Dishonored by Arkane

[JarlFrank]

I didn't. I don't merge threads unless it's a request or it's really just exactly the same topic.

 

[Kane]

I didn't. I don't merge threads unless it's a request or it's really just exactly the same topic.

That means our fabulous Gaylord went into full Draq Queen mode and threw a tantrum. Again! Hang him by his balls!

 

[DalekFlay]

For example CK2 or NS2.

Assuming those stand for crusader, king, natural and selection respectively, I don't play those style of games.

 

[DraQ]

I didn't. I don't merge threads unless it's a request or it's really just exactly the same topic.

That means our fabulous Gaylord went into full Draq Queen mode and threw a tantrum. Again! Hang him by his balls!

He did piss Raghar off, though.

 

[Morgoth]

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2013...mory-is-a-joy-says-dishonored-level-designer/

“We need memory, you know?" Christophe Carrier, a level designer at Arkane, told Eurogamer during this week’s British Acadamey of Film and Television Arts Game Awards, where “Dishonored” won Best Game.
"As a level designer we are struggling against memory every day. We cut things, we remove things, we strip things, we split the levels, we remove NPCs from levels because there's not enough memory,” Carrier elaborates. “So knowing that memory is something that is going to be improved in the next generation of consoles: to us, it's a joy.”
The PlayStation 4 will come with 8 GB of unified random-access memory when it is released this fall. The current PlayStation 3, in contrast, sports a comparatively puny 256 MB of dynamic RAM and another 256 MB of video RAM.
"We were PC gamers at the beginning. We love PC games, and we had to make games on consoles. But the main problem was memory,” Carrier explains. “The processors are good, but the memory, for our games, is the most important. So it's great."

Give them some more memory then.

 

[JarlFrank]

Well, that's certainly a good thing about the next console generation.

 

[DraQ]

Well, that's certainly a good thing about the next console generation.

Especially given how everything must conform to shitty multiplatform standards these days.

Anyway, I finished Dishonored and consider it a very good game.
My main problem and the only serious one is that the AI is oblivious, which makes it completely powerless against smart use of stealth, let alone stealth complemented by an array of cool supernatural powers.
Seriously, it's like choking fish in a barrel. Or something.

Minor complaints include mostly failed painterly stylization, smeary environment textures, terrible lighting model (sometimes dipping to around HL1 quality O_o ), some powers being abused, often tediously so (mainly blink and dark vision), which would call for rebalancing (DV not showing loot, blink functionally replaced by mundane aimed jumping, while the supernatural power would be made more powerful 'actual' teleportation, but far more costly to use), pistol reload being too fast, explosions feeling wimpy, levels being somewhat constrained (though still large-ish) and maybe the plot twists being too obvious.

Other than that it's an atmospheric DX-like in original setting, with excellent art design, solid and flexible gameplay, natural feeling movement, no TPP cinefaggic gimmickry and better story coherence than DX:HR.

Would buy again.

 

[JarlFrank]

You actually used the dark vision, DraQ? The only power I used regularly was blink, and a time stop once to ghost past the first guys in the Flooded District mission.

 

[DraQ]

You actually used the dark vision, DraQ? The only power I used regularly was blink, and a time stop once to ghost past the first guys in the Flooded District mission.

It's essentially free highlight-lewt-even-through-walls ability at lvl 2.

Will play without DV on my next playthrough, and semi-hardcore (no reloads in mission). Hopefully they will patch the numpad issue by then.

 

[Zewp]

I don't know. I know I probably shouldn't compare, but I played Dishonored shortly after doing a playthrough of Thief 2, and I just hated Dishonored.

 

[DraQ]

I don't know. I know I probably shouldn't compare, but I played Dishonored shortly after doing a playthrough of Thief 2, and I just hated Dishonored.

It's DX-like, not pure stealth game.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

And even if it was, comparing games to the best in the genre is a sure way to not like anything, ever. This is why the Fallout crowd is so bitter.

 

[JarlFrank]

And even if it was, comparing games to the best in the genre is a sure way to not like anything, ever. This is why the Fallout crowd is so bitter.

Arcanum is better than Fallout. But I realize that no game will ever reach Arcanum so it's fine.

 

[DraQ]

But I realize that no game will ever reach Arcanum so it's fine.

In terms of brilliance of its combat system?

Hopefully.

 

[Zewp]

And even if it was, comparing games to the best in the genre is a sure way to not like anything, ever. This is why the Fallout crowd is so bitter.

Except I don't really consider Dishonored a good game on its own either. I think it's pretty mediocre at best. It just doesn't really do anything to set itself apart.

 

[Machocruz]

Arcanum is better than Fallout. But I realize that no game will ever reach Arcanum so it's fine.

