In short:

It's boring.


In longer:

I was waiting for Dishonored since months now, ever since i first heard about it. I knew that Bethesda is involved, so i couldn't help but think that this game will be good, as i love Bethesda overall for TES/Fallout.
The stealth gameplay was also appealing to me, since i love being stealthy, go invisible or just sneak in games.

Then i watched some videos of the game, presenting some of the powers and it just made it seem even more awesome, since i love to combine weapons with magic.

I was awaiting the release and got the game soon after it. I played it for like 10 or so hours then i had to realize: This game is not what i hoped it would be.

Stealth is not paying off enough... if you just run in and bash in all of the enemies' heads, you'll get through easier and maybe even in a more fun way? No... that's not because i like to rush in and be done fast... no, i love being stealthy and combine my arsenal to take out enemies from the shadows.... but in this game, combining magic, weapons and the environment is not fun.
I don't know why is this, but when i actually pull off a nice combo of weapons and magic, i don't feel good about it as it was mostly clunky and too easy to do, it doesn't award me with anything extra, not even the feeling of being truly an assassin or something.

This is related to two things in my opinion:
- The AI is horrible. Enemies don't even realize it if you open doors in front of them and their vision cones are pretty narrow... yet at the same time, in Skyrim for example, NPCs in vanilla have a 180° view cone...
If i manage to pull of a stealthy kill on an enemy, it's not even challenging enough... you can freely sneak behind their backs all day long if you wish so... they are too dumb.
- The variety of weapons and magic is not enough. When i watched the videos back then, i thought that they just show off SOME of the powers... but no, they showed off ALL of them... taking away any surprise.
The powers are fun at first, yes, even some of the weapons, like the trap... but they get boring really fast... there is barely any change in gameplay and it gets tiresome.

I also thought that the steampunky environment, which reminded me of Half Life 2 and Bioshock, would be fun, but it's not, sadly... There isn't much variety and it's just depressive, which makes it even more boring... and before you say: i know it should be depressive, but this isn't helping the game, since the mechanics are already boring.


Anyway... i probably forgot some of the things i wanted to say, but that's it. I'm disappointed with this game and will probably uninstall soon... I was expecting more, considering that Bethesda is included in the release.

Bethesda didn't make Dishonored, Arkane did. Bethesda is only the publisher.

While I do respect your opinion and your right to voice it I think at least some of your qualms with the game could be fixed by playing on the higher difficulties. Particularly the bits about AI lacking awareness and the lack of incentive to sneak vs just hack and slash gameplay. You could even try restricting your gameplay style and go through without killing anyone or without ever being detected, etc. Also the powers benefit greatly from player creativity, namely creating fun and interesting combos to get past or take out enemies. I think most will dismiss your entire post because you cited Skyrim for stealth based gameplay. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the game as much as you thought you would but maybe take some of the advice in my post and give the game another chance

While the publisher is never directly involved with development such as coding, modelling or art direction they do have a hand in games they publish. Take example EA and how they have come out and said they will not publish any games unless they have some form of multiplayer. Which is why co-op got shoehorned into Mass Effect 3 and Dead Space 3. Not to mention the publisher sets the release date and it's rare these days that a publisher allows a game release to be delayed. Publishers are the reason games these days need to get patched constantly post-release or even on day 1 of release. Publishers are also the reason you see developers cutting content from the game or locking content on the disc for future DLC. The biggest influence you see in the industry from big publishers is the lack of innovation or variety compared to console generations past. COD doesn't get a new engine and doesn't change much because of the publisher, not the developers. So in short publishers have a large hand in how a game is developed and what type of games are even given a chance

What's with the trend of prefacing 'review' posts with the word "honest?"

I've seen it several times on this forum, and I don't get it. Do you have to state that you're being honest because you think we'll assume you're lying?

I understand that, the OP just sounded like he thought that the game was developed by Bethesda.

Probably because many might accuse them of "trolling".

I had much fun with this game. Actually, It can be boring or fun, depends on your playstyle.

