.. Please hire better writers! I mean, Dishonored is great, probably the best game since Human Revolution IMO, but it has one significant flaw, and that is the quality of writing which is pretty meh. Story is nothing to write home about, dialog as well, NPCs are rather bland, uninteresting, lifeless; that heart thingy has better lines and more character than all of them combined. All that compromises the atmosphere of the game, and leave you somewhat disconnected..

On the plus side, the lore of the world is pretty fresh, interesting, some books are well written, and that means that you have a solid foundation on which to expand the franchise..

If you ask me the"puristic" storytelling was a deliberate decision by Arkane, just like a mute player character.
Cutscenes in Dishonored provide only a glimpse of the story and the characters motivations and intentions, but there is a lot of backround poured into audiographs, notes, books and letters that reveal a great deal about some persons.
I personally LOVED the storytelling, because - as I mentioned in a different post - it gives me the feeling I'm NOT the main character in this story, not everything evolves around me, I'm actually only a piece on the chess board, maybe a bishop, but definitely not the King. If I want to know more about the ppl who order me around or who I'm supposed to get rid of, I have to go look for some clues myself. I really appreciate the subtle approach and that Arkane didn't employ that cineastic overkill that most games nowadays have come to rely to.
Also: the heart is an integral part of storytelling and character portrayal. If the heart tells you something about a character, it's not the heart that is portrayed, but the character itself.
So, I find storytelling just as refreshing as the rest of the game and I think maybe ppl have to be more open and realize that not only dialogue can tell a story.

Sure, the story itself is not very original, but it still really shines when you put into context with the environment and all the little stories it tells, be it through design or through some side scenarios.

And you can't honestly say you found Samuel bland?! What kind of person are you that you can't connect to this most likeable person? I would marry him today, if he wasn't so old... and a man...

I'm not talking about storytelling, or audiographs, notes, books.. I'm talking about the quality of writing, which is average at best. There's nothing shocking, thought-provoking, interesting about story, characters, and what they are saying. They are all predictable, one dimensional, boring. And yeah, I do find Samuel to be rather bland, because he has a personality of a lobster. Writing is too uninspired, sterile to be any memorable..

I am only on my second mission, but i agree with -KwisatzHaderach-, the loyalists are portrayed rather realistically, i mean you are not their bosom friend or anything, people tend to be rather reserved towards each other when thay are not that close. And here the Heart tells you what otherwise you wouldn't hear from characters themselves in the real life, because you are not their best friend. Imho so far they are rather lifelike. And i like little dialogues they have between each other,which also add to the character.

I'm also inclined to agree with the other two here, OP. Quality is in the eye of the beholder, you must remember.

I agree on the guards. They shared the same alotted (two?) voices and the same lines when there was probably some room for more random lines to give a sense of differing personalities. This was something done well in Thief 3 that I didn't even think about until listening to the city watch etc in Dishonored. As most of the guards are postulating about "maybe I should write her a letter..." I can only assume they've all got the exact same marriage counselling advice on the same day! But given how epic the title is as a whole, I feel like I'm nit-picking. And I really am because it's "acceptable" (just one small area where an improvement could have been made).

I think the main characters more than make up for any of the lesser NPCs though. I don't think I've played a game where all the lead characters not only have a clear and distinct personality, but also exude a rich sense of personal history - and where there are gaps, they seem to be intentional, allowing for later twists and turns in the plot. The story I liked and felt was well-produced. It wasn't predictable for me and made me wonder throughout whether each character was who they claimed to be, and I was still surprised by the ending (but then I haven't played too many similar titles before and so that might be why).

I don't agree with Yahtzee very often, but regarding http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=016dZuob2Dc#t=111s I think he's right..


Um, no! Quality is something that can be easily measured. It depends where you're coming from; I bet there are a lot of people here who held writing in Bethesda games in high regard, but I think it's atrocious, opposed to games like Planescape Torment, The Longest Journey, System Shock 2, Baldur's Gate 2, Deus Ex. Look at Bioshock, a game that I didn't like that much, but the writing was superb. Dishonored writing lacks character, flavor..

I don't care if it's thought provoking (which I actually think it is) and/or shocking. Those things are not an indication for quality writing (see CoD airport scene for reference). To loosely quote a youtube commentary: "There are some characters I found very likely at first, who I got to hate and vice versa". I have to agree, and want to add, that not many games writings achieved that.



Concerning Yahtzee's "review", well imo he didn't get the game at all and probably hasted through it in less time than the review lasted.
Concerning your remark on quality: it doesn't get more contradictory than "... it can be easily measured." and "It depends where you're coming from;...". What's your concept of "measuring"? To measure something you need a scale, to have a scale you need a quantity. Hence it's called quantity and the other thing is called quality. You can't measure quality, you can only DESCRIBE it. Please bear that in mind when starting an argument forthwith and in the future.

Yeah, it was a clumsy expression on my part. What I meant is that you can differentiate good writing from a bad one, and compare the two. Also, you can easily say that the writing of one author is on the higher level than that of the other (Roger Zelazny vs Arthur Clarke, for instance; or William Faulkner vs Ernest Hemingway, which is all a common, accepted opinion), and in that sense measure/compare something without going numerical..

Yea, i can see where you're coming from. Although I'm a man of science (hear ye, hear ye!) i do like to argue with my arty friends about books/films/music/arts. But to be honest that is all just in vain, because in the end it always boils down to taste and opinion. I doubt very much that you will change my take on the subject just as I probably won't change yours, but it's fun trying anyways...
I'm not telling you to like Dishonoreds story or characters, I just invite you to consider that there is the possibility that Arkane designed and implemented these things the way they are on purpose and that there is an audience that enjoys that kind of thing too.
Sorry if I'm getting carried away, but I strongly feel this element of the game is severely underated and broadly misconceived. I might be wrong though, maybe they just couldn't be bothered and I'm making things up. Still, i wouldn't care, because it's enjoyable the way it is.

Bigger levels, less loading screens, more NPCs, more sidequests and more non-leathal options.

I actually thought Skyrim was waaaaaay overhyped and didn't enjoy it very much at all. Fallout was enjoyable, but not great, and the writing was far from one of its strong suits.

Dishonored can hardly be called a Bethesda game, but I enjoyed the writing and storyline. The voice-acting could have been better, but I think its a translation issue (the game was likely written in French. There were several times when I thought the lines were read with the wrong emphasis or accent, so to speak.

Oh, but you mentioned Baldurs Gate...Reminds me the Enhanced Edition comes out later this month! Bad time to be my bank account, it is...