I know that Arkane Studios have a mighty fine pedigree when it comes to developing games. I didn't expect Dishonored to be as good and enjoyable as it ended up being. You play a man named Corvo, and the game opens with the ruler of a city, a queen; being assassinated. Her heir, a young princess is kidknapped, and as you witness these activities, you are framed, and imprisoned.
Thus begins a quest of redemption. Of dismantling a political and social conspiracy through a series of intricately, lovingly designed levels. And boy do I mean designed. There are numerous ways to complete any and all of the objectives, and never once did I feel like the game told me "sorry, you can't go here". There was always a way in somewhere, somehow.
As an immersive sim where you can go anywhere and do anything along the rigid mission like sandboxes that each level is comprised of, Dishonored is a wonderful lesson in game design. Absolutely masterfully built levels with lots of interactivity, dripping with appropriate lore through in game posters, rubbish littering the streets, the ubiquitous audio log, and what amounts to probably a hundred or more pieces of world building lore scattered across tables, filing cabinets, and in safes.
On top of this, the consequences of your choices matter. The world transforms around you, and the weather literally changes in some missions to more eerily fit the mood of the scenario. This is an excellent, cinematic presentation of a story that - while unfolding in mostly the same ways changes to some significant margins based on your choices.
I selected Chaos wherever I possibly could. I'd start off stealthy, but the moment I was detected, it was time to get the world to turn into a blood bath. The game is fun to be played in either way, and due to the level design, some environments genuinely feel like puzzles to solve in order to traverse toward your objective - be that an assassination, the extraction of people, documents, or to simply "deliver a message".
Dishonored tells a wonderful, captivating tale along the way, and the story beats are more than enough to get you drumming away at the enemies that stand in your way. I'm sure, that through the use of chokeholds, sleeping darts, and other non-lethal forms of engagement, you can get through the game without spilling any blood.
But, there's one problem with that - stealth gear costs way more in-game currency, and honestly, it isn't as fun. Sure it is incredibly satisfying to sneak about and take down guards in the correct order, but what's more fun is firing a pistol round, staggering your foe, then stabbing them in the face, as they turn to magical dust.
While the projectile and gunplay isn't very polished by today's standards, it is still an incredibly competent game, and a great introduction to a franchise that I'm going to explore to its very depths with its sequel and stand alone DLC.
The greatest fun you can have with this game is through the use of its powers - whether you're looking through walls with xray vision, slowing down time, or deploying a horde of ravenous, blood hungry plague rats at your foes, there's dozens of ways to approach every hallway and staircase you encounter.
The sheer sense of verticality that some levels let you explore is incredibly impressive as well. With all these branching paths and large spaces to explore, the loading times are near absent for this game, and it runs wonderfully well on the Steam deck, if only with some minor issues with the way in which text is represented due to DPI scaling / resolution.
It looks pretty great at 4K on a proper gaming PC as well, meaning that this title is still very playable in 2023.
I highly recommend giving this game a good crack. It will reward its most attentive players with joy, challenge, and fun.
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