However, what I would like to see in the future, is one more non lethal takedown (from above especially) and more weapons/upgrades.

the saddest thing about your comment, aside that most of it isn't true (the thing that the AI is not perceptive for instance), is that you could not enjoy a great game. Too bad for you, i hope you find something better to play.

Ahh ok, ya a lot of people seem to do that with Bethesda, especially after the whole Skyrim PS3 fiasco. I don't think many people realize that every game published by Bethesda is not necessarily developed by the Bethesda dev team. The best example I would use when it comes to that would be the outrage that they were working on a TES MMO because people though they were abandoning the normal TES series as well as the Fallout series even though it's a completely different dev team.

I want an answer to that as well.

It only got boring on my third attempt at the Ghost achievement.


Curious about that myself. That and:



What's the point of that statement? Clearly the OP said it for a reason (and I've seen others say the same about various games) and I'd love to know what that reason is.

Using the word honest in the title generally tells people, "Hey I'm not trolling!" My money is on that being the reason.

Also some people uninstall games if they aren't going to play them much if at all in the near future. I just leave all of my PC games installed just in case I want to go play one I haven't played in a while but others go about it differently, generally to conserve HDD space for other things.

Yeah, yeah I get that. I mean, hell, I have done the same thing. What I'm wondering is: why did the OP feel the need to tell the world that he was going to uninstall?

I've seen it other times from other people. It always seems like... I dunno... like the people who say it are trying to do this passive aggressive threat kind of thing. I mean, nobody cares if he uninstalls. Arkane doesn't care. Bethesda doesn't care. Both of them know that you can't please everybody. The money was spent. The guy wasn't happy, too bad, so sad.

Or maybe I'm not supposed to understand. I guess maybe that's the way it'll have to be.

Ya it is passive aggressive, some people seem to think that the developer should go out of their way to please them even though they are in a small minority of the audience. I've seen it many times on other forums and it's generally said by childish posters. I'm not saying the OP is because he did seem civil enough and actually gave his own reasons instead of just typing out a caps filled rage post.

Well, the OP and I are maybe not playing the same game. The stealth mechanics and options for getting through areas are great, in my opinion.

To illustrate - I spent probably two hours last night figuring out how to get across to Sokolov's apartment and also disable lights and also make sure I found every nook and cranny I could, while working on a zero kill count. I reloaded a few times, when I did something stupid. In talking to a couple people, i apparently did the whole journey somewhat half-assedly, but... I managed to do it with minimal detection, I did kill one guard but the others I successfully disabled or got past un-noticed. I love the fact that the view cones of NPCs are more normal - 180 degree detection in Skyrim is game aggro/detection, not a more realistic cone of vision.

My goal for this game is to keep it low chaos. So far, even with some kills, but hiding of bodies and judicious use of possession, I have been keeping chaos to a minimum.

So good, this game.

But hey - games are a purely subjective form of entertainment anyway. One persons "hours of fun and engrossing" is another one's "I think it's boring and it's not what I wanted."

Well there's your problem. You're comparing stat-based stealth with simulated stealth. They function COMPLETELY differently. One is something you level your character to be able to do (to hilarious effect in Skyrim, btw. Not sure on what planet it has better stealth AI than Dishonored) the other is a skill you hone as a player.

All stealth games require somewhat "dumb" AI. If the AI could see as well as a real person and noticed every ajar door, there's be no way to actually sneak around.

Odd. So basically, when using that term, you're saying "Promise I'm not trolling. No really, pinky-swear and everything!"

But yeah, OP seems a little pointless - okay, you didn't like the game, fine, it's not for everyone. Nobody else cares, though. I don't say that to be mean; it's like me posting that I'm not a fan of cooked mushrooms. That doesn't have any meaningful impact on anyone else's life, and there's nothing there that constitutes a worthwhile topic for discussion.

You know what I do when I don't like a game? I stop playing it. That's all.

It's your opinion, but I will suggest playing at Very Hard. Enemies are much, much more aware then, and combat can get nail-bitingly difficult when you die in 3 hits. I was also slightly let down because I started at Normal, but bumping up the difficulty made it much more rewarding aand fun.