I love the game but the story, it's pacing and the relatively scarce amount of missions is what keeps it from getting a ten out of ten.

The world is beautiful and well thought out. It's one of these games were I just want to explore every corner for every bit of information about the world.

To bad we don't get to know that much about Corvo, the empress, Emily or any character at all actually. I would have appreciated a little more time with the characters the game wants us to care about. It all happens so fast and the moments the game wants you to care about fall flat on their face because we never got to really know the characters that are involved .That's pretty much my only gripe with the game.

Do any of you share my opinion? Or am I talking out of my buttocks?

Yeah, I'd say that's a fair criticism.

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I agree, but at the same time, the game isn't really about the characters, it's about the world. Emily's drawings affected me more than anything else did, because she was reflecting what I was doing to the world in my playthrough. This is Half-life, not Mass Effect.

While I agree that some of those atmosphere building moments gave the world character (such as some of the chance encounters that happen when you break into random apartments).

But that doesn't excuse some pretty weak story telling. I felt that the game really could've used a longer 'prologue' before the Empress gets killed. I get that they wanted to jump into the action and not let you get bored, but she gets killed less than 5 minutes into the game. I would've been cool if you had to watch over her as she gave a speech to the people, or something. Just something that gave you a better feeling of who you are, and who the Empress is as this goodly ruler before it all goes to hell. If they had something like that then I think the assassination scene would have been more impactful.

Yeah, I agree. With a limited budget, you have to pick what you want to emphasise because you just don't have the resources for iteration, so they emphasised gameplay and world over character and story. I'm happy with that compromise. Those things aren't its focus, so if they suffer, they don't ruin the game.

I agree, same thing happened to me basically.

I'm on the fence. While the story and character development is sparse, it kind of works for me. On one level, I am left to fill in the blanks how I see fit but on other levels, the game does a decent job of showing us relationships. Like the bond between Corvo and Emily - I don't need my imagination to know that it's close. On another level, this game is made easy to replay because it's short. I don't have to deal with an extended prologue or tons of dialog or cut scenes to get through it for the seventh time when I already know each line from all the scenes.

But here and there I find myself wanting more. More story. More character development. More missions. Just... more.

It's a good thing to want more. It means the game is a good enough that we want to experience more of it.

I have to say, Corvo is not a character. He is an avatar to allow the player to project himself into the game world. You can't really get to know him, because there is nothing to know. But I admit that the fact that he has a fixed name invokes the feeling he was a character...if we could choose his first name (like Shepard's in Mass Effect), it would have helped tremendously...

I'd argue that it's not so much about the player expressing themselves onto Corvo (though that opportunity is available) but allowing the player to express Corvo's personality through his actions. You can get a pretty good idea of your Covo is based on how he handles certain situations that pop up in gameplay.

There is a tiny little bit to know. Where he comes from, for one (you hear about his land of birth, and there's a book about the place). And a couple tiny little details about his role. For the rest... you're right. Corvo is a shell. But some folks (me included) are okay with that because they want to fill that shell instead of having it filled for us by the developer. I think the idea was that you the player would be doing exactly what you said: projecting yourself into Corvo. Also, defining him by his actions.

I wouldn't mind more story about Corvo... but at this point I've already got him pretty well figured in my head just from having played through several times.

It feels a little bit like a misted opportunity to me. The world of Dishonored is great and it's characters are part of it. All of Corvo's actions and moments could have been so much more if they would have given me more time to know the empress and Emily. All those ''emotional'' scenes and actions could have packed a punch but the characters are no reason to give a rats ass.

Never the less I will be starting my third play through soon.

I feel as it's good story wise but it could be better. But I still enjoy it.

I was expecting a terrible story, from people's reactions to it. It's decent. It has moments of brilliance, too, if you pay attention to the lore, books, characters.

When I first fired it up to play it, my reaction in many ways was that it had "value game" written all over it. The oft times shoddy voice acting, blandly textured and colored world, and somewhat simplistic dialog leave much to be desired. It DOES increasingly pull you in with it's art design and many navigational routes, but is that and the ability to get a different ending with non lethal tactics really enough to offer substantial replay value?

While I don't like games with tons of simple and easy to complete missions, I feel this one could have been given more missions. I can take or leave abundant story and character details. Those are things that once you know them, there's nothing new in following play throughs. The appeal of the way they're written, is a matter of personal opinion too.

In short, it takes more than a game with an intriguing steampunk world with alluring art design to keep most interested long term. The multiple pathways are fun, but I also encountered some frustrations. It gets you thinking you can go almost anywhere you want, but many places that look to be accessible aren't.

I had one encounter when near leaving the area with the elevated train track and 3 tallboys that was maddening. There's a way to get into certain locked doors in the tenement buildings on the right, but in an entryway of one room there's a hole in the ceiling with breakable boards. I broke all the boards but couldn't manage to get up there with Blink.

I feel they could've have fleshed out the in-game dialogue a bit between the guards and other characters. The problem with the actual plot is that it seems almost separate from the missions; one being told in the open-world sense and the other being listening to various characters talking in a single room. It would have given us as the player a greater feeling of responsibility if the characters in the hub were influenced more by our actions.