Poll: Replaying Dishonored - Stealth or Chaos?

[Auron225]

Gonna replay Dishonored very soon. I've only played it once before, and that time I opted for stealth. I can't decide whether I should re-do the game in stealth, or go for a chaos run this time.

The feeling of getting in, getting the job done, and getting out... without anyone seeing you is more exhilarating (to me at least) than carving a bloody path through enemies. I also felt bad for the particular enemies in this game, given that you can do that mind-reading thing. Most of them are just guys working to feed their families, for an unfortunately corrupt government, so I might feel bad to murder them. And yes I am aware that "they" are computer-code but I get immersed easily.

Having said that, one thing which did irritate me on my previous stealth run was how little I could use most of the powers/weapons that were available. I don't think I fired the pistol once... I barely even used the knife ffs. Never acquired the "spawn rats" or "force push" powers - only used the "jump", "time slow down/stop" and "possession" powers, and I think you can use explosives but I barely touched those either. Only used the crossbow for sleep darts exclusively... so yeah, it was pretty annoying that there weren't more tools which suited stealth. It felt like since I was going stealth; the game was handing me all these toys and telling me not to play with them.

Last factor... if you go chaos then Emily turns into quite the little sociopath, whereas she stays sweet & innocent if you go stealth (which suited me just fine the first time). Now its gonna rub me the wrong way. The only aspect I think I'd like more is that I hear the climax is much more exciting in chaos as opposed to stealth (which did feel rather low-key). Other characters seem to look down on you for going chaos too (even allies) which I don't fully understand.

As you can see, a lot of factors are influencing whether I re-do the stealth run or try out a chaos run. I think I'd still have fun in stealth since there are still multiple ways of going about things, but I have never done chaos before. I don't know if I'd feel bad for the guards I murder and Emily (bad influence) or if I'd be having a blast with all the weapons and creative ways I could murder people.

Choose for me; should I go Stealth or Chaos?

EDIT: Yes I have realized that one can play a run which is both high chaos AND stealthy. What I meant was High or Low Chaos - it's just that Low Chaos tends to suggest stealth, whereas high chaos is murdering everyone shamelessly and stealth isn't really necessary.

 

[EvilRoy]

If I may suggest a third path, I loved the game when I took a chaos heavy approach for the first couple missions and then switched over to stealth. The way they turn up the enemies as the chaos meter increases causes the difficulty and penalties for mistakes to shoot upward. I found it quite a bit more enjoyable when I was fighting at every step to go nonlethal while collecting things and doing missions with so many more trigger happy guards around.

Another option I liked was the 'conscience' playstyle. I basically let the mind reading thing inform all my lethal/nonlethal decisions. "Raped his sister." Kill. "Struggling to keep his mom fed." Leave. It increased the chaos meter by managable levels, and kept the game interesting by not locking me to one playstyle or another.

If you want a more binary suggestion, I suggest stealth. I actually found that chaos got kind of old, since there are a pretty finite number of ways to murder people, the hand to hand swordfighting wasn't great, and the most efficient way to kill people is to Batman them by jumping people and swooping off to pick another target.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Go chaos. The non lethal rout is kind of lame in that you don't get to use the majority of your toys. You spend most of the time blinking, strangling and some times darting.

 

[wintercoat]

¿Por que no los dos?

Kill everyone. Every. Single. Person. While getting the Shadow achievement.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

if you've already played stealthy then go for chaos, it's as much fun as the stealthy way is

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Been a long time since I played, but I didnt like stealth since You get like 5 or 6 relevant abilitys to play with if you go stealthy but if you go chaos you have a huge amount of different toys to play with, you can stealth some parts, set traps with bombs, get people eaten, all sorts of crazy things and the power trip is real.

 

[DoPo]

Go chaos. The non lethal rout is kind of lame in that you don't get to use the majority of your toys.

Been a long time since I played, but I didnt like stealth since You get like 5 or 6 relevant abilitys to play with if you go stealthy but if you go chaos you have a huge amount of different toys to play with,

Hmm, I'm on the opposite page - I found the high chaos arsenal makes the game too boring for me. It's just too easy - you can literally walk into a room, kill everybody without breaking a sweat and not even worry about an alarm, as there is nobody to trigger one. Events in later levels that stem from having high chaos would also likely help you on multiple occasions (rats distracting and killing guards, for example). I found it much more enjoyable to toy rely more on my own skills, planning and stealth to solve obstacles. But then again, I really enjoy squeezing the most of limited resources in games.

My vote would actually be for a mix of the two playstyles - do not save/load in a level go for a stealthy route - at times it may not pan out, and you may e forced to go for a more violent approach. Then see where that gets you on the chaos scale.

 

[DementedSheep]

Both! Stealthy kill a bunch of people. Off his nut vengeful Corvo is fun.
When I played it I made a game of using the heart on people and killing them if said something particularly bad while avoiding killing people if said something benign or nice, I also killed all officers (which to avoid killing all the other guards requires hit and run sometime which will get you a lot of choas) and all of Duads Assassins where I purposefully left their bodies around as an example. I had a rule that I wasn't allowed to use knock out, it's kill or avoid, and no crossbow kills. If you screw up escape or fight, don't reload.

I think a high chaos ending fits the tone of the rest of the game more than the low chaos one.

Spoiler: Ending quote, spoiler just in case

"Little Emily Kaldwin the First came to power in an age of terror and corruption, and she did her best in a world that is not kind to little girls, or Empresses."

Though I think they played up Emily being a little psychopath too much in the game itself.

