Dishonored Review

Blood Brain Barrier

New member
Nov 21, 2011
2,004
0
0
ResonanceGames said:
This game rocks, guys. If you like Looking Glass games, you are going to shit bricks over this thing.
No way. System Shock was way better than this. The writing is terrible. There's nothing here that hasn't been done before, and better.
 

IamLEAM1983

Neloth's got swag.
Aug 22, 2011
2,581
0
0
I caved in, bought the thing, played it for twenty minutes - and regretted my purchase. It's one of the rare times where my gamer's intuition has failed me.

I'm pretty much with Strider. The animations are stiff, the level design doesn't exactly make me salivate at the possibilities, the textures look fairly bland, the voice acting makes me cringe...

*sighs*

Maybe I'm wrong, here. Maybe I'm just not receptive, or Chaos Theory spoiled me in terms of what a good stealth game is. I did go through Thief 2, but even then, first-person stealth felt awkward; like they're expecting me to run through a maze with blinders on.

As for the plot - I just can't work up the energy to care. Burrows feels so hackneyed as a villain, so one-note, that he'd probably be better off as a Saturday morning cartoon antagonist.

Props to the art team, I'll give 'em that; but otherwise?

I dunno. It really does feel like another Arkane title to me; in that there's a heck of a lot of good intentions in there but not that much competence.

Blood Brain Barrier said:
ResonanceGames said:
This game rocks, guys. If you like Looking Glass games, you are going to shit bricks over this thing.
No way. System Shock was way better than this. The writing is terrible. There's nothing here that hasn't been done before, and better.
This.
 

trollnystan

I'm back, baby, & still dancing!
Dec 27, 2010
1,281
0
0
scott91575 said:
Vausch said:
Great, the one time I'm actually wanting to buy a game on release day it's 60.

Did something happen when I wasn't looking? Weren't PC games 50 dollars new not 6 months ago? Did Skyrim somehow make publishers go "Hey they'll pay 60 for that game they'll pay 60 for ours!"?
Go to Green Man Gaming. Use their 25% off code (it's on the first page, and I think good for a couple more days). Bam, under $50. It's also a Steam game, so you don't even need to use GMG's launcher. They send you a Steam code, and as long as you are cool with Steam there you go.

BTW...I have no affiliation with GMG. I just know they often have nice sales, and right now is one of those times. Figured I'd help you out. Sadly XCOM is excluded from their 25% off sale.
DAMN YOU. That was 300SEK I couldn't afford to spend, so yes I'm going to blame you for it. >_>
 

DarkhoIlow

New member
Dec 31, 2009
2,531
0
0
I've been playing it for around 6h and I haven't even finished the second mission yet out of 9 or 11? Can't recall how many they were.

I'm definitely taking my time and reading all the nods/books/journals and I'm having a blast with it trying to go the stealthy path for once.Hope I don't screw up my chaos meter to much.

Btw,does killing a guard with his own dog counts for chaos points? Thanks.
 

Selef

New member
Nov 13, 2009
65
0
0
Susan Arendt said:
bjj hero said:
Susan Arendt said:
Dishonored Review

Absolutely killer.

Read Full Article
Hi Susan,

This seems like a game I can thoroughly enjoy, I have a question though. How "buggy" is the game? I hear alarm bells whenever I read Bethesda.

What system did you play it on and did you notice much going wrong?
Bethesda is the publisher, not the developer. Arkane Studios is the developer.

shadowslayer81 said:
I've been hearing some things about the length of the game itself, Susan any sort of opinion before the inevitable fallout comes?

Like I've heard people have been beating the game in 4 hours.
Bullshit. It might be possible to beat the game in 4 hours if you've played it before, if you try to get to your target as fast as possible if you skip through all the cutscenes, if if if. Anyone actually playing the game to enjoy it will be spending about 20 hours with it, easily.
hate to sound like a dick but i just beat the game in 13 hours, i didn't do all the things like finding all the paintings or bone pieces, but i did get all the runes and it was a completely non lethal play through, even replaying a few missions. Don't get me wrong ill probably be replaying this till i log at least 20 hours, but one play though should not take 20 hours.
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
7,222
0
0
DarkhoIlow said:
I've been playing it for around 6h and I haven't even finished the second mission yet out of 9 or 11? Can't recall how many they were.

I'm definitely taking my time and reading all the nods/books/journals and I'm having a blast with it trying to go the stealthy path for once.Hope I don't screw up my chaos meter to much.

