Dishonored by Arkane

[Gord]

I would kill for a good Thief game.

Difficulty: Expert

• Don't kill anyone

 

[toro]

I would kill for a good Thief game.

Difficulty: Expert

• Don't kill anyone

Ja Ja. You get my point.

 

[Shadenuat]

Example of one of the ideas Dishonored possibly took from other game without checking why exactly that idea worked:

Gel Zibar stone did't work like a secretary, it was all mysterious whispers, "..look... around.. you..", nothing but clues. Unlike it, Heart seriously ruining shit for me. "He is a good guy and respects you. You can trust him". Wow seriously? Here goes my tension.

 

[Ion Prothon II]

Clive Barker's Undying. Boring banal popamole in its time, propably a masterpiece by today standards.

 

[J1M]

My issue with the story, aside from the cheap "rescue the cute little girl" hook and "here's some magical god creature who gives you powers in a dream" stuff, is that the game has absolutely nothing interesting to say. Dishonored's world is detailed and very fleshed out compared to most games, but there isn't a point to any of it. It can be summed up in a list of a few things: Outsider, Seven Strictures, Rat Plague, Whale Oil. There is almost no ensuing discussion of those things and it certainly never makes you stop to think about what you might be doing. And then it pulls the cheap-ass BioShock bait-and-switch which has absolutely no meaning in a 100% linear game anyway.

A game like Deus Ex actually had something to say in its political, social and philosophical commentary; it was a reflection of a lot of the fears people have about all-controlling government, and the discourse that followed ultimately let you choose what side you came down on in the ending. Everything, from books to newspapers, existed to give weight and meaning to those themes. Dishonored is just a bunch of weird/cool steampunky stuff, but it's very hard to care about when everything is so superficial and the story itself does nothing with the interesting world presented. Why do we hear about all these distant lands, trades, practices, cultures, and so on if none of it is in the game and even really matters much to the story?

The game does have a message. It is so banal that you may have missed it: hunting whales is mean.

 

[Shadenuat]

hunting whales is mean

Probably. I finished game with "Good" ending and did't notice any other ideas. Game certanly has good visuals, even terrible textures (worse than something PC-exclusive from 2000) could't take the charm away - every level, no matter from what angle you look at it, is like a painting. Fascinating work with colors. But it's empty. I waited for some great reveal at the end, something I did't see coming from a mile away, but meh.

 

[SoupNazi]

I recommend everyone goes through the game at least once with full levels from the start and just kill everyone in the most fun way you can think of. I don't think I ever played a more satisfying killing game than this. Jumping on a tallboy to stab him, stop time, attach a mine on another and shoot three crossbow bolts at guards, summon rat plague, let time run normally again and watch the mayhem. I seriously can't think of a better feeling.

Also, the last mission changes significantly with the bad ending, and Lord Pendelton confirms that

Spoiler

Corvo was indeed sleeping with the Empress (and probably was the father of Emily)

The reactions of most characters are pretty different when compared to the good ending. There's one thing that doesn't make sense, and that's

Spoiler

Sam returning even though he hates you. Don't get that. He then takes you to the lighthouse and keeps blabbing how much he hates you, which he then confirms by announcing that he's let the guards know of your arrival. Unfortunately the developers don't count on you killing him just as he says that so the guards come anyway (I need to see if I can kill him before and if they come anyway).

Overall, definitely the most versatile of games when it comes to different approaches.

 

[potatojohn]

I've replayed it by killing everyone I saw (except respawning guards) and I'm kind of disappointed how similar the game is. Weren't they talking about how there would be more weapers, tallboys, rats, etc? It looked pretty much the same as my ghost no-kill run. Maybe it branches more after you kill the regent (where I've stopped playing atm).

Also I heard that there was a 'very high' chaos score? How do you get that?

 

[Ion Prothon II]

Loled hard at the effects they applied to vision in poisoned state. It's like Corvo got so wasted he's seeing shit from Fallout 3.

 

[SoupNazi]

I've replayed it by killing everyone I saw (except respawning guards) and I'm kind of disappointed how similar the game is. Weren't they talking about how there would be more weapers, tallboys, rats, etc? It looked pretty much the same as my ghost no-kill run. Maybe it branches more after you kill the regent (where I've stopped playing atm).

Also I heard that there was a 'very high' chaos score? How do you get that?

I've definitely seen a lot more weepers in areas I remember there being very little or none. It's especially clear after you're betrayed - there is a small community in the sewers that in my ghost run was full of healthy people hiding, in the kill everyone run it was just weepers. There were a few more areas I noticed it, but then again weepers are not much of an issue and neither are rats so I can see how it's easy to overlook. Either way, the C&C is mostly cosmetic just like in Deus Ex, i.e. Emily draws different pictures, says different things, etc.


DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE GAME (NO, SERIOUSLY)

Spoiler

I don't think there's a "very high" chaos rating because I've done everything as badly as I could. I killed everyone, including respawning guards, kept telling Emily to fuck off, killed civilians (wiped out the entirety of Lady Boyle's party for example), used Pietro's tesla coil to murder everyone in vicinity, killed Sam, etc.

