Zero Punctuation: Dishonored

[LobsterFeng]

Gonna have to agree with Yahtzee here. This game is good, but it left me disappointed. It really is missing something.

Also that Ben Kenobi analogy is the best one in a while.

 

[Mortamus]

I think the game kind of dropped the ball when they didn't really open up more to characters or the world around you. You just kinda have to accept it all and keep going rather than ask any kind of questions about the world or it's inhabitants. I want to immerse myself in a game and it's world, not just fall face first into it and no one explain it.

 

[WanderingFool]

I rather have a silent protagonist that someone who never shuts up, I always end up hating about 80% of voiced protagonists.

Than its suffice to say that people have differing opinions. 80% of all silent protagonists bore me. Even worse are the silent protagonists that everyone keeps talking to like they are actually talking back, its like im missing out on half the conversation.

OT: I agree with everything Yahtzee said, enjoyed Dishonored, but Jebus was it short. At that specific turning point, I though I had another several missions to go, but now, you only had 1 mission left and than it was over.

 

[puff ball]

for me i got the distinct feeling that they didn't go into thinking they would have multiple endings but only decided to add them to justify using nonlethal take downs when the lethal ones are far more varied, useful, and fun. but hey i havent finished it yet what do i know.

 

[shadowmagus]

Couple of things I want to point out, having beaten the game on a "good ending" and working on a "bad ending" playthrough.

1) Going back to the hideout did break the pacing pretty regularly. While I found enjoyment in going back after the Golden Cat mission, and I actually liked talking to the people and getting their reactions to my previous mission, sometimes it really did break the flow.

2) I like the "chaos level" mechanic because of what it did with the world. "Murder a lot of people? More guards and obstacles!" It would have really dodged the binary morale choice BS bullet if they had just changed the way the ending was handled. That said, I like how the world changes when you play it on a high chaos.

3) This is a good IP that I think needs a chance to develop and mature. I'd like to see another game that breaks away from the one city and expand on the world that I read about in all the books and notes scattered throughout the game. I'm really hoping to see some DLC that expands on the city itself right now.

 

[cricket chirps]

Dear Mr. Croshaw,

I would really appreciate a written article about Dishonored from your perspective. I love how indepth and different your views are on some things in your articles and i would really enjoy reading of that level about dishonored/the things it could have done better to really stick out.

You always have crazy good ideas i end up agreeing with. Hopefully not because im a subconciously well trained fan, but because i genuinly think the same in regard to games.

Sincerely, a probably well trained/hypnotized/mind-controled fan.

 

[lead sharp]

Loved the hell out of this. I enjoyed the lack of speech, I get sick of having a game force a personality onto a choice I want to make for reasons of my own. For example, there's a bit (Spoilers?) were you brand an overseer instead of killing him, thus causing him to be exiled and dishonoured (geddit?) and I actually thought this was harsher than just killing him. So I imagined myself all gritted teeth and evil sneer when branding and cold and quick when slitting his throat and somewhat a wuss when poisoning him. But in other games you'de get a line of dialogue saying something like 'I couldn't kill him, but at least this way he's gone' steering your emotions rather than letting you have some of your own.

I didn't find the characters all that robotic either, none of them where a barrel of laughs but I suppose being threatened by plague, zombies, combine rip offs, The Outsider and so on you wouldn't have much to giggle about.

It is a short (ish) game but with all the replay value I've found in it and the short loading times I've not been irritated by it like I can get with something like Skyrim that has you spend five minutes looking at a horse just to walk through a door.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Wait wait wait... a Bethesda game with bland, boring, generic, stereotypical characters?!?

ALERT THE PRESS!

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Yeah, the game has a lot of superficial elements because of which I should like it, and the combat with blinking can be pretty fluid and fun, but it seems rather hollow for some reason. I enjoy myself much more just playing Thief/BioShock/Half-Life separately. And maybe add a hint of Prototype to that mix, because the others don't have that fluid combat.

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Wait wait wait... a Bethesda game with bland, boring, generic, stereotypical characters?!?

ALERT THE PRESS!

Bethesda is the publisher, Arkane Studios orwhatstheirname were the devs. The characters aren't exactly stereotypes either, just boring.