How so? I have yet to play it, and Fallout is the pinnacle of RPG mechanics in video games, in my estimation. The tales of atrocious combat have kept me away.

 

[JarlFrank]

The setting is probably my favourite of all RPGs (a fantasy world with 19th century culture and tech), a complex character system with many viable builds (some are broken though, it's not very balanced, but balance is not a priority with me), very good choice and consequence - there are tons of things that can affect the ending slides - and the story isn't bad either.

Just play it, you won't regret it.

 

[Multidirectional]

I still can't get into Arcanum, tried three times. Always drop it after few hours. I had no such problems with Fallout 1/2, it was pretty much love at first sight. Stating that Arcanum is better as if it was a fact pretty much warrants a "fuck you" from me. But I'll forgive you this time.

 

[Eyeball]

Just got around to finishing this too, burned out on it pretty hard about 2 missions from the end months back. Pretty good effort, can definitely see that some of the people who made Arx Fatalis worked on this. I fucked myself bigtime by trying to do a "no kill" run, though, meaning that I generally savescummed like a mofo if I got spotted. This completely ruined my enjoyment of the game, because what was the most entertaining part of it to me was to do something stupid, get spotted and then have to evade half a dozen armed guards using teleportation, guile and ambushes. I had all these cool offensive spells that I never used even once because it would up my kill count!

I would like to replay this sometime, limiting myself to 1 save, because as far as I can tell, it's a lot more fun as a dynamic hack/slash/stealth/assassination type game than as a straight sneaker.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Arcanum is better than Fallout. But I realize that no game will ever reach Arcanum so it's fine.

How so? I have yet to play it, and Fallout is the pinnacle of RPG mechanics in video games, in my estimation. The tales of atrocious combat have kept me away.

A game is more than sum of its parts. Arcanum has some of the best C&C, story elements (although not the entire story) and encounters in RPG history.

 

[Excidium]

Arcanum is a bunch of CYOAs thrown together inside a terrible video game.

And even if it was, comparing games to the best in the genre is a sure way to not like anything, ever. This is why the Fallout crowd is so bitter.

Arcanum is better than Fallout. But I realize that no game will ever reach Arcanum so it's fine.

 

[Multidirectional]

I had all these cool offensive spells that I never used even once because it would up my kill count!

I don't understand.. why would you invest in offensive spells while doing non-lethal run? I did two runs, lethal and non-lethal, and as I remember spells were divided to accommodate these approaches. That is, you can max one or other type of abilities by the end of the game, but not all of them.

 

[Eyeball]

I pretty much did.

 

[DalekFlay]

I'm doing a total non-lethal, ghost and no powers run of this right now. Not really for the achievements, which no one care's about, but more just for fun. I have to say, it really shows some of the game's faults.

For one thing you can blink through someone as they come at you and then choke them from behind, which is pretty much god mode when there isn't a crowd. For another thing no one ever, EVER, sees you when you are above them. In broad daylight you walk gingerly across a pipe 3 feet above a swarm of guards and none of them ever notice you. Lastly when not looking for tons of loot and runes the levels show themselves as super small. What once was a 2 hour exploration marathon becomes literally 15 minutes of blinking around rooms to the goal. I am making myself loot hunt and whale bone collect just so I have stuff to do.

Not really bashing the game, still my favorite mainstream title last year and a fun callback to better predecessors. The flaws really come through on a second run though.

 

[sea]

I'm doing a total non-lethal, ghost and no powers run of this right now. Not really for the achievements, which no one care's about, but more just for fun. I have to say, it really shows some of the game's faults.

For one thing you can blink through someone as they come at you and then choke them from behind, which is pretty much god mode when there isn't a crowd. For another thing no one ever, EVER, sees you when you are above them. In broad daylight you walk gingerly across a pipe 3 feet above a swarm of guards and none of them ever notice you. Lastly when not looking for tons of loot and runes the levels show themselves as super small. What once was a 2 hour exploration marathon becomes literally 15 minutes of blinking around rooms to the goal. I am making myself loot hunt and whale bone collect just so I have stuff to do.

Not really bashing the game, still my favorite mainstream title last year and a fun callback to better predecessors. The flaws really come through on a second run though.

The big problem for me was that levels didn't get sufficiently large and complex until the last 2 stages, and level design itself got smart enough to make Blink less powerful and much more limited (i.e. providing lots of cover but not letting you transition between rooms without exposing yourself). Also, since levels are designed with Blink in mind there are few true alternatives to not using it, other than maybe throwing objects as distractions. Without Blink you are left with very bare-bones and basic stealth, which really should have been augmented with light and shadow mechanics.