However, there are, in fact, at least three endings (most people talk of three). One - good - is the one with low chaos where Emily is held in the back room and the three conspirators all turn at each other. The ending slides speak of her ruling justly and beating the plague.

Another, bad, is with high chaos. Instead, the three conspirators turn at each other again but this time in an open three-way battle that's raging on the lighthouse island when you arrive. When you reach the top, Martin is holding Emily over the edge on a catwalk and threatens to jump with her.

That's where it turns to two endings. You can for example sneak around and kill him from behind, saving Emily, or you can stop time and run up to them and hit F, also saving Emily.

The last option is to shoot him before he notices you, and at that point, Emily falls down, so does Martin, and Emily hangs at the edge. You can either rescue her (no cure for plague is found, she rules with an iron hand, you die eventually) or decide not to (she falls eventually after pleading for help). That ending is probably the best one. The Outsider reveals himself as an evil God that revels in chaos and watching people die and betray each other. Everyone turns on each other, rat plague takes over Dunwall, and Corvo himself sails away. Outsider is very pleased with the result.

 

[Ion Prothon II]

I've replayed it by killing everyone I saw (except respawning guards) and I'm kind of disappointed how similar the game is. Weren't they talking about how there would be more weapers, tallboys, rats, etc? It looked pretty much the same as my ghost no-kill run. Maybe it branches more after you kill the regent (where I've stopped playing atm).

Also I heard that there was a 'very high' chaos score? How do you get that?

Finished the game as a vengenful madman spreading death and destruction everywhere, with mere 'high' chaos score. Didn't noticed anything out of ordinary, as for weepers, rats, etc.

Got 'high' after killing few (not all) guards in the prison & escape, and it was like that all the time, no matter what I did after. I even replayed the Whorehouse and Ball missions without killing (except the objectives) - and no changes. I think the mission achievments (choices) affect the score more than the body count.

 

[Raghar]

Well I done first mission on kill all (by an accident), and then kill only some, both resulted in chaos at high. In the first case rat swarms were munching guards, in the second case there was only one rat swarm in the area, hidden from guards.

Also shadows matters.

 

[Ulminati]

Dishonored has heart. It has soul. If Dishonored sang the Blues, you'd want to listen.

Only to confirm it's tone deaf

 

[Zewp]

It's an okay game, I guess. Just finished it and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. My only gripe is that it plays too much like an FPS. It's not a terrible game, but it doesn't come close to being the spiritual successor of the Thief series, which is what I was hoping for.

 

[sea]

I just played through the first mission a second time. Some different scenes happened vs. my first play. For example, in the backyard guard bunkhouse, the first time around I saw a guy denying he was sick and his two mates killed him. The second time around, he was pleading with them to end his life, and they performed a little ritual where his friend executed him in a fairly poignant manner. I have no idea what the triggers for this sort of thing are but it was interesting to see even little details can apparently play out differently.

 

[SoupNazi]

Interesting. In my second playthrough I made such a ruckus they never even got to play out their scripted scene

 

[JarlFrank]

 

[Multidirectional]

 

[toro]

More. Please.

 

[Castanova]

Is it possible to do a genocide run in this game? Like, can you go around and kill every NPC in the level? Or are there respawns/invincible NPCs?

 

[SoupNazi]

I didn't notice infinite respawning anywhere on my homicide run. The only areas which got reinforcements was city areas where exiting the area and coming back would result in more guards, but they weren't so much "respawned" as just new guards coming in.

And there are no invincible NPCs, though killing some of the plot crucial friendly ones will result in a game over.

 

[Castanova]

Hm, OK. From the response here it looks like the kind of game I'll want to pick up later on for a big discount.

 

[Haba]

So done with Dishonored. First impressions were not good - tutorial and another god damn prison break/sewer shit. Quit after fifteen minutes.

Try two. It started to feel good actually. I played a bizarre game of "making guardsmen wake up in strange places", literally emptying maps of NPCs. Zero kills, all ghost. Pretty nice touches here and there, like with the first mission - I ended up using time slow to stun the target while the other guy shot him, making the guy leave thinking he'd killed the target.

The hyped up ball was a huge letdown (walk in, talk to a few guys, stun target, walk out. WTF?) and it went downhill from there. At the last mission I decided to fuck it all, and went on a rampage. 70 enemies killed, including the big bad guy who I faceshot before he could finish his banal shit boring monologue.

Result: low chaos, happy ending. Oh well.

All in all, Dishonored is clear incline. The only thing that annoys me the most is the fact that it could have been so much more. Play on hard, don't buy easymode powers and tone down the help stuff and it is almost like playing Thief.

 

[JarlFrank]

So I just found out that there's one character who is invincible.

Obviously, it's the girl. Cause she's a kid and you can't be allowed to kill a kid.

 

[Excidium]

Well, the other people that live on the PUB might as well be invincible too since you instantly get a game over screen if you kill them.