Zero Punctuation: Dishonored

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IamLEAM1983

Neloth's got swag.
Aug 22, 2011
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Yeah, that pretty much defines what I've been getting out of the game, too.

IGN, Gametrailers et al.: "FUUUUU, NERDGASM, THIS GAME SO GUUUUUD! BAI NAO! BAINAOBAINAOBAINAO!"

Me: *buys into the hype, purchases it, plays for half an hour, goes "Meh", turns the game off*

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Muddy Textures Galore. No, GT, that's not a "painterly" look, that's the "Oh, shit, the milestone's getting close and we're not done!" art school. A painterly look does not necessarily excuse low-res textures, and Dishonoured is chock-full of badly conceived visual work.

Oh, the design's there, the imagination's there - but Victor Antonov dropped the ball in terms of reviewing texture quality. This is 2012, Arkane. I don't want to feel like I'm playing a fancypants Half-Life 2 mod with first-retail-year-quality textures.

And I spell "Dishonoured" with a U because I'm Canadian. Chyeah.
 

Jared Hansen

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Apr 11, 2012
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Personally I don't think people would complain about the moral choice system if the game didn't tell you about it. In-universe it's perfectly logical - more dead bodies means more rats and more plague, and more dead guards and dead nobles means that the watch use more and more resources to bring you down. It fits in with the theme of the game - death begets more death.

Also, it's nowhere near as harsh as people suspect. I got the good ending, but I absolutely went to town on the Whaler Assassins Guild. I killed 20 dudes in that mission, because I felt they deserved to bloody die. In fact, I just played through the game how I would in that scenario and I was happy with how it turned out.

I disagree with the characters as well - I thought they were reasonably rounded. It's just with no dialogue choices you don't learn much about them face-to-face - listen to their audio recordings and read their letters and diaries to get the interesting stuff. That said, Hiram Burrows has to be the most astonishingly under-written villain of all time.

It IS pretty short, though. That and the lack of creative options for not-killing guards are the two fairly big bugbears of the game. Piero couldn't give me some knockout gas? A net? A fucking club?
 

DarkhoIlow

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Dec 31, 2009
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Hm,I didn't expect this game to be disappointing for him.Could of saw that coming,but I'm here for the entertainement not his "reviews" anyway.

With that said,I already played it two times and enjoyed both play styles.It was very satisfying going the "high chaos" path after trying to finish it on a "low chaos" rating.
 

Plate-Rogue812

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Mar 6, 2012
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One of the things I notice while reading through the postings about this review is that a lot of people still seem to be missing the point of Croshaw's videos. His reviews never come with a score because he prefers to nitpick at areas of the game he subjectively found lacking in his own play through and then lets people make their own decision about whether to buy the game or not. Many negative or ambivalent forum posts appear to be from people who had their opinions of the game after playing it altered by watching the review. If you liked it, stick to your guns and don't be ashamed to play a game because of the reception it receives.
On the subject of the comparison to Thief II, I don't really think the argument holds up under scrutiny. For all of its free moving assassination bollocks Dishonored is a very linear game, which is good. The linearity sets it apart from the Thief series and gives it one major leg up if you really must measure one against the other: Focus. In Dishonored you have a very clear focus, you know your target's face and you have a good idea of your endgame. Thief II always seemed to drag on a bit, not due to how methodical you had to be to set up knockouts and kills, but because the whole experience had a sense of aimlessness to it. I frequently picked over every inch of a building in Thief II and got lost at least once before I managed to bump into an objective. The stealth aspect of Dishonored is in some ways equal to Thief, though it does exchange some aspects for others. Enemies have narrow cones of vision and rarely look upwards, but have a more realistic ability to see in the dark and through shadows. To make up for this Dishonored has a better system of movement which allows climbing, sliding, and blinking in a way that cleverly follows Yahtzee's prescription for successful first person platforming.
 

Erttheking

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Oct 5, 2011
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Is it just me or does the overall opinion of a game on this website seem to drop after Yahtzee reviews it.
 

Katya Topolkaraeva

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Dec 9, 2010
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Kinda felt like you were reaching a bit on some of those criticisms frankly. The random guards and such say some rather nice things and are def. not cardboard cut out evil. The heading back to home base was also a lot less annoying then it is in many games and I thought it was done rather well (flow wise). You could, you know, compliment a game sometimes... just a little. crazy thought i know.
 

Aptspire

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Mar 13, 2008
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Dishonored ad before dishonored review? I'm okay with this :D
OT: I liked this game, because it has been a while since we've had a game like this :)
 

marcapasso

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Nov 3, 2011
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I don't really understand what people are criticizing about this game.
I love it.
I tried to follow the "good ending" path killing minimal number of persons(i only killed persons that the heart make me feel that they are bad) until the part off the assassins when i unleashed my wrath and killed everyone on that level using every single power i had and even so i got the good ending.
But sincerely he didn't talk about the heart? Love that "gadget" that tell you the characters inner personality and thoughts. Make you fell more that dishonored is really set on a corrupted and sad world.
 

marcapasso

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Nov 3, 2011
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Jared Hansen said:
Personally I don't think people would complain about the moral choice system if the game didn't tell you about it. In-universe it's perfectly logical - more dead bodies means more rats and more plague, and more dead guards and dead nobles means that the watch use more and more resources to bring you down. It fits in with the theme of the game - death begets more death.
I agree completely with you, people expected to kill every single character and get a good ending? Deaths bring only bad things not goods ones.
 

