Dishonored Review: A Triumphant Return To Core Elements
rating:4
Last week we saw the somewhat sneaky release of Dishonored on the major gaming platforms, the game published by Bethesda (of Skyrim and Fallout fame) and developed by Arkane Studios (art design on Bioshock 2). Just three weeks prior to the launch of Ubisofts new and improved Assassins Creed 3, it seems that Bethesda may have been hoping to entice some of the blood hungry shadow stalkers ahead of the blockbuster release. Whether they succeeded or not to remains to be seen but this game certainly gives those gamers looking for something different a unique assassin game experience - and whilst the assassination gaming fan may not have been completely enticed, the game will certainly have won over another kind of fan, the old school gamer. Being a fan of the old PC first person games such as Thief, Deus Ex and Half-Life, I could easily imagine playing this game 10 years ago or so with blockier graphics and more monotonous dialogue. In other words, it offers the same kind of freedom of choice and exploration that most modern videogames are missing, or promise and fall short on. Graphically this game looks to be somewhere between Fable and Borderlands in regards to look and character design but the city looks like a Bioshock inspired Industrial Victorian metropolis; something straight out of a fantasy steam-punk drawing - both beautiful and morbid. The fact that you are given the right to explore this place is a selling point on its own, you could easily spend hours in this fantasy world if you are a fan of something arty and different. It's difficult to do the visuals fair justice: in any photo it looks just like another cell-shaded game, but when you are playing it the full effect is irresistible. Whilst the game does have a linear story in terms of the 9 missions needed to complete the game, you are not punished for deviating from your mission objective, in fact you are rewarded for it: exploration offers the opportunity to uncover hidden runes ,which you can use to improve your supernatural abilities and which make you a better assassin, as well as side missions, books and audio tapes that shed more light on life in Dunwall. Needless to say if you find a fork in the road in Dishonored, most of the time the path that leads away will lead you to somewhere special, and not just an invisible wall. As well as the freedom to take in the sights of the city, Dishonored also gives you the freedom of choice in how you conduct yourself - not a wholly radical concept in the video-gaming world by any means, but it doesnt make its blue pill/red pill method as apparent as other games normally do. For example, if you have an assassination target and choose to explore your surroundings before going in for the kill, you may find a way of removing the target non-lethally. By going down the pacifist route you are rewarded with the city becoming less bleak and less of a spike in the difficulty curve, but if you do decide to spill blood the city guard will tighten and the plague, which is rotting the city streets will spread as you progress through the game. Click next to reveal further thoughts on the game, as well as our scoring break-down for Dishonored...