Boudica said:
Use violence for its own sake
You know
Bioshock did essentially the same thing and it turned out being the whole point of the plot. I've become quite a fan of games that let you murder, kill, overpower and dominate... and then turn around and basically slap you across the face for doing so. I can't remember what game it was... I remember it encouraged me to kill a bunch of guys, then it turned out doing so was reckless and stupid and I essentially had doomed both my character and the world for it. I hope I'll remember the name soon because it's driving me mad... it could have been
Spec Ops, but I don't think so cos I never played it myself.
Honestly, violence like this is so often used to atmospheric or character development effect - even in "frat boy" games like
Call of Duty - it feels weird to call it "immature". Is the atmosphere and character arc worth seeing? Is the story worth telling? That's subjective. Is it kind of immature to use it as marketing? Not really. The only games I can think of in which extreme "creative" violence is detrimental to the storytelling and the world that's been envisioned is... well, probably games like
Devil May Cry and
Splatterhouse that sincerely think their violence is "cool". But even that's a whole different kettle of fish.
End of the day, though, this is a game called
Dishonoured. This game is not trying to pass off the character's actions as anything other than deplorable. It might be "immature" - again, very much subjective to whether you enjoy the atmosphere, story, and world - but it is not for its
own sake. Not by a long shot.