Darth_Payn

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Aug 5, 2009
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Yahtzee, I'm surprised you didn't try to compare DisHONOURED (there, happy?) to Assassin's Creed! They both have the runny-jumpy-climby-stabby-in-an-open-world fun you like, especially since A'sC III ads replaced Dishonoured's before the videos (and thank Christ for that!) . But you convinced me to stick to that series becauseI can't wrap my head around a silent protagonist and amoral choice system in THE SAME GAME. While guys like Altair, Ezio, Desmond, and now Connor are relative chatterboxes, the stuff they say reveals their intentions and character in context of the world around them. They may start out taking orders from someone else, but they don't quietly obey all the time; sometimes they raise a big stink out of it.
If a game must have multiple endings based on player choices, at least have the player's character talk, because the events of the game's story is affected by the player's thoughts AND actions. Most recent good example is Deus Ex:Human Revolution, where you can make Adam sound sarcastic and hilarious when talking to sidequest NPC's. Interestingly, that game prefers you to sneak around enemies or just knock them out by giving you more XP, but you're not penalized harshly for killing. And yes, I remember that
you literally choose the game's ending by pushing one of 4 buttons in the last room after the final boss.
But it's still better executed than how you guys described Dishonored.
 

ThunderCavalier

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Nov 21, 2009
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I'm a bit concerned now. I hadn't picked up Dishonored yet, but the fact that people are ALREADY complaining about the ending either shows people have no life, people play through games like these way too fast, or this game is not very long.

A shame, too, because Dishonored looked like a kickass game. I might still pick it up, since I'm a sucker for most Bethesda games, but I'm not so hyped about it now after hearing Yahtzee basically spoil the whole moral ending thing.

... I mean seriously, guys? You're an assassin with magical-uber powers. Do you expect us NOT to kill someone?
 

JC123

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Apr 10, 2008
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With the comments about "Bleep bloop" NPC voicing and "Hiring Patrick Stewart to read your homework" I have to wonder if Yahtzee is aware of the voice talent [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2322244/] in this game.
 

Murmillos

Silly Deerthing
Feb 13, 2011
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The morality of Dishonored .. is well, if you kill nearly every damn guard in the game, you are going to get an evil ending. If you kill only 1-4 guys a mission, including the target, you are still going to get the good ending.

Its not like, kill one guy and you get the "evil mass murder ending"... the morality expects and even allows you for a few kills; but if you go on a slaughter fest on every rank and file minion, what the hell did you expect. Rainbows and kittens?
 

FallenMessiah88

So fucking thrilled to be here!
Jan 8, 2010
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I think I'll try this game just for the art style. I don't know why I'm so willing to forgive a game for all it's faults if the art style is good. That's just how I roll I guess.
 

dystopiaINC

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Aug 13, 2010
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BrionJames said:
The morality thing did kind of irritate me. When the trailers first popped up on the internet, it shows all kind of stabby fun. Then the game came out and told me that it was "dark" for me to kill anyone. Fuck that, I understand that they were trying to point out the dangers of wrath and vengeance, but wasn't that what the game's premise is based on. Plus, by not having Corvo talk, we don't know if he actually wants revenge or is just some Jason Vorhees psychopath who lost his mind after his lover was killed in front of him. I did like this game, but it definitely needs some work. For now I guess I'll just have to stick with some good 'old fashioned Metal Gear Solid for my stealth needs.
Lol not only did his lover get murdered in front of him,
the worlds version of god gave him Her heart Magically animated with her soul trapped inside.

Wow just wow. still I loved the game probably because i had no prior expectations about it and i just rented it for a few days. went the stabby fun route and it wasn't even a terrible ending.

I Loved running straight through the level, only blinking around and hiding to recover when the heat got to bad. still nothing was more fun than having my cover blown and running for the target with several guards in hot pursuit only blinking when a guard showed up in front of me, i would blink to him and kill him real quick and keep running, hit my target fast and hard then turn around and slow time it up and kill my pursuers. brutal fast and fun. loved it.
 

Vigormortis

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Nov 21, 2007
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thisbymaster said:
The environment gave me a Half-life 2 feel.
That's likely because much of the games environments and art-assets were done by Viktor Antonov. One of the key art-leads and visual designers on Half Life 2.
 

Barciad

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Apr 23, 2008
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Could we have a still of the 'Noam Chomsky' bit?
I would like to get that as my desktop wallpaper.
 

Blood Brain Barrier

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Nov 21, 2011
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It amazes me you all need Yahtzee to tell you this game sucks. Prior threads about Dishonored were unmitigated fawning admiration, and only now some criticism finally comes out.
 

Nazulu

They will not take our Fluids
Jun 5, 2008
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OuendanCyrus said:
I rather have a silent protagonist than someone who never shuts up, I always end up hating about 80% of voiced protagonists.
Damn, I didn't expect to be ninja'd. Most of the time I just find characters have poor dialogues, or average, but then it doesn't make that much of a difference.

I guess it depends on what type of game you put the silent protaginist in though. Yahzee made a good point that it works against them when they could solve issues faster by talking.