grounds and soak in the grandeur. Upstairs you can loot the art, or direct guests or guards into the deadly Wall of Light that shields the stairs.

You can seduce your mark and lead her to a bedroom for a silent, lonely kill, or you can coerce with a fellow guest to save her. Outside in the garden you can tick off a side-quest by engaging in a pistol duel with a wolf-masked guest; inside, you can unleash a horde of flesh-eating rats on those that have gathered to gossip.

You can, it seems, take any path your imagination leads you on, and Dishonored's real triumph would appear to be how it allows you to play on your own terms rather than fussily insisting you stick by its own. It helps that you're improbably empowered; some stealth games highlight your vulnerability but Dishonored uses it as a way of exploring your supernatural talents.

There's little scope for frustration here, and it's not a game spent hiding behind a barrel for any great length of time - instead, Dishonored simply invites you to explore the possibilities.

And the greatest promise that Dunwall holds isn't just in its exquisite art and the brilliantly twisted world that it summons. It's the promise that Dishonored's the kind of game that can generate countless stories led by the player, and it's here where its lineage - one can that be traced back to System Shock, to Thief and to the heyday of Looking Glass - is felt the strongest. If it can be properly fulfilled throughout the entirety of Dishonored, then this could be something very special indeed.

[Swarley]

Game Informer: Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Bloody - 8.75

Revenge stories are an old and well-established form, but that doesn’t make them any less gratifying. From The Count of Monte Cristo to Sweeney Todd to RoboCop, the thrill of watching a wronged hero deliver justice is one of my favorite kinds of entertainment. Dishonored falls in step with those notable examples as Corvo Attano hunts those who betrayed him, and the array of choices at players’ fingertips makes it a pleasure to be the architect of his retribution.

Dishonored blends aspects of acclaimed games like Deus Ex, Thief, and BioShock to create a world where players are free to decide how to complete their objectives. Games have made this promise for years, but Dishonored comes closer to keeping it than anything else I’ve seen. You aren’t just presented with different paths geared toward specific character builds; each level is a web of connected encounters that allow you to mix your magic abilities, fighting prowess, and stealth in clever ways.

For example, getting past a security checkpoint might involve open combat, rewiring the security system, using Stop Time to sneak past, or a combination of those and other options. However, getting past the security checkpoint is just one step toward your goal, so you also need to be mindful of where your choices lead. Killing six guards might seem like you blew it at the time, but when the streets they were patrolling are empty, it doesn’t look so bad. Seeing this snowball effect as you work your way through your missions is one of Dishonored’s major payoffs.



The level design accommodates the various options well, and makes each new area feel like a puzzle that needs solving. Unfortunately, success is rarely as simple as conceiving of your solution and devising it. Enemies’ ability to detect you is wildly inconsistent, leading to fuzzy stealth mechanics that aren’t predictable enough to be reliable (even with a cool power that shows enemy vision cones and silhouettes behind walls). This presents problems in any situation, but is especially galling if you’re stealth-focused, since you’re less prepared to deal with the onslaught of guards that swarm you upon detection. As I tried to finish a level with no kills, I would often attempt a particular strategy three or four times before it worked as intended. If you want to take a pure stealth approach, you should save your progress often and expect to reload frequently.

If you don’t care about racking up a body count, mixing aggression with deadly stealth is by far the most entertaining way to play Dishonored. Corvo’s powers and equipment can be combined to great effect. Effective strategies include freezing time and placing a springrazor trap in the midst of a group of guards, rewiring an arc pylon (basically a weaponized Tesla coil) so it vaporizes nearby foes, and stabbing guards in the neck only to watch their bodies dissolve into ash before they hit the ground. If nothing else, you can just use your gun and sword to mow through foes in cool straight-up fights. Experimenting with your arsenal isn’t always about finding your way around a problem; sometimes it’s just pure fun to mess with bad guys and see what happens.

Murdering guards and assassinating targets raises the level of chaos in the plague-stricken city of Dunwall, while finding nonlethal solutions decreases chaos. Chaos only has two values – low and high – but managing it is never adequately explained. How many people can you kill before chaos rises? If you stab a wolfhound, does that count as a kill? What about deaths resulting from rewired traps? You have to wait until the post-mission stats to find out what effect your actions had, which makes it difficult to extract answers.

