After winning our poll for 2012 game of the year, as well as walking away with the title of ‘Best Game’ in BAFTA’s 2013 British Academy Games Awards, we thought we’d better get around to actually reviewing Dishonored. But does it live up to the banner or has it been over-hyped?
ROUND-UP:
REVIEW-UP:
Arkane Studios was founded in 1999 and has earned an enviable reputation for creating unique games. The innovative first-person action Dishonored is their most recent release and has received worldwide critical-acclaim, winning over fifty awards at the 2012 E3 as well as Gamescom’s ‘Game of the Show’ title. This is only the start, as since October 2012 the title has received over one-hundred accolades from the industry’s most influential media outlets.
Dishonored was a fairly low-key game when it was first released, slipping under the radar with no-one really making a big deal of it. I admit that it was only when the awards started rolling that it caught my attention and make me want to get it, but I’m glad I eventually bought into the hype. It grabbed me straight from the opening scenes as the story wasted no time in getting right into the action; and for me that’s a big plus because some similar titles can take a long time to get going.
Shhhhh… be very quiet…
I was delighted that everything was so easy to pick up. Stealth is the main feature of the game and I thought this would turn out to be over-complicated but it really wasn’t; with a simple tap of a button, you can hide from their enemies and look around the corner to see where they’re coming from. It’s very clear from the outset that you can play the title in one of two ways. The first option is to be super-stealthy, remaining invisible in the shadows and slowly moving through the levels, never needing to kill anyone but your main target; or you can go full-on action man mode, running in with all guns blazing and leaving a path of destruction behind you. It’s great that players get to know their options right from the start.
Dishonored takes place in Dunwall in the Empire of Isles, a collective of four nation-states tightly grouped in an otherwise empty ocean. The industrial city is in the grip of a terrible plague and so, despite its technological superiority, the rats are in full force and gang crime is at an all time high. Empress Jessamine Kaldwin sends bodyguard Corvo Attano to seek aid from neighbouring nations but he has to return with bad news after realising that nobody will help; and things go from bad to worse as Jessamine is murdered by deadly assassins in front of him and her daughter Emily is kidnapped. After being framed for the crime, Corvo disappears into the rat-infested backstreets to seek revenge on the people who did this to him, while being assisted by a team of highly-skilled rebels.
Running in full steam ahead is really fun, if a little bloody.
Players take on the role of Corvo and start by utilising stealth in a quick tutorial on how to lay in wait until victims are alone. You’re then taught how to sneak up and make a choice: you can spare their life and knock them out cold, or you can kill them in cold blood. The former has Corvo use a sleeper-hold of sorts before gently laying his enemy on the ground without a sound, while the latter sees him dispatch people in a variety of ways with his sword. Leaving your victim’s body out in the open to be discovered can raise the alarm, so you have the option of moving them somewhere discreetly out of the way; but with so many long drops, rivers, and other features about you’ll find yourself thinking up some pretty creative ways of disposing of the evidence.
Stealth, although very well created, seemed to drag a bit for me at times. Taking time to study the patterns of patrol of multiple soldiers in one area so you can strike them down individually without detection gets a tad frustrating. Your eagerness eventually gets the better of you and before you know it you’re detected with an entire army on your arse; and then the only way to defuse the situation is with a hack and slash. The addition of special powers are welcome, with my favourites being Windblast (where you release a powerful blast of wind, knocking all enemies off of their feet) and Devouring Swarm (this summons a vicious group of rats that will attack and eat the nearest living thing – tasty). The Blink ability allows you to transport to a nearby location, and this helped me get Corvo out of sticky situations many a time.
Graphics are a little hit and miss in Dishonored. Now don’t get me wrong – the environments are great, with the rat-infested streets looking like desperate places and clearly taking inspiration from Victorian London during its own plague. But my problem is with the below-par textures of some scenes and characters. When there’s a lot going on, a clear drop in quality is visible which is a shame as this could have easily been cleared up before release. With that aside, it really doesn’t spoil the tense visual atmosphere of the game and characters’ facial expressions really communicate the situation.
Sound all the way through the title is flawless and it’s one of the key components of setting a scene. Whether you’re in full-on battle or just strolling around Dunwall, you’re constantly listening out for what’s around the corner. There are three elements I was extremely impressed with, the first being the sounds of your weapons; it’s not enough for it to look good when you attack someone, but the satisfying sound of your old-style gun going off just adds to the moment. Second is the voice-acting by a cast including Carrie Fisher and Micheal Madsen; Susan Sarandon does a lovely performance in her role as former aristocrat Granny Rags, adopting a tired voice that really adds depth to the character. And last but not least, it has to be the rats – the noise they make when stripping a corpse of its flesh makes you want to run away as fast as you can.
Granny Rags is voiced by Susan Sarandon, but she’s not like any granny we’ve ever met.
Replayability here is huge and it’s all down to the separate endings: the amount of chaos you cause throughout the game determines whether you get a good or a bad closing so its worth playing through again just to see the different fates of Dunwall and its citizens. Another fun reason to restart the title is the amount of collectables available. Try to retrieve all of the coins, ruins, ammo and books and you’ll find collecting everything is more of a challenge then completing the actual story.
Final thoughts are definitely positive. I loved Dishonored from start to finish and, with its great storyline and well-written characters, I didn’t want it end. With that in mind I had to ask myself a difficult question: was it really worthy of being the game of 2012? As first I wasn’t sure, because it seemed to do a lot of things right but lack a certain something; but then after a little more reflection, I realised that it does in fact deserve the prestigious title. It’s all down to the fact that I kept thinking the plot over after I put down the controller and that hasn’t happened to me in a very long time. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel very soon.
RATING-UP:
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