Dishonored Review: A Setting That Is Very Unique And Intriguing

Dishonored Review: A Setting That Is Very Unique and Intriguing

Dishonored
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Bethesda
Action/Adventure

Dishonored is an experience to be had. It’s as simple as that. It is story that is involving and a setting that is unique from what we normally see. When I first turned on my console, I let it sit at the main menu screen for a few minutes to take in the music – it is great and helps set the mood for the theme. The music throughout the entire game is a great sound for the ears. It built up the experience that I was about to jump into.

Dishonored takes place in a unique setting where a plague is running rampant killing many people and turning others into weepers, which are extremely sick, zombie-like humans. Also, rats are everywhere and will eat anyone when together in large numbers. There will be occasions when you’ll have to do some rat killing as they get far too interested in you. Dishonored has a very dire setting, but it’s great for this game and it looks fantastic – a fun city to explore with interesting locals and visuals.

You play the role of a character named Corvo, a former loyal bodyguard to the Empress. However, the Empress was killed and her daughter taken by some powerful foes and left Corvo with no chance to save either of them. Being the only one there when additional guards arrive, they blamed him for murdering the Empress. Making his escape, you become an assassin who sets out to seek revenge against those responsible for the death of the Empress. It’s a storyline that is easy to get into and the gameplay and setting makes it that much better.

Along your journey you will discover many secrets, some of which lead to your abilities. Abilities that help improve your combat, your constant sneaking around, and more. These abilities that you acquire are fun to use, especially the dash ability that allows you to short-length teleport from your current location to another nearby location. It’s great for getting past obstacles and guards and it’s also great for use in combat. That ability alone makes you feel like a powerful and unstoppable assassin. I have an issue with sneaking around in most games and usually end up getting caught, so when I fight, I make good use of the abilities that I have learned along the way.

An interesting fact about this game is that the choices you make will affect the outcome of the overall game. There is a chaos system in place and however you end up playing will lead to a change with the story outcome and differences in what you experience during your gameplay. The higher amount of deaths will lead to more rats and weepers in the city, different reactions from you allies, and darker outcomes to the story. You’ll want to aim for a low chaos level and avoid conflict at all costs. Become stealth-like, get in, accomplish your mission, and get out without any hassle.

Now for me, this was a major difficulty, at least my first time through some of these missions. I just couldn’t seem to help but stumble upon a guard and have to quickly take him out. A lot of the time it led to many guards coming my way and I chose to fight it out instead of running to hide. It’s completely up to you on how you want to play, but the intention is for you to be as discrete as possible. After my first few failed missions at being stealth-like, I decided to accomplish the mission no matter what the cost. I played it out the way I felt like playing. Still, I stayed as silent as possible, but if guards came at me I made sure to cause a ruckus. At the end of each mission you will be given statistical details on how you performed and what your chaos level was for that mission. One of the fun things about the game is that you can replay missions and try to do things better a second time, or at least find those items that you should collect.

Dishonored – Gameplay Video

I enjoyed the mission by mission style instead of a free flowing gameplay. You have a headquarters which is known as the Hound Pits Pub, which yes, you can pour your own beer – best game ever! The headquarters revolves around a group of rebels that assume Corvo’s innocence. They are the ones that give you the mission details and what it is you need to accomplish. As you get ready to start your mission, you’ll first be transported by boat to a point near your intended target location. This gives you a chance to go over the upcoming mission with your boat driver. It’s the perfect way to relax before chaos begins…well, hopefully not, but like I said – I pretty much can’t do stealth that well.

Let me tell you, the missions are a lot of fun no matter which way you go about playing the game. You will have missions that you simply gather information or set out to do what your character does best in his new life as an assassin – assassinate key targets. The set-up of the game flows really well and the locations are set up for you to be smart, climb objects, teleport to locations and do whatever you need to do to make sure you stay as silent as possible. There are always ledges and rooftops to climb on as you make your way through locations. It’s the inside locations that become harder to get around in and to avoid guards, but it’s still possible, you just really have to be patient and perfect.

The gameplay is so much fun and as I said before, it gives you that sense of actually feeling like a powerful assassin. You will be able to sneak up on guards and assassinate them or put them to sleep. Either way, you will need to find a place to hide their body so no other person stumbles upon them. However, if you are trying to keep the chaos level down, you will need to make sure that you don’t hide an unconscious guard by throwing him down the stairs and setting him near a pile of rats – that will only give you credit for a kill and raise the chaos level. The stealth gameplay feels good, but so does the combat – either way this game plays incredibly well.

Dishonored features some great action scenes when you are in the middle of combat or taking someone out. This continues to build on the experience based on some of your missions as well. One of my favorite missions was to sneak into a large party and assassinate three targets. As I did so, the game gave you that experience of doing so with great cut-scenes…no pun intended. I can’t see anyone being disappointed with this game. It’s fun, smooth, and easy to manage and it helps with the sensation of making you feel like a master assassin in a setting that is very unique and intriguing. This game will have you interested from start to finish and you shouldn’t pass it up.

Score: 9/10

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