God it hurts to leave the U out of dishonoured. Anyway, this week it’s time to look at Dishonored and its American spelling. To be honest there’ll be no focus on the spelling beyond this first paragraph, so if it bothers you I advise you to just re-read these three sentences a few times.
Moving away from spelling and onto the actual game, Dishonored is a title that I felt had a lot of interesting ideas at work. I mean it’s obviously borrowing heavily from Deus Ex and similar titles in some of its core systems, but the special powers it uses are entertaining and it’s obviously got its setting to set it apart from the crowd. In his review of the game Peter got Dunwall bang on, describing it as “a curious mix of London in two themes: Jacobian architecture and social splendour mixed with the authoritarian dystopia depicted in V for Vendetta or Orwell’s 1984.”
To our eyes the city seems to be somewhat of an anachronism, mixing advanced technology into a period it does not belong (at least by our world’s history). Of course it doesn’t just stop with the presence of this technology though, with magic being thrown into the mix and taking a prominent role. Peter was a big fan of the Blink teleportation power, calling it “imperative for moving between cover if you’re being stealthy and also for climbing to find new routes through and around guarded areas.”
It was the way the game evolves that caught Peter’s eye most significantly though. He seemed impressed by the way that mass slaughter in the early game would lead to “a lot of chaos in the game world and later missions will be darker and more difficult to navigate stealthily.” Despite this reactive world, he was pleased by the way that the game never really forced him to take a certain approach, mostly because he really likes stabbing things. I might be simplifying that a bit, but it’s essentially true.
When it all came down to it, Peter enjoyed the game to rate it at 9/10. Here’s what he had to say when wrapping up:
Dishonored is a complex game, although there are only nine distinct missions, there’s a lot involved in each one of them. The ability to return to any mission you’ve already completed and play through it in numerous ways not only provides plenty of longevity, it also encourages you to experiment and learn the intricacies of the game. This is not a first person shooter and it’s not a stealth game: it’s both and neither all at once. Dishonored is complex in its design and function but it’s also narratively smart and well scripted for its stellar cast of actors. Names on the bill include Lena Heady, Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Madsen and Susan Sarandon – all established, well known actors lending their considerable talents to this tale.
The question is, as always, were you as impressed with the game as Peter was? Did you have fun using Blink to get the jump on your enemies before slaughtering them? Did you go for a slightly more stealthy approach than Peter, or were you all about stabbing to? Of course, maybe the game didn’t grab you at all, and we want to hear about that as well.
Whatever your thoughts on the game are you can share them by dropping a comment below. Once you’ve done that remember to add your verdict of the game, selecting one category from the Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It, Avoid It scale. Remember to get your comment in by Sunday evening if you want to be included in Monday’s Verdict article though.
keaneplay
I really enjoyed playing through Dishonored. The fact that there were multiple ways to get to an objective and a fair few different abilities to try, meant that the game had good replay-ability (a good thing too given how short the game felt) though the lack of a new game+ was a slight disappointment.
The Blink ability alone made the game feel unique and I thoroughly enjoyed playing through the game with just this one ability. There’s hardly anything more satisfying than being able to stealthily move past a group of enemies in the blink of an eye and make you merry way towards the next objective having raised absolutely no suspicion at all.
Overall I’d heartily recommend you Buy It. There is a lot of fun to be had experimenting with new play styles on levels you’ve already completed and with the cheap price that the game tends to sell for, it is worth a go if you are in any doubt.
keaneplay
*make your merry way
Jones81
This game is incredible, has such a distinct style and atmosphere all of it’s own, possibly my favourite game of 2012
BUY IT!
Loxstokk
I’d say buy it too, although I wouldn’t heap on quite as much praise as some others. I felt the game was a bit too easy ( I felt almost omnipotent from quite early on in the game), and would have benefited from a few more puzzles and secrets to find on your travels. I also thought some of the thick American accents jarred with the overtly British setting.
Still I’m nitpicking, it is excellent in most other respects!
aerobes
After being initially wowed I got bored part way through the game from irritation and decided to resort to killing. The FPS viewpoint doesn’t lend itself to stealth and I often found myself struggling unreasonably because of the genre forced viewpoint. Rent it.
jimmy-google
I found the same problems. Stealth requires a bit of elegance which the FP view doesn’t have. I’d have preferred an over the shoulder view.
gaffers101
I loved Dishonored. If you’re only going to play it through once then RENT IT as it’s quite a short game. But if you’re a trophy seaker or completionist then it’s a BUY IT.
Tuffcub
Still wrapped in plastic, will try and play it tonight
jimmy-google
I really want to like and there are nice elements in the game like blink but it feels a little clunky playing a FPS stealthily.
I’ve found I cause a lot of chaos early on getting to know the controls and learning to play the game. Unfortunately that’s made the rest of the game harder now I have got used to it and I don’t fancy restarting it.
Because Dishonored is neither a FPS or a stealth game it sometimes doesn’t quite work at being either. It’s one of those issue were a game becomes a jack of all trades but master of none.
If you’ve enjoyed Thief then this is probably a buy it but otherwise I’d say rent it. In the end this has just made me want Thief 4 even more.