Dishonored by Arkane

[Ion Prothon II]

The Outsider has to be one of the most retarded plot devices ever conceived.

'Hurr I am teh Devul and you are mah chosen one!'
It's not surprising in a bethesda game, but for Arcane that's some new low.

The character himself is no better. As for me, it looks like a failed attempt at making a persona similar to Constantine from Thief. But why so emo and why it's some purple gay magic, that's uncomprehensible for me.

 

[sea]

No, they don't. Unless you attract their attention somehow. It gets so ridiculous I could crouch on top of a vase display that is just above their line of sight and nobody would notice me there.

Funny, I've been caught climbing on pipes and rafters 20+ feet above people and they have had no trouble spotting me if I moved at all. Though, I do think the AI can be a bit buggy at times as well (seen people get stuck on objects etc. a few times now).

 

[toro]

Graphics: good

This puts the rest of summary into the question.

Not really. The game visuals are not so offending and their style has a charm. In other words, visuals are the least annoying part of the game.

Graphics is outdated. With high settings, it's somewhere between 2004 and 2006. It's not *bad* (looks like a heaven when compared to DXHR), but calling it 'good' is an offense to modern hardware and reader's intellect. Developers made a game with 2006 graphics in 2012. Don't call it 'good' FFS, better throw some fucks at them.
Maybe .ini hacks and a texture pack can save the day, but I don't expect wonders.
...
At least bloom & shit is minimal, and colors look almost normal.

As for art direction, I;ve got mixed feelings. It's original and has some atmosphere indeed, but for me it's kinda annoing to see a victorian variation of City 18 from HL2.

Edit: You actually have a point with HL2, cause this game reminded me more of HL2 than Bioshock. And the similarities are not limited to the graphic style, cause Tall-Boys are basically Striders.

 

[Infinitron]

Graphicswhoredex, graphicswhoredex never changes.

 

[toro]

I finished the game too. 20h+, mostly stealth until the last level where I started to kill.

Good things:
- the game world allows for good use of vertical dimension. It's good.
- the player can actually swim. I don't know why is so rare in games today!? (Risen cannot into swim)
- the amount of visual details is staggering and the game is polished.

Mediocre-to-good things:
- the visuals and sound are quite atmospheric, except the loud announcements which are annoying sometimes,
- the game is tracking the player actions through announcements, posters and other npc. Also the ending has consequences cutscenes.
- the animation and movement varies from being fluid to being weird.

Shitty things:
- way too easy combined with superpowers combat. Inflation of runes and useless bones. Not really challenging.
- the twist and ending are both lame. And the overall story is not only weak, but it's also spoon feed most of the time.

During the game I was thinking about the hypothesis that they actually had the lightning system integrated in the game. But at some point, they decided to drop it. Shame.

 

[Excidium]

Well one of the loading screen tips is to stick to the shadows while sneaking, maybe a leftover?

 

[Metro]

It's for E-LARPing.

 

[nurabsal]

+Art Direction: The bleakly futuristic designs of Viktor Antonov contrast nicely with the more typical Victorian flourishes.
+Game Mechanics: You are a fluid and deadly assassin. Large and vertical levels combine with a potent range of spells and gadgets to produce highly reflexive gameplay.
+World Building: The City of Dunwall is faintly beautiful. The various gangs and political orders the player encounters are original and credible.

-Plotting: The plot is brisk and uninvolving. The choice to utilize a silent protagonist grants the player some agency, but only as a side affect of this device's main virtue, which is to mask illogical plot twists.
-Game Mechanics: A player with a preference for non-lethal combat will suffer from a lack of options.
-FOV: Limited and disorienting. Hands and weapons models take up far too much of the player's vision.
-Voice Acting: Weak.
-Sound Design: Inconsistent. Atmospheric effects are generally good with occasionally nausea inducing low-frequency volume spikes.

Here is the dishonored FOV tweak. http://gamingbolt.com/dishonored-tweaks-how-to-change-field-of-view-fov-hide-hud-remove-intro-movies

 

[MapMan]

mods will fix it

 

[Trash]

They do look up, though very rarely. Perhaps there even is a rng involved. I was happily perching on a lamp looking at a guard walking by when the fucker stopped and looked up at me.

 

[Turisas]

mods will fix it

Because UE3 games are so easily modded.

Spoiler

No they're not.

 

[Topher]

Hey Topher, how long did it take you to finish the game ?

I'd say it took me about 10-12 hours absolute max. I wasn't that interested in collecting everything because I didn't particularly care for the powers in the first place and my play-through was pretty bloody. Taking a stealthy, low chaos route should extend that game time pretty decently.

There are a lot of people talking about 20+ hours but you'd have to more anal retentive than I am to get anywhere close to that; honestly, the exploration and collection rewards aren't really worth it unless you're playing for completions sake and in that case good luck finding all the damn gold.

Personally, I think the game almost overstayed it's welcome and I'm glad it ended when it did. The level design didn't leave me wanting more and felt very gamey quite often during the second half.

It's worth a bargain price (whatever that may be to you) and I'd say it's fairly compared to Bioshock and DE:HR... perhaps we have the holy trinity of new shit?

 

[Topher]

Funny, I've been caught climbing on pipes and rafters 20+ feet above people and they have had no trouble spotting me if I moved at all. Though, I do think the AI can be a bit buggy at times as well (seen people get stuck on objects etc. a few times now).