This mechanic is problematic because your cumulative chaos value determines which of the two endings you receive. For all of Dishonored’s attempts to avoid the traditional morality found in choice-driven gameplay, you’re still making a binary choice: Will you kill people, or not kill people? The latter option leads to the satisfying ending, while the former results in a punitive conclusion. This divide establishes a right and wrong way to play; high chaos makes the game harder, adding more plague rats, infected citizens, patrols, and even a more difficult alternate version of the final level. However, playing this “wrong way” is the mix of sneaking and assassination that makes Dishonored shine. If you want to see the good ending (and avoid being punished for playing the game at its best), you must forsake the multitude of cool death-dealing contraptions and upgrades in favor of the comparatively sparse offering of nonlethal alternatives – which doesn't help endorse low-chaos stealth as a valid style of play.

Maybe I wouldn’t care so much about getting the bad ending if I didn’t love Dunwall so much. Corvo may be the protagonist, but the city steals the show as a grimy, industrial backdrop for the action – and I didn’t want to see it devastated at the end. The steampunk-inspired technology is fascinating, and the art direction superbly establishes a distinct visual style to accompany the dark and disturbing lore lurking behind the city. I hope this isn’t the last time I play a game set in Dunwall.

Though I was frustrated by the chaos system and how it steers your actions, the heart of Dishonored is about being inventive, adaptable, and ruthless. The team at Arkane Studios has injected an array of cool possibilities into the simulated city of Dunwall, and discovering them all is a blast. When you come face-to-face with the people who wronged you, your only dilemma is deciding which poetic method of elimination will produce the coolest result.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/dishonored/b/xbox360/archive/2012/10/07/dishonoredreview.aspx

IGN: A Breath of Fresh Air - 9.2

Are you getting sick of playing games that don’t actually let you play? You know the ones I mean: they funnel you down a narrow path, don’t give you much freedom in what you can do, and rely on cinematic set pieces to drive the spectacle. I am, and that’s why Dishonored is such a refreshing experience. It picks up where games like Deus Ex and BioShock left off, and puts choice back in the hands of the player.

As Corvo Attano, protector to an Empress, players find themselves in Dunwall, a grimy port city whose population is being decimated by a rat-born plague. It’s an industrial setting; a fishing town grown rich off the back of the whale oil that powers the city’s circuits. It’s also a hive of corruption, political machinations and power grabbing, and this all comes to the fore when the Empress is assassinated, and Corvo sets out to avenge her death.

That vengeance can take many forms. Unlike so many video game protagonists, Corvo is not pre-ordained to be a mass murderer. The entire game can be completed without killing a single person, so guards can be avoided or knocked unconscious, and non-lethal options can be found for assassination targets.

Of course, if you want to cut a bloody swathe across Dunwall, that’s catered for too. Just be warned: killing your way to the end of the game has a number of ramifications. More dead bodies means more rats and more guards, and a darker overall conclusion.

If you’re anything like me though, you’ll probably take an approach that’s somewhere in the middle – at least for your first play-through. Whatever you do, the mechanics are highly versatile and each setting has been designed to give players multiple options for achieving any one goal.

By way of example, in one mission Corvo has two targets to take out inside a brothel, but there is, of course, an alternative to killing them. If you can find another guest in the complex and get him to give up the code for his safe, you can then give this code to a character in the Distillery District and he’ll make both your targets disappear. In my first playthrough, I got the code, but went and eliminated both the targets anyway, then took the contents of the safe for myself.

These kind of options make missions much more engaging than if players were simply tasked with the usual 'go here, kill this' objectives. That said, it's actually the moment to moment gameplay choices that make Dishonored so compelling.

What happens, for instance, if you need to get past a 'wall of light'? These electrified gateways are set up throughout the city and will fry anything that’s not authorised to pass through them. You might be able to circumvent it by climbing up onto the rooftops and traversing around, or use the possession power to scurry through a drainage pipe as a rat and get to the other side. On the other hand you could deal with the gate itself by removing the whale oil tank that’s powering it, or hack into the system and reverse it. This last option is perhaps the most entertaining, as it means you’re now able to step through, but any guards who give chase will be instantly incinerated.

The approach you take will at least partly be determined by how you've customised Corvo, and these options are incredibly robust. Each of the game's ten powers can be unlocked in any order (after Blink), and each can be upgraded. Runes hidden throughout the world are the currency for unlocking and upgrading powers, and that hunt is brilliant fun in and of itself. For my first play through, I focused on using and levelling up three core powers: Blink, Dark Vision and Agility.

Blink is a short range teleport that’s useful for moving from cover to cover, getting the jump on enemies and scaling buildings. Dark Vision lets players see enemy movements through walls, and also highlights other important objects in the world. Agility, on the other hand, is a passive power which increases jump height and movement speed, and reduces fall damage. As you can see, I opted for agility and stealth above all else.

