erttheking said:
A lot of people say that System Shock was better than Bioshock, that doesn't stop Bioshock from being a good game in its own rights. And I'm really not familiar with too many games taking place on an industrial island run by whale oil with half of the city in ruins, martial law and magical powers. Seems pretty unique to me.
I don't think the uniqueness of Dunwall is what's being brought into question; it's the way the whole thing is structured that's being debated by myself and the what, two or three weird-ass alien thingies in this discussion that also didn't like the game. This is definitely a case of "odd man out". My friends are going gaga over Corvo Attano, and all I can work up is a resounding "Meh".
That's coming from a guy who's a sneak-thief in every Elder Scrolls as well as the modern Fallout games, who's suffered through Alpha Protocol, who doesn't hate slipping on Agent 47's suit every once in a great while and who actually tries as hard as possible to be actually stealthy in Assassin's Creed titles.
It's not that I have no affinity for the genre and like I said, the art direction deserves special mention. At the same time, once you've gone past the whole "Oooh, Steampunk and whale oil!" buzz, you're confronted with a game that has unforgiving mechanics and a fairly anemic plot.
In terms of level design, Victor Antonov's time at Valve really does show. It wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, if only booting up Dishonored didn't make me feel like I'm actually playing a mod that dates back to Half-Life 2's first few months in retail. Coldridge had me go "That's freaking Nova Prospekt!" a few times, and there's quite a few corners in Dunwall that really do look a lot like Ravenholm.
Again - that's not a bad thing, but it does create the sense that the level design is a little bit dated.
Take all of that for what it is, though, which is the opinion of one guy out of a handful of people who might be feeling a little lost in the middle of the unreal levels of praise this game is getting.
Captcha: sonic screw driver
Typo aside, I like Steampunk masks. Steampunk masks are cool.