Btw,does killing a guard with his own dog counts for chaos points? Thanks.
Killing any person counts for chaos, no matter how you do it. As does leaving a body behind, whether they're dead or unconscious. So if you kill someone, at least balance by tidying up - I personally prefer the Shadow Kill talent, which turns corpses to ash.

health-bar said:
damn it, i knew there was going to be a caveat thing with how violent or stealthy you are. the whole "high and low chaos" rating seems like its going to hinder my enjoyment of the game.

I usually choose the stealth option in games like this, but I want a game where I don't feel like I fucked up every time I decide to kill a guard rather than sneak past him. Sometimes a guard has to die, I dont want to refrain from killing him simply because i know it'll change the game ending or ruin an achievement, I want to let him live because it was the right call to make.
You can kill people and still get Low Chaos. Generally speaking, try to keep the body count under about 20% of the population of the level and you'll be ok, unless you're leaving bodies around to find or setting off all the alarms.
 

Quellist

Migratory coconut
Oct 7, 2010
1,443
0
0
I cant wait to play this, Stealth and decency will be for my second playthrough. First time round i'm going to embark on a blood-crazed revenge spree that would make The Count of Monte Cristo faint.
 

snekadid

Lord of the Salt
Mar 29, 2012
711
0
0
Sigh.... I cant even watch the review now because i make a point never to watch reviews for games that come out while the site is actively advertising them. I don't trust the conflict of interests.

Captcha: steal your face WTF CAPTCHA?!
 

RobfromtheGulag

New member
May 18, 2010
931
0
0
I hopped into the game world for an hour last night. The only thing that struck me were the graphics. Not bad, but not what I had expected. All the trailers of running across pristine rooftops did not prepare me for the pastel, strangely lit daytime of the intro levels.

The sleeper hold is a nice feature, though I'm already dreading the inevitably 'no kills' levels or achievements or whatnot.
And the sneaking in this game seems to be far more reliant on cover than it is on shadows, contrasting to some more recent games.
 

Nimzabaat

New member
Feb 1, 2010
886
0
0
I've played Thief and Thief 2, gone stealth in all the Elder Scrolls games possible, even Alpha Protocol had a more forgiving stealth system than Dishonored. I like the game but the whole sneaking thing seems really broken. It says i'm concealed but I aggro everything just by being in the same room. Maybe it's just me.

Oh I didn't aggro the rats. That was cool.
 

ResonanceGames

New member
Feb 25, 2011
732
0
0
Blood Brain Barrier said:
ResonanceGames said:
This game rocks, guys. If you like Looking Glass games, you are going to shit bricks over this thing.
No way. System Shock was way better than this. The writing is terrible. There's nothing here that hasn't been done before, and better.
System Shock is better than everything. That's a fantastically stupid point.
 

Erttheking

Member
Legacy
Oct 5, 2011
10,845
1
3
Country
United States
Blood Brain Barrier said:
ResonanceGames said:
This game rocks, guys. If you like Looking Glass games, you are going to shit bricks over this thing.
No way. System Shock was way better than this. The writing is terrible. There's nothing here that hasn't been done before, and better.
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.
 

IamLEAM1983

Neloth's got swag.
Aug 22, 2011
2,581
0
0
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.
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
7,222
0
0
Selef said:
Susan Arendt said:
bjj hero said:
Susan Arendt said:
Dishonored Review

Absolutely killer.

Read Full Article
Hi Susan,

This seems like a game I can thoroughly enjoy, I have a question though. How "buggy" is the game? I hear alarm bells whenever I read Bethesda.

What system did you play it on and did you notice much going wrong?
Bethesda is the publisher, not the developer. Arkane Studios is the developer.

shadowslayer81 said:
I've been hearing some things about the length of the game itself, Susan any sort of opinion before the inevitable fallout comes?

Like I've heard people have been beating the game in 4 hours.
Bullshit. It might be possible to beat the game in 4 hours if you've played it before, if you try to get to your target as fast as possible if you skip through all the cutscenes, if if if. Anyone actually playing the game to enjoy it will be spending about 20 hours with it, easily.
hate to sound like a dick but i just beat the game in 13 hours, i didn't do all the things like finding all the paintings or bone pieces, but i did get all the runes and it was a completely non lethal play through, even replaying a few missions. Don't get me wrong ill probably be replaying this till i log at least 20 hours, but one play though should not take 20 hours.
Well, sure, you'll naturally trim time if you don't look around. I said "anyone actually playing the game to enjoy it," by which I pretty clearly meant doing all the extras - optional missions, looking for the collectibles, watching the cut scenes, etc. I'm really not looking to get into an argument about exact numbers. You beat the game in 13 hours, fine. That's still not 4.
 