 

[AwesomeDave]

I wanted to love this game so much... I made it a nice dinner which we ate by candlelight, scattered rose petals in its bath and on the bed, we get under the covers and BAM!!!!! It sodomized me with even the thought of using lube. This game isn't the worst ever, but it's so mediocre i would almost rather it be bad, then it might stand out in my mind. The stealth was cool for about 20 minutes, then it got boring when i realized that nothing mattered in stealth except being behind a box and waiting for an enemy to turn around. Combine that with clunky controls and about 15hrs of gameplay, and you get a game that you are better off waiting for a GotY edition to buy. Way to get my hopes up and crush them again, Bethesda. =/

Captcha: ship-shape "The ship is in ship-shape shape." Joe in Some Like it Hot

 

[karamazovnew]

I like the game. It has solid design and it offers a lot of freedom. Yes, you could play "good" but it gets boring quite fast. What I suggest is that you download a trainer and give yourself infinite runes and mana.... then set the whole world on fire. It becomes one of the most inventive slaughter games I've ever seen.

 

[wolf thing]

i thought the game was great, it had a good setting, great game play and fairly good writting and voice acting. it has it problems, like the story is alittle dull because it doesnt take its time at the begging to set up a relationship with the empress daughter and has a week ending. the characters were alittle flat and you never get to see enough of the city outside of the infected area so you never really get sense of what is at stake and what has been lost. but i still really liked the game, and would recomned it to anyone. It would be great to have a sequal to exspand onb everything and flush out all the problem but sadly that never going to happen, because the deves wont to look good and difrent to other deve, but not truly understanding what sequal mean in the game industry. such a damn same.

 

[MrDrProf]

ya know as I played through the game I kept having the nagging feeling that I wasn't having as much fun as I should have, and it took me a bit to figure out why. It was the stupid "moral choice" thing that kept the nagging feeling that I shouldn't kill all those guards, because the game would resent me for it. that and the fact that I'm a completionist and have to find everything I can find so I spend more time faffing about looking for coins than actually killing/not killing people. but having to find the combinations to safes was kinda fun

 

[Paranoah]

The only silent protagonist i could connect to was freeman on the other hand i think its good that you can decide whoever you want to be i would have prefered talk options to be a dick though

 

[In Search of Username]

You were expecting personality in a game published by Bethesda? Come on, now.

I do have to say that I agree and am being quite verbose in doing so to avoid another terrifying run-in with the mods. Albeit, Fallout 3 and NV at least had one or two characters I could kind of remember...if I concentrate very hard...okay, I give up, the only one I can think of is Moira Brown, and that's one out of how many characters populating two separate wastelands?
Bethesda and Bioware/Obsidian/both of the aforementioned should team up sometime...

I'd say the setting in Fallout kind of had personality, but not the characters. The only Bethesda games I've really enjoyed, anyway.

 

[Blueruler182]

I agree with the silent protagonist thing, but it's INCREDIBLY satisfying to go up to a heavily fortified area and reprogram one of their giant rocket turrets to attack the guards and just watch. Dear jebus was that fun.

Plus I got to act like Corvo was Dr. Doom.

 

[demented]

I don't mind a moral choice system in a game, but when it offers you two paths and then scolds you for taking one, it becomes a problem. I hate when games force their morality on me.

Red Dead Redemption is one of the biggest offenders of this. It gave me a choice and I chose to be a dick. It then punished me for the rest of the game because of my decision.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I tend to assume that the protagonist's dialogue is always implied when you have a silent protagonist with dialogue options. IE, your "silent" protagonist does actually speak when you select a dialogue option, you just don't hear it because it'd be redundant. So instead you just hear the NPC's reaction to it.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I actually commented on the whole silent protagonist thing on my own Let's Play. As much as I'm enjoying the game otherwise, that whole part felt absolutely contrived-

Spoiler

-the loyal bodyguard, well-known to many, immediately believed to be a traitor by almost everyone? Magic isn't an unknown thing in this setting; the idea of teleporting assassins might seem implausible, but people would believe Corvo somehow murdered the Empress and spirited her daughter away within the space of a minute and yet let himself be caught? Come on.