To further enhance my cat burglar-like skills, I also spent cash upgrading my boots for quieter movement, and activated perks – via the game's hidden bone charms - to drastically reduce the time it takes to choke an enemy, as well as to increase my movement speed in stealth mode and while carrying corpses.

You may well choose completely different abilities and perks. If you’re combat-focused, whirlwind sends enemies flying and is really effective, as is slow time, which actually freezes time when fully levelled up. While some powers are more useful than others, it's a good selection and great fun to experiment with. They're backed up by more traditional weapons: crossbow, pistol, grenades, spring razor, and so on, and these can all be upgraded too.

Dishonored’s nine missions are all very distinct. You’ll attend a society gala in disguise, scale a bridge, escape from prison, wander through flooded slums and stalk across rooftops. You'll take part in a duel, carry an unconscious man through a gauntlet of enemies and decide whether or not to become a torturer. Each mission is designed as a sandbox, allowing players to utilise whatever approach they want, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll take your time, getting the lay of the land, discovering alternate routes, listening in on conversations, taking on optional objectives, looking for secrets and treasure, and generally just playing.

Players who really take the time to enjoy the experience are rewarded too. The more runes, bone charms and money you find, the more you can augment and upgrade your character, and the more bad-ass you’ll become. In fact, by the last couple of missions I was almost too powerful; able to stalk, choke and kill with ease. Good thing there are hard and extra hard difficulty settings to move on to, which ramp up the perceptiveness of enemies and increase the general challenge.
It’s also worth noting that taking out the actual targets in each mission can often be a bit of a letdown. In almost all cases you’ve got a serious advantage over them – no matter how heavily guarded they are. That’s not much of a deal breaker, however, because Dishonored really is about exploration and experimentation as much as the end goal. This is one of those games in which you’ll save often, reloading again and again to try different approaches, until you get each gameplay vignette just right.

Even though the odds are very much in your favour (on normal difficulty at least), the gameplay evolves nicely alongside the story. New factions and enemy types are introduced, which help shift up the vibe and introduce new challenges. One mission in particular pits Corvo against foes that aren’t so easily outmanoeuvred, and it’s a great touch, even though I’d have loved to see that sub-story pushed a little further.

In fact, that goes for a lot of the game. It’s a fascinating world with a memorable cast, not to mention an interesting overarching tension between mystical pagan magic and industrialisation, but all these elements never really feel like they come to fruition. The experience is still engrossing from start to finish, however.
You may also have some small issues with the controls. Climbing ledges - particularly when getting out of water - sometimes isn't as smooth as it could be. The mechanic for sneaking up on guards and grabbing them from behind can be a little temperamental too - nothing worse than coming up behind a guard and blocking instead of grabbing. It's also a little disappointing that the well-implemented first person perspective doesn't extend to carrying objects, which just hover in space, in stark contrast to wielding weapons, powers and knocking guards out. Oh, and you'll come across a few invisible walls in the play spaces, too, which is a bit of a shame, but probably unavoidable. None of these concerns are deal breakers, as Dishonored is very much a joy to play.

It's also one of the prettiest games of recent years. The art direction is nothing short of incredible, and it's matched with a visual aesthetic that makes the world look like an oil painting in motion. Dishonored isn’t competing on detail; it’s driven by soft textures, intelligent use of colours and contrast, and beautiful lighting. From terraced urban streets to industrial warehouses, menacing fortresses to regal palaces, it’s Victorian England meets City 17 meets whalepunk. The character modelling is superb too, even if the facial animations could be better... and the oddly oversized hands could be smaller.

As is becoming standard, PC owners are in for the biggest visual treat. Dishonored does look excellent on console - I finished it on Xbox 360, then started again on PS3, and thoroughly enjoyed playing on both. You may notice minor frame rate issues and a little tearing, but nothing that will really take away from the gameplay. That said, it's significantly better-looking on a modern PC, so that should be the platform of choice for players who have the option.

THE VERDICT

It's a shame that Dishonored's story isn't greater than the sum of its decidedly memorable parts, but its gameplay absolutely is. Each mission is built as an elaborate network of choices for players to explore, and the same can be said for Corvo himself. Each player's selection of powers, perks and other upgrades will inform how they see and interact with this world, and no two play-throughs will be exactly the same. Dishonored is a game you'll talk with your friends about, and that you'll want to play multiple times. In this game there are always other paths to be taken and other challenges to conquer, and that's a refreshing thing indeed.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/10/08/dishonored-review