Erttheking

Member
Legacy
Oct 5, 2011
10,845
1
3
Country
United States
IamLEAM1983 said:
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.
It's true the Dishonored is rather difficult, but to be perfectly honest I kind of like it that way. I feel like just about every last time I tried to sneak around and ending up having to kill five guards because I got detected can be traced back to me being impatient. Also I find fucking up to be kinda fun (made a little thread about that) mainly because it makes the experience feel organic. The mechanics aren't really that bad, Blink and Possession are a fucking blast and really help my sneaking around and jumping from balcony to balcony via teleportation feels freaking awesome and helps get around awkwardness that normally comes with first person platforming. Also level design dated? Eh...not so sure on that one. I experimented with half life 2 and while I didn't like it that much I did stick around with it for 8 hours before giving up, to the point where I was running around with rebels and I have to say a couple of the walls may look a little familiar (After all Half Life and Dishonored had the same art designer) Dunwall doesn't feel anything like City 17, and the guards feel a lot more fluid and quicker than the stiff slow combine soldiers. I also found that the levels really do have a lot of room and different approaches, but then again I'm not a huge stealth fan so maybe this is my tiny scrub brain talking here. The plot is a little generic I admit, but then again everything has been done before and I find it rather interesting, especially considering that I KNOW that the Outsider has something to do with the Empress' assassination, and the atmosphere of the world really pulls me in and makes it up for me.

So yeah, I think that the game is freaking awesome but I understand where you're coming from. People treat Half Life 2 like it's the best thing since buttered bread but I personal think it's an ok shooter at best. Like they say, different strokes for different folks.

P.S. thank you for having an argument more complex and thought out than "Aspect X is bad, game Y is better"
 

GAunderrated

New member
Jul 9, 2012
998
0
0
Susan Arendt said:
Selef said:
Susan Arendt said:
bjj hero said:
Susan Arendt said:
Dishonored Review

Absolutely killer.

Read Full Article
Hi Susan,

This seems like a game I can thoroughly enjoy, I have a question though. How "buggy" is the game? I hear alarm bells whenever I read Bethesda.

What system did you play it on and did you notice much going wrong?
Bethesda is the publisher, not the developer. Arkane Studios is the developer.

shadowslayer81 said:
I've been hearing some things about the length of the game itself, Susan any sort of opinion before the inevitable fallout comes?

Like I've heard people have been beating the game in 4 hours.
Bullshit. It might be possible to beat the game in 4 hours if you've played it before, if you try to get to your target as fast as possible if you skip through all the cutscenes, if if if. Anyone actually playing the game to enjoy it will be spending about 20 hours with it, easily.
hate to sound like a dick but i just beat the game in 13 hours, i didn't do all the things like finding all the paintings or bone pieces, but i did get all the runes and it was a completely non lethal play through, even replaying a few missions. Don't get me wrong ill probably be replaying this till i log at least 20 hours, but one play though should not take 20 hours.
Well, sure, you'll naturally trim time if you don't look around. I said "anyone actually playing the game to enjoy it," by which I pretty clearly meant doing all the extras - optional missions, looking for the collectibles, watching the cut scenes, etc. I'm really not looking to get into an argument about exact numbers. You beat the game in 13 hours, fine. That's still not 4.
When topics about hours played determining whether a game is worth it always comes up I can't help but scoff. Portal is considered to be one of the best games and its 3-4 hours long max.I think people should stop thinking "how many hours is the game" and look at how many hours of enjoyment they got for their purchase. I'm doing a no kill run in my first playthrough. But heck in the second (I will play again) playthrough i'm going to make it rain blood.

What enjoyment people get out of a game is what you put into it.

Btw susan great review. I always look forward to when you do reviews. Small piece of constructive criticism though. It is never a good idea to get into a conversation about semantics with gaming. You end up just posting to trolls.
 

CrazyJew

New member
Sep 18, 2011
370
0
0
Here's my biggest problem with the game. Its greatest draw comes from the awesome creative kills, but a lethal run is penalized with a shit world.