 

[Flammablezeus]

Stealth and chaos aren't necessarily different. My second playthrough was high chaos, yet I was still stealthy. However you go through it, I recommend playing without dark vision. I avoided getting it in my second playthrough and found the game much more enjoyable. You actually pay attention to many more details that way, and the game is designed to be able to be played without it (leaning and peeking through keyholes.)

 

[Pickles]

I did stealth the first time as well, but the combat is a lot of fun when you can actually use all your gear so I'd go for chaos.

 

[Pyrian]

You could try butchering most of the guards but sparing the targets. You can still get low chaos that way.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Go chaos. The non lethal rout is kind of lame in that you don't get to use the majority of your toys.

Been a long time since I played, but I didnt like stealth since You get like 5 or 6 relevant abilitys to play with if you go stealthy but if you go chaos you have a huge amount of different toys to play with,

Hmm, I'm on the opposite page - I found the high chaos arsenal makes the game too boring for me. It's just too easy - you can literally walk into a room, kill everybody without breaking a sweat and not even worry about an alarm, as there is nobody to trigger one. Events in later levels that stem from having high chaos would also likely help you on multiple occasions (rats distracting and killing guards, for example). I found it much more enjoyable to toy rely more on my own skills, planning and stealth to solve obstacles. But then again, I really enjoy squeezing the most of limited resources in games.

My vote would actually be for a mix of the two playstyles - do not save/load in a level go for a stealthy route - at times it may not pan out, and you may e forced to go for a more violent approach. Then see where that gets you on the chaos scale.

Yeah it is pretty easy to stomp guards and stuff, but thats if you always deal with them in the same way. I had immense enjoyment from just killing all the guys in different ways, sniping, grenades, stealth kills with that no body left behind perk, Hacking turrets and lightwalls, Fun. I just like to fool around and enjoy power trips in my games a lot of times. Sometimes I go for the challenging hard game, but sometimes I just want to play something easy like Fable or Skyrim or Prototype where I am an unstoppable death machine. So chaos suits me.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I did stealth for my first run but I still think that there's something inherently wrong with a game giving you all these fun weapons and abilities but slapping you across the face with the bad ending if you try to use anything but the non lethal crossbow, chokeouts and bypassing guards entirely. Honestly I was glad that the game gives you a plot reason to stop being good and just go for mad salty revenge halfway through.

I didn't notice this until I got to the bit with the assassins who (I assume) don't really count towards the chaos system because y'know, they're freaking assassins so I got to use my other weapons as well and the level of fun increased significantly. I had too much fun being Indiana Jones to people with stopping a swordfight to just back up, draw a pistol and blow them the fuck away with a single shot. Never gets old.

So yeah, if you can stand the level of Grimdark in the Chaos ending go lethal.

 

[Ronald Nand]

I don't see why you shouldn't do a Chaos run, do it for the new ways to play if not the different story outcomes. I've played the main game and DLC in both pure ghost and total chaos and I can assure you playing Chaos is very fun, my personal favorite tactic was summoning rats to ambush enemies then finishing off the survivors with sword play and my cross bow.

I also suggest doing a no power, ghost run. That means no blink, agility or any other outsider powers, just your own wits and your gadgets. It makes the game quite challenging because its much harder to find a path around enemies, its difficult but definately possible for the main game atleast.

 

[Auron225]

Hm... some good suggestions here. I think I may end up going for a kind of compromise - violent, but still stealthy. If a guard seems like a complete bastard, I'll kill them. If they seem nice, I'll leave them be. I can still try out the other powers and weapons without strolling right through the enemies and making myself known to them before killing them.

Does anyone know if it's possible to not have Emily become a sociopath but still get the "High Chaos" last level? Or do they go hand-in-hand? I do like the sound of the high chaos final level but would kinda rather Emily stay innocent.

 

[step1999]

This is a false dichotomy. IMO violent stealth only using action as a last resort is the funnest way to play, but you framed it as if nonlethal stealth and action were the only 2 options.

 

[Verrik]

I personally prefer Stealth, since, to me, getting through levels unseen is more challenging. Chaos, while I enjoyed, seemed easier over all, I guess because I never found the combat challenging. Just go in, kill some bitches, and call it a day. However, if you've already played the game in Stealth mode, might as well play Chaos the second time. I mean, if you're gonna play the game again, no need to play it the exact same way.

 

[happyninja42]

Yeah, I prefer stealth. I did the high chaos route, and went for the Piped Piper of Fuck You, and basically killed everyone, everyone I killed, with Rat Swarm. It was pretty damn amusing, but it wasn't a very enjoyable playthrough. All I did was make everything worse, and the ending sucked, and I felt bad for killing everyone. Overall I just didn't enjoy it one bit.

I would recommend you go for the "Mostly Flesh and Steel" playthrough of the game. That was in fact, the easiest and shortest playthrough I ever had of Dishonored. Because there is basically zero reason to go explore the side stuff. No real reason to do sidemissions, and no reason to go poking your nose in every corner looking for runes or bone charms. Just go for the objective and leave. It's amazing how easy it is to avoid detection doing Flesh and Steel, since you aren't risking detection in as many environments. Just head for the goal and boom, you're done.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

I do love the feeling of the last level when it's high chaos. The tower feels so much more appropriate in a storm.

 

[WolfThomas]

This is a false dichotomy. IMO violent stealth only using action as a last resort is the funnest way to play, but you framed it as if nonlethal stealth and action were the only 2 options.

This I played "good" and stealthily. But I still had bursts of ultra violence when I had to or I thought it was appropriate. The last level for example. I'd earned the good ending, so I didn't have to do it cleanly. I raced to objective cutting down any guard who got in the way but not going out of my way to kill them. I felt it really captured a desperate Corvo.