Dishonored - Definitive Edition

If you are looking for decent stealth and robbery gameplay, this is a pretty good iteration on the genre, though only if you are going for stealth. The story is pretty good, and the dialogue and detail you can miss is great (even heartrending at times). The atmosphere and acting is perfect. Ultimately this is a tale of how a loyal bodyguard and an innocent girl who may as well be his daughter are used and discarded by power-hungry people while an empire's people suffer amid their squabbles. Trying to avoid having to kill everyone is an interesting challenge, though. Unlike Thief, you could easily kill anyone in sight if you wanted to, but doing so will make the game a bit harder and lead to worse outcomes. My first playthrough I went all in for a non-lethal run, and I failed a lot and needed to save-scum at times, but it wouldn't be nearly as tough or long if you could allow for a few fatalities. The supernatural powers make everything much easier (almost too easy), but there's no incentive to limit their use in the game. I give 5 stars because I think it does almost everything it tries to do with great quality, but it's not the best game of this type if you want something where the player is limited more in ability and has to be stealthy out of necessity.

I'd heard a lot about this series over the years, yet never bothered actually exploring them at all until around late 2024. I must've either bought this on sale eons ago or gotten it for free from Amazon Prime, but either way, this game is a certified classic. The story, writing, characters, worldbuilding, lore, atmosphere -- it's all top-notch and masterfully executed here. The player is given a relatively high degree of autonomy in tackling the missions in a myriad of ways to progress forward. Exploration is actually usually rewarded with new lore, intelligence about enemy/NPC/group/etc movements/activities/musings, or gear, items, and esoteric charms that act as player ability upgrades similar to Deus Ex. Level design is consistently excellent, and the maps are both large and filled with detail rather than being sparse and copy-paste. The player can make numerous moralistic decisions throughout the game, and thankfully the players' intelligence isn't insulted much with how these systems usually turn out, where it's just some generic, naive binary system with little-to-no nuance involved. Of particular note is a certain item that allows you to gain personal insights about the majority of characters in the game, including the various 'random' NPCs throughout the levels. It is rare that a story and its world & characters grips me as tightly as this game did. I hadn't felt anything to that degree since the days of Mass Effect 1~3 in the early 2010s. Who knew a bespoke alternate industrial revolution-era world where the entire economy runs on whale oil could be so entrancing? The main game has a decent length, but this release bundles the DLC with it too, and you get even more gameplay features added with arguably better characterization and more cohesiveness in general with the whole thing. The only blemish I experienced was an annoying bug concerning a certain ability that required alt-tabbing to fix, which was annoying. A+ video game.

In the tradition of immersive sim games, Dishonored is all about dropping you in wide open-ended levels and letting you reach your objectives by going nuts with a bunch of tools and powers… and it’s not just good at it, it’s one of the best in the genre. Making your way through the city of Dunwall feels excellent due to the fantastic multi-layered level design, the high mobility given to your character (he can parkour AND teleport!), and the high variety of weapons, powers and items that allow you to bypass obstacles and subdue foes in all manners of creative and satisfying ways. For each problem you encounter, every solution you can think of, whether brutal or subtle, simple or twisted, is a valid one! Dishonored ends up being a blast to play throughout. The only issues are that hand-to-hand combat feels a bit clumsy (which is not surprising since it's meant to be avoided)... and of course, that the gameplay is a lot less diverse and open-ended if you play as a pacifist, which is pretty much necessary to unlock the best ending. Fortunately, the included DLCs partially fix this problem by adding more non-lethal options to the arsenal of their protagonist, the assassin Daud. All of this is complemented by solid storytelling and art direction. The plot isn't that remarkable in itself but it provides good justifications for the gameplay, and the fictional world it’s set in has its own detailed lore and a lot of very interesting locations to explore. Similarly, the graphics are not particularly impressive for 2012, but it’s still definitely a nice-looking game with its own unique aesthetics and atmosphere. In the end, Dishonored really satisfies the urge to incarnate a badass skull-faced assassin who kills dudes by teleporting behind them and ramming a blade through their necks - an urge all of us normal people feel, right? It is a fantastic game made by a very competent team, and the first entry in a great franchise that deserves to be expanded and recognized.

Dishonred is one of those games that comes around really rarely, its grim plague ridden world has enchanted many eyes world over and it made quite the splash with its extensive routes to each objective. Corvo and his posse have much to offer to fans of the stealth/action genre more so than one may think. Gameplay So to get started, you have three key objectives, its always to hunt a specific target, complete optional quests between and lastly decide on which approach you will be taking to acheive this goal. The many suits of powers and gear given to Corvo ensures that folks who love stealth can use it with great success and the fighters among us can whip out the guns and go to town without feeling left out. The best way is sometimes a mix of both depending on the situation. The Games emphasis on exploration and "immersive sim" qualities is very fun to mess about with, especially early game when you are not as strong as you could be. The Moral choice aspect is however not too special, basically the be evil / be good idea. not too deep but it does change how you interact with certain targets. Killing is always easier however. The game always has a little inter-level section back at the hound pits pub, you can talk to folks, explore the hub to find collectibles, of which there is many strewn about the levels and i had myself going a LONG way off the main goal to get the powerups. For all the graphics obsessed PC players i can say this game is quite beautiful and aged really nicely due to the adequite amount of stylization, models look distinct and not low res as certain ones from the time might. The UI is not obtrusive and also carries a distinct "edge" to how its displayed. I love especially how you can see how much Extra health you have by the broken nature of the health guage. This review has barely scratched the surface of what it means to play this game but i can assure you give it a go you will love it, The DLC included also i think is worth your time.

TL;DR the game is great and offers many possibilities. Challenges are possible. PC version is superior. Loading a quicksave is needed and loading times on PS3 at least is already bad. Better than Half Life 2. (only tried PS3 version for CRT TV but man PC version runs 4:3 so well. No bugs.) I have played it on 360 then PC and now on PS3 (which is bad or strange due to L1/R1 being swapped with L2/R2. The game is a breeze to play on any difficulty. Depending on which one you choose you will probably be forced to play more like Corvo instead of turning every rock around. Even when the game is meant to be played with overpowered spells. I rather prefer Thief games. D1 also needs questmarkers sadly, cause the game don't offering any informations in letters, clues or other buy-able / fíndable items. Dishonoured has so many ways to be played without forcing the player to play a certain way. You can ruin the city or save it, without spoiling anything. You can go the front entrance or alternative way. The game is superior to the second game because it gives freedom. If a "no-kill run" is desired, it will be possible. In the 2nd game directly after returning to the home country, you get forced to use one out of two paths which result in breaking the game with "blinking" to avoid the insane number of NPCs. Dishonoured 1 & 2 lack room-awareness. Walls do not block sound. If you jump enemies will hear it above, behind and next to you in a certain radius. D1 really nailed it with the design. You as Corvo have traveled the seas to find a cure for the plague but no one wants to help and actually closed all paths including destroyed bridges to your city. You might know the streets but travelling made Corvo a newcomer to Dunwall, same as the player. Controlls are great. Leaning is natural, stealth is like Deus Ex1. Runs at 4k and 4:3 1920x1440p. Only bad thing is it is max 60FPS or lights flicker.