I've encountered that as well but it's by and away the exception rather than the rule. I can only think of two or three times that it actually ever happened but i've had the AI spot me from at least 60+ feet away, with moderate elevation and while in partial cover... I don't know how these game systems work but it didn't appear to me to be incredibly consistent.

I've also seen the guards look up from time to time but I think it's because I made some noise, possibly based on the noise from a short fall coming out of blink? I constantly blinked onto hanging lamps while indoors, yet the guards in that very room would loose sight of me.

So the AI can impress but it was very very sporadic in my experience and actually felt jarring and cheap when it happened because of just how rarely it actually happened, almost as if the rules of the game had been changed on me mid-stream.

The Outsider has to be one of the most retarded plot devices ever conceived.

It's sad but until I read your post I'd forgotten all about him.

 

[Cassidy]

'Best Possible Outcome for a AAA Game of This Genre Today.' Let's face it, no major publisher is going to fund something like the old Thief games again. "OMG WHY DOES THIS GUARD KILL ME IN TWO HITS!??!! HOW DID HE SEE ME I WAS A WHOLE TWO FEET AWAY?!?! WHAT'S A SHADOW?!!"

Sort of like Human Derpalutions. I know a lot of people here hated it but you really aren't going to see a more 'Deus Ex-ish' game produced today. Not by the likes of Squeenix or Bethesderp or ActiBlizz or EA"

No. The best possible outcome for the stealth genre is for no next-gen crap to be released at all claiming to belong to it, and for the small fan communities to keep delivering eventual new content for the oldschool games. Better no game than a shitty game. Also, everyone knows nowadays most of the Codex is made of hypocrites, quislings and consoletards who buy popamole at the first opportunity and mouthbreath over any sale. Therefore, damn this "consensus" to oblivion which is where it deserves to be! I'd rather see no more "Deus Ex-ish" game too if the other alternative is more retarded cover shooters claiming to be sequels or "spiritual successors". Good thing Freespace 2 was one of the last ones and the space sim genre is probably the only one spared from having such sad jokes. I have mostly ignored this and Thi4f and placed my hopes high on The Dark Mod instead. Why pay for shit when you can get something superior eventually for free and right now very cheap?

Why? Because if a genre is mostly untainted by shitty excuses that feature almost nothing of the genre, using it only as a label for marketing, its identity won't be as severely compromised, no matter if it ends somewhat obscure, people will still hear about it, and perceive it as a genre focused on hiding as an essential need for surviving than about pressing several buttons for AWESOME special skills and having a LARP of shitty stealth mechanics as a bonus.

 

[nurabsal]

With the FOV hack. Set at 110. A nice improvement.

Dishonored 2012-10-13 05-09-39-94 by arodclintonhill, on Flickr

 

[potatojohn]

How did you do that?

 

[nurabsal]

How did you do that?

-Navigate here

C:\Users\user\Documents\My Games\Dishonored\DishonoredGame\Config
-Open File 'DishonoredInput

-Add this string after the column of like strings "m_PCBindings" replacing variable '110' with whatever you want as an FOV.

m_PCBindings=(Name=”F4",Command=”FOV 110")

 

[toro]

Well one of the loading screen tips is to stick to the shadows while sneaking, maybe a leftover?

Yep. And also the fact that you can unlit candles.

 

[potatojohn]

m_PCBindings=(Name=”F4",Command=”FOV 110")

I've tried that before but it doesn't work.

It's weird, the game accepted the no-intro edit but key bindings don't work at all.

 

[nurabsal]

I've fallen victim to confirmation bias. Fuck. You're right. Be back after some hacking

 

[toro]

Also for "mods will fix it".

The game is un-fixable for two reasons:
1) Stealth approach doesn't work in the middle of the day. I mean the idea is retarded. You can jump from roof to roof, but being crouched in the middle of the day is just cringe-worthy. Correcting the story and the environment lightning to allow missions only during the night is a big effort. And maybe this is doable, but implementing a better story is probably not.
2) The game is too easy even on very hard. Which means that to make it challenging, the powers have to be removed from the game, but then the game is no more The-Dishonored-Bioshock. And this is a big effort, because I'm not sure you can always go to the top of the buildings without Blink for example. And yes, putting back the shadow-light system is a must.

 

[nurabsal]

m_PCBindings=(Name=”F4",Command=”FOV 110")

I've tried that before but it doesn't work.

It's weird, the game accepted the no-intro edit but key bindings don't work at all.

http://forums.steamgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2964078

This solution may be worth a look. I'm looking into alternatives but from the looks of it this is a design flaw with UE3 games.

Edit- To the man at the bottom this is why i don't program for a living

 

[Allanon]

m_PCBindings=(Name=”F4",Command=”FOV 110")

I've tried that before but it doesn't work.

It's weird, the game accepted the no-intro edit but key bindings don't work at all.

Probably because he uses ” instead of ". Try again with m_PCBindings=(Name="F4",Command="FOV 110").

Also, here is the original thread including how to disable intros:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/116s5s/how_to_change_fov_in_dishonored/

 

[nurabsal]

85

Dishonored 2012-10-13 07-04-53-94 by nurabsal, on Flickr

120

Dishonored 2012-10-13 07-04-56-99 by nurabsal, on Flickr

Myth Confirmed. Thanks Allanon

 

[Multidirectional]

I use "W" button for FOV, because that fucker resets every time I load a savegame.