Like another poster, I merely registered to voice some "not so agreeable" aspects. I am a MASSIVE Thief-fan and my hopes about Dishonored were probably way too high. This post is merely meant as constructive critique, I'm not bitter nor disappointed, I just uninstalled it and all is good. As for the money: well, I pay a multitude of what the game cost when I hang out an evening with my buddies ... for a fraction of the entertainment time; no harm done here neither. It's also my first and only post here, so do not hope for vivid discussion from my side and just skip reading all that banter down there ... just a final verdict, that's all

So what's the fail-buzz all about then?

1st and foremost: spawning
Let's set the Assassins aside, but when I ooze stealthy through a brothel, taking out all persons and enemies in a non-lethal way, even hiding them from the rats, then I'm kinda disappointed when further enemies spawn into the scene willy-nilly. Spawning, IMHO, is the most boring way of adding to a game's difficulty and it is a testimony to bad or immature level design.
In fact, when I sneaked up to 3rd floor in the Golden Cat and 5 yards behind me, on the stair itself, 2 guards materialized ...it was just lampshade time. This is where I quit Dishonored and flushed it from the harddrive, knowing that it would go on like this in further levels and only become worse.

A game doesn't become harder by merely having foes spawned like mushrooms. This is a cheap and uninspired way of increasing difficulty, it is boring and only serves the CounterStrikers amongst the "thieves". it becomes harder when you have to accomplish a task and you are only allowed a subset of equipment, powers, ammo or upgrades or applying mission-relevant restrictions (limited time is also possible, but that's the only thing I hate even more than spawning. Yes, I mean you, Splinter Cell *spit*

2nd: Textures
I know, this is the day and age of consoles, but honestly: these textures? really? I can live with the graphic style very well, I also find the world excellently modeled and designed ... but these textures? REALLY?

3rd: Console on a PC
In case a developer drops in, let me ask a (rhetorical) question: Can I have a bit of that stuff you were smoking when you tied the KBD-shortcuts to the save-games? Haven't had weed with that impact in a looooong time Yeah, I know, gazillions of other gamers will rush in now and praise the flexibility of such a system. Well, good for you then.

Talking of save-games: has that been going through testing at all? has nobody mentioned that the save-game labels show a datetime that has nothing to do with the actual content of the save? Not going to mention the save-slot-system which is an artefact of the kiddie-console-gamer age we are witnessing.

4th: Turbo boosted enemies upon detection
Get detected by a single guard and a second later a whole bunch comes for you like homing missiles. No line of sight but they still know where I am, the lucky chaps don't even have to look left or right: dashing through the door, turning your direction and shooting at you is one. A bit boring if you ask me.

5th: lethal vs. non-lethal gameplay / Chaos
I don't quite get the concept behind this mumbo-jumbo. It makes the game appear neither fish nor flesh to me. So am I supposed to sneak? Then why am I forced into fights?

From out of the game-universe this approach has ruined all the immersion that built up during the first mission. From rescuing Emily on I knew that I will not be able to play this game like I want to play it. The developers force their idea of "broad masses"-attraction onto me and this doesn't let me connect with the game any longer.

6th: Avatar massively overpowered ... and yet massively underpowered
10 bolts of each kind? Numerous bullets? Grenade galore and shrapnel mines? Teleportation, time bending, upgrades to no end and then some runes and bones? Is this the "SALE-SALE-SALE, Everything Must Go"-call of a game that is a bastard-kid of SystemShock, Thief, Max Payne, Assassins Creed, Witcher, SplinterCell and whatnot?

That is on one side of the game-balance scale: a multitude of (more or less useless) powers and equipment. And on the other side is just this weird "Chaos"-theory that tries to make me use that stuff cautiously.

Then again: once discovered it goes *snip-snap*boom*clang*arf*arf*zonc* ... and you are dead. Again, hold your horses, I know, I am "too dumb to play it right", and all the other stuff we find in forums, whenever critique hits the emotional world of teenies and the games they love (this week). Actually, I don't play it at all then

It's like running for a subway train: you either do that or you keep your cools. I for my part will not be forced by game-designers to a specific kind of gameplay. In decades of playing games I have always found that the "Quit"-button is a more than welcome exit strategy in case of attempted "gameplay duress".

Well, that's long enough for a rant. I wish the dev-team all the success in their future endeavours and as it goes for Dishonored: it was certainly worth the try developing this. But Thief is Thief and Thief is King; unique in gameplay and its whole universe. Dishonored doesn't even make "Heir to the throne", let alone "Princess".

The fact that Dishonored got all that overwhelmingly positive reception shows two things:
a: if you've got the coin, game magazines "love" every game
b: when the sun of well balanced, immersive, top-notch-produced (these textures? REALLY?) and mature games is low, even dwarfs throw long shadows.

And sadly, due to "a" and "b", I am totally and positively convinced that Eidos will totally f*** up Thief IV ... and ppl will LURRVEE it!

greetz, y'all & enjoy this game
excuse typos and errors, not my native language

Sorry you don't enjoy the game as much as I am. I didn't feel the game was forcing me into a specific playstyle at all, really. I'm on my second run through of the game now, and I'm playing an entirely different way than I did the first time that's still thoroughly enjoyable. I have strategies thought up for future runs as well. I thought the graphics were great and the world was very immersive as well.

All that being said, I've sadly never played Thief yet. Dishonored is my first venture into stealth games of this type and I'm loving it more than almost anything I've played on this generation of consoles.

I just finished playing the game after a long weekend with it from start to finish and, in my opinion, it was nearing perfection - a masterpiece that easily deserves the "Game of the Year" award. I loved Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but hated how critical decisions such as killing bosses were made for you and effectively there was only an illusion of choice rather than actual choice. The ending was also extremely basic and decided by simply pressing a button and there was no real consequence to whether you killed every living soul you spotted or left not a hair out of place on anybody. Dishonored realises that with its chaos system and that is why I love it along with its open-ended gameplay.

1. I don't know what version of the game you were playing on or whether you have downloaded any updates available for the game on said platform of your choice, but I personally never experienced any issues with spawning issues. I found that once I entered an area and disposed of any guards, they were gone and no more would just pop out of thin air. Occasionally it did seem to bug out though in that one guy spotting me for a millisecond resulted in the entirety of the guards on the map being alerted to me despite no alarm being raised.


2. The textures were, admittedly, a little low on quality. However, I think that the "washed-out" style of the art rendered this problem irrelevant. Textures did pop in though when I reloaded saves, so I think I can agree with you here. But, in my honest opinion, graphics aren't important in the slightest. It wasn't unplayable and certain levels looked absolutely beautiful. Quit complaining!


3. I am not sure what you mean here. What is wrong with simply having save slots? Care to reiterate a bit better on my behalf?


4. When a guard discovers you, they actually shout out believe it or not. The same happens when they get attacked by rats and stuff like that. If someone was shouting, it is only normal that the guards go check it out and subsequently find you.

If you are prepared to write off a game on only its 2nd mission proper then I'm sorry but I can't take your criticism seriously. Dishonored is a slow burner and rightly so,well paced and expertly designed. Textures are an issue on Xbox but on PS3 it looks fab. And as the poster above already pointed out graphics arent the be all and end all of what makes a game great anyway.