I mean, look at Thief, you get penalized for deaths with lower rewards and nothing else, and kills aren't the focus of the game anyway. But Dishonored? The fun of the game is CENTRED around the bad-ass kills, yet you have to choose between a shit experience or a shit ending.
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
7,222
0
0
GAunderrated said:
Susan Arendt said:
Selef said:
Susan Arendt said:
bjj hero said:
Susan Arendt said:
Dishonored Review

Absolutely killer.

Read Full Article
Hi Susan,

This seems like a game I can thoroughly enjoy, I have a question though. How "buggy" is the game? I hear alarm bells whenever I read Bethesda.

What system did you play it on and did you notice much going wrong?
Bethesda is the publisher, not the developer. Arkane Studios is the developer.

shadowslayer81 said:
I've been hearing some things about the length of the game itself, Susan any sort of opinion before the inevitable fallout comes?

Like I've heard people have been beating the game in 4 hours.
Bullshit. It might be possible to beat the game in 4 hours if you've played it before, if you try to get to your target as fast as possible if you skip through all the cutscenes, if if if. Anyone actually playing the game to enjoy it will be spending about 20 hours with it, easily.
hate to sound like a dick but i just beat the game in 13 hours, i didn't do all the things like finding all the paintings or bone pieces, but i did get all the runes and it was a completely non lethal play through, even replaying a few missions. Don't get me wrong ill probably be replaying this till i log at least 20 hours, but one play though should not take 20 hours.
Well, sure, you'll naturally trim time if you don't look around. I said "anyone actually playing the game to enjoy it," by which I pretty clearly meant doing all the extras - optional missions, looking for the collectibles, watching the cut scenes, etc. I'm really not looking to get into an argument about exact numbers. You beat the game in 13 hours, fine. That's still not 4.
When topics about hours played determining whether a game is worth it always comes up I can't help but scoff. Portal is considered to be one of the best games and its 3-4 hours long max.I think people should stop thinking "how many hours is the game" and look at how many hours of enjoyment they got for their purchase. I'm doing a no kill run in my first playthrough. But heck in the second (I will play again) playthrough i'm going to make it rain blood.

What enjoyment people get out of a game is what you put into it.

Btw susan great review. I always look forward to when you do reviews. Small piece of constructive criticism though. It is never a good idea to get into a conversation about semantics with gaming. You end up just posting to trolls.
You're right, of course, but I just get so annoyed I can't help myself. :)
 

Selef

New member
Nov 13, 2009
65
0
0
Susan Arendt said:
Selef said:
Susan Arendt said:
bjj hero said:
Susan Arendt said:
Dishonored Review

Absolutely killer.

Read Full Article
Hi Susan,

This seems like a game I can thoroughly enjoy, I have a question though. How "buggy" is the game? I hear alarm bells whenever I read Bethesda.

What system did you play it on and did you notice much going wrong?
Bethesda is the publisher, not the developer. Arkane Studios is the developer.

shadowslayer81 said:
I've been hearing some things about the length of the game itself, Susan any sort of opinion before the inevitable fallout comes?

Like I've heard people have been beating the game in 4 hours.
Bullshit. It might be possible to beat the game in 4 hours if you've played it before, if you try to get to your target as fast as possible if you skip through all the cutscenes, if if if. Anyone actually playing the game to enjoy it will be spending about 20 hours with it, easily.
hate to sound like a dick but i just beat the game in 13 hours, i didn't do all the things like finding all the paintings or bone pieces, but i did get all the runes and it was a completely non lethal play through, even replaying a few missions. Don't get me wrong ill probably be replaying this till i log at least 20 hours, but one play though should not take 20 hours.
Well, sure, you'll naturally trim time if you don't look around. I said "anyone actually playing the game to enjoy it," by which I pretty clearly meant doing all the extras - optional missions, looking for the collectibles, watching the cut scenes, etc. I'm really not looking to get into an argument about exact numbers. You beat the game in 13 hours, fine. That's still not 4.
sorry if it seemed like i was looking for an argument, it was 4 am and i was just trying to give my experience, thank for the review it did the game justice :)
 

kyoodle

New member
Dec 4, 2009
103
0
0
I look forward to the Wall Street Journals review:

'As a $60 FPS this game really should be worth $60 by including online play. Call of Duty has an online mode, but Dishonored does not have an online mode. Maybe it would be worth $30 (which is less than $60)but for a game, in 2012) a rich social media experience would be necessary for testosterone fueled 18-35 male demographics.

Halo 4 is also an online.

8/10'

Then they can sit back and watch the Pulitzers fly in.

Great review Susan looking forward to when this comes out in the UK!