Dishonored Review
It is definitely a good time to be a gamer. No matter what type of games you enjoy, you can undoubtedly list off various franchises which you follow in anticipation of new releases. Now think of when those franchises first began and you’ll realize it was probably quite a few years ago. Even though there are plenty of great, new games coming out, the vast majority are part of large and established franchises that have been around for a long time. This obviously has to do with developers looking for a return on their investment because sequels are seen as having lower risk.
In the thinking of today, no one makes a game with the intent of it being only one game. The dream is to create something that will live on and be profitable for years to come. It’s easier said than done. The difficulty with making a new intellectual property is that you have to get everything right from the get go. Any major mistakes mean the new IP dies a quick death. With that risk, Arkane Studios has bet big on Dishonored and there has certainly been a lot of hype for the game ever since it won numerous awards from its E3 showing in 2011.
Dishonored embraces a steampunk quality and takes place in a fictional late 19th century city named Dunwall. You play as Corvo Attano, a bodyguard to the Empress of Dunwall. Shortly after the game begins the Empress is assassinated, her daughter kidnapped, and you play the role of the fall guy. You then begin your journey to get to the bottom of what’s happened.
Arkane Studios has been involved in a handful of projects in the past but the one that’s most significantly related to Dishonored is Bioshock 2. Arkane Studios was pulled in by 2K to help with various elements of Bioshock 2 including level design. Anyone who’s played both games will instantly see the similarities. It’s not necessarily a bad thing because they do a pretty good job of using what worked well. With that being said, you will see similarities between the two games everywhere you look ranging from the over the top slogans plastered everywhere by the government to even the little sound effects made as you move through the game’s menu system.
The biggest disappointing with Dishonored definitely has to do with the consequences of killing. In the game, you play an assassin. A large portion of the enjoyment in the game comes from assassinating people but for some reason doing so negatively effects the outcome of the game. Strangely, you are even directly informed of this causal relationship when a loading screen explicitly explains this to you when you are only about 5 minutes into the game. I’m going to explain what exactly I’m talking about because everyone is told the same thing at the beginning of the game. While playing through Dishonored, killing people attracts more rats, rats bring more plague, more plague means the city goes further down the hole and the ending of the game becomes more grim.
I am all about consequential choices in games. It is such a powerful mechanism for giving players the feeling that what they do carries actual weight. It is just bizarre that a game who’s motto is “Revenge Solves Everything” would give you a negative outcome if you choose to kill people. It would be like if Grand Theft Auto gave a negative outcome if you stole cars during the game. Yes, it is feasible to go through Grand Theft Auto without stealing cars, but what a ridiculous playthrough that would be. It’s sad because there are so many other ways consequential choices could have utilized but simply weren’t.
The artistic style was unique and enjoyable. The environments were very well done. Arkane Studios did a fantastic job creating a late 19th century British inspired port city. This helped tremendously with setting the mood for the game because everything feels like it belongs. People in the game are stylized to look kind of like what you imagine when you think of a British claymation production. It’s definitely becoming more popular for studios to go for some sort of stylized look rather than try and compete on how realistic they can get things. If the goal was to create visuals that are uniquely identifiable as belonging to Dishonored, then Arkane Studios was successful.
The skills and abilities you can get through the rune system are a lot of fun. So much fun that I almost wish the game pushed you a little more into using them. Some of the skills can be very useful (freezing time can get you out of any bind), but blink is especially enjoyable because using it successfully to pull off assassinations still requires skill and pulling it off brings so much intrinsic satisfaction. Bone charms on the other hand seemed less influential. Most of the modifications they provided seemed a bit insignificant and boring.
Arkane Studios definitely did a good job creating varied levels to play through. Every mission sends you somewhere different and the locations all genuinely make you feel like you really are there. The prison feels like a prison. The masquerade party feels like a masquerade party. It all enhances the feeling that you are in a living, breathing world. There is also a whaling culture embedded in the game which provides a very unique and interesting perspective. To be honest, I’m not sure why this angle hasn’t been used before because it works out phenomonally.
The story told in Dishonored ended up better than I originally thought but still fell short of fantastic. To begin with, the game would have benefited from a lengthened introduction. The time from when the game first begins to when the Empress gets assassinated and you getting locked is extremely brief. Yes, it set the stage for the rest of the game, but it would have been more impactful if more time was spent in the beginning developing the backstory.
After the introduction, the first half of the game was so straightforward I couldn’t decide whether there was going to be some sort of twist or whether the writing was just that flat. The twist did come which made things more interesting but it seemed so unprovoked. The best kind of plot turns are the type that you don’t expect but after the fact you can look back and see all the signs leading up to it. Dishonored had neither of these elements but still proved to be interesting enough.
The audio used in the game is both great and also under-utilized. There are a couple signature tunes used during the game but for some reason they aren’t used very often. It’s a shame because these simple melodies are very unique and serve to heighten the mood in a way that elevates the whole game. The rest of the music and voice acting doesn’t disappoint but seems generally unremarkable. Yes, they pulled in some big names for voice work but to be honest I didn’t notice anything spectacular.
Dishonored is a game that is really good, but still has room to grow. The market is definitely very competitive. Most triple-A games that come out are on their fourth or fifth iteration and have been tinkered with and molded over many years to produce a great product. Not only is Dishonored a very good game, but it’s good in the ways that will help the franchise move forward. Most of the problems are things that can be very easily tweaked and solved for the next game. In the big and important areas like base gameplay mechanics and overall setting Dishonored is rock solid. I think its safe to say we’ll be seeing a sequel and I look forward to playing it.
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