» Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:51 am To start, I didn’t even know about this game until about a month ago when a friend told me about it. I checked it out, and was floored with how amazing it looked. So naturally I pre-ordered it on steam and here I am today. So lets get right down to it.
The Good.
- Controls - The controls of the game (at least for PC) was probably the best I've had in a game for a very long time. From running,crouching, leaning to the side, jumping, strafing, everything was flawless. One of the first things i noticed is when i ran it felt like...a person! A lot of games it just feels like your a stiff board moving up,down,left,right and strafing. But in Dishonored it really felt fluent, plus I really like that if you strafed you kind of leaned left or right, very nice touch.
- Graphics - At first I was a bit disappointed by them, but I thought it was going to be a bit more..."realistic"? Looking back on it now I'm not sure where I got that idea, I did watch all the videos I could find. Anyways, after I got past that point I really started to enjoy the style and the feel of the graphics. Felt very tailored to the game and was just overall pretty good.
- Level Diversity - All of the levels all felt tied together, but were different in their own special way. Between the Noble houses where everything was nice, Military areas, Flooded areas, and just general slums. it all felt like it tied together, but didn’t feel like the same level over and over with the same colors.
- Story - The story was fantastic. I was very immersed from the start, it at times really made you angry and at times made you feel loving and nice. It was quite hard deciding who to spare and who to kill, each persons play-through could be different, i tried to only kill people who truly deserved it, but I even strayed away from that sometimes. Every character and their voice actor was amazing. Plus there is a lot of room for sequels, which is awesome!
- Side Missions - Well executed and tied together, didn’t seem outrageous at all. It also helped bring in many more characters and expanded the story quite a bit. Very well done.
- Stealth - The stealth in this game was really well done. It didn’t feel like I could just hide in the shadows or above someone and not be seen, The AI was just smart enough that it kept you on your toes and made your heart race when trying to get out of sight, or stay out of sight.
- Powers - The powers were very cool. There weren’t to many that made it so you could only pick a few, they had just enough that allowed you to use them all. They all served their purpose very well. It was also nice they didn’t flood you with to many upgrades for your powers, it allowed you to upgrade them easily without having to think about it for an hour.
- Weapons - I loved the weapon options in this game. They really allowed you to customize how you wanted to play the game, whether it be stealthy or all out mayhem. Upgrading your Sword/Crossbow/Gun felt awesome, it wasn’t a small damage boost or something minimal, it really changed the look of the weapon and made it perform a whole lot better. Couple that with different types of ammo, the grenade and the spring trap, it was well done.
- Upgrades - Expanding on the weapon upgrades there was also many other upgrades that let you carry more ammo, upgrade your mask optics, your boots, and there was one or two more that i know of but can't think of at the moment. It was a nice addition to the game that I feel other developers could have left out but Arkane went a bit further and added that small extra bit of customization.
- Item Pickups - I always love hunting for items, whether it was just food or items that gave you money. Arkane had just enough that it didn’t make me feel overwhelmed. Often other developers add item pickups but either don’t add enough or add to many, or at least I feel that way sometimes, Arkane nailed it perfectly, not to much, not to little.
- Stealth - Yes I know I said stealth was well done, and it was there were just a few tweaks I think that could have been made but nothing big. At times I was unsure if I was going to be hidden or not. For instance, I wasn’t sure how far the AI vision was and how well darkness aided you in stealth (I saw a developer video where they said darkness isn’t a big factor and they will still see you so I was expecting this but I was still a bit sure how it worked). Also towards the end of the game I was attempting to hide from a Tallboy and tried to hide in a bush, didn’t work out so well and he immediately found me. Like I said, nothing big, the game does fine without those improvements, but it would have made it that much more awesome if it was tweaked.
- Climbing - I feel like there could have been more done with the climbing aspect. It was well done in the sense that I could grab onto ledges with easy or blink up to them, but I would have liked to see a bit more added. Mainly just one thing I guess and its not a must have, more of a "I would like to see it in the next game". That is that I would have liked to been able to grab onto ledges and hold myself there, or be able to blink up to a open window/door and hang down waiting for the enemy to turn around then pop up and strike. Also if that was ever added it would be nice to be able to shimmy across ledges and be able to grab one ledge, hold on, look behind you and blink/jump to another ledge. I guess just taking a little inspiration from games like Assassins Creed, only not full on climbing up buildings, just what I described.
It was actually hard to come up with anything bad with this game. It was so well done I really had to think for a while to come up with something, and only found one.
- No New Game+ - Before I even bought the game I knew there wasn’t a New Game+ but after playing it I wish they had put it in. I would have liked the option to explore the earlier levels with ease. To have that early advantage over the enemy is fun. But again, nothing big and the game does fine without it.
In the end Arkane did a fantastic job with Dishonored. It is certainly Game of the Year material. Its not often that a game comes out that really peaks my interest and immerses me in the story, maybe only once or twice a year does that happen. I congratulate Arkane for their work and hope to see many sequels to come. I know I will for now on be looking into and buying many more Arkane games.
