1. TheMaximalist

   9

   Dishonored Review The highlight of E3 has finally arrived and being one of the only new series his year gamers across the globe get ready to play one of the best games of the year so far. Dishonored comes to us from Arkane Studios and Bethesda and the Besthesda influence really rubs off on this one too. The story is pretty standard, Empress gets murdered, princess gets kidnapped and of course you are framed for it, you are Corvo Attano the former bodyguard and it is your job to avenge the Empress's death and put the rightful heir on the throne. The story here is nothing original with some predictable twists but provides a good backdrop for the chaos going around in this city. Yes not only is the Empress dead but the city is still suffering from the rat plague which gives the city a certain lack of hope and happiness. The world is extremely detailed and evolves according to your actions, depending on who you kill and how many people you kill. The more you slaughter the more rats and the darker to outcome at the end. This adds a heap of replay value straight up to see the different outcome of the 9 missions and the ending. True to Bethesda fashion, the first mission is of course a prison break where you learn all the combat ropes and the different physical actions you can perform. The level design here is very open ended like the Thief and Hitman series, you can even get through the game without killing a soul, there are a million possibilities in these levels. Even more replay value, there are ghost bonuses and low chaos challenges to add difficulty. Talking about that, the difficulty settings here are pretty off, if you want a good time definitely turn it up to Hard or Very hard. Early you gain you magical abilities, to get these powers you must collect runes scattered around the world and these are powers like teleportation, possession, time bending and there is even a Fus Ro Dah. There are also passive abilities to get too like extra health, bodies disappear when killed and others. Graphically the game is perfectly fine but I think the developers were a bit confused when it came to art direction, were they going for cartoony or were they going for serious steampunk, I have no idea but regardless the visuals are fine. What baffled me is the lack of a substantial soundtrack, ambient music provides a little effect but it isn’t enough, I ended up putting headphones on and reading the subtitles because there was no music and the voice acting is pretty standard too. This year has been full of sequels as we draw closer to the inevitable close of this generations consoles but if it isn’t and this generation has a few more years left at least we have an excellent series for the future of the consoles. Story-5 Graphics-6 Gameplay-9 Audio-5 Replay Value-10
Overall-35/50 or 7/10 ^This review score is a judgement of it’s individual parts not the game as a whole 9/10 ^This review score is a judgement of the game as a whole… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
2. Wendigo2064

   6

   "Dishonored" sits comfortably in the mixed heritage of FPS games like "Bioshock," "Half Life 2," and "Deus Ex" without quite meeting the same great heights. Instead, it unfortunately is going to join my shelf of "Bioshock 2" and "Deus Ex: HR" as grand attempts that don't quite make it. It's a shame, cause on gameplay alone this really should be a 10/10... it just lacks that extra punch, and since the combat/stealth is so good, it's all the more noticeable what it lacks in payoff. The attack customization is top-notch - better, perhaps, than any of the above mentioned games - with plenty of player choices affecting later gameplay, if not so much the story. And the level design is pretty damn good, allowing exploration risk/reward while still giving a straight shot for those who aren't interested in every completionist sidequest and item. But (and this is a big But), the game is too short and the story is forgettable. Now, usually I'd argue a short game is just a good game without padding, but it really feels like there could've been some more missions if devtimes had not caught up with them. Or maybe they focused so heavily on making the levels excellent, they didn't notice how few well crafted moments they gave us. And the story is...well, it's there, but often I felt like I was supposed to be more wowed by the setting than the narrative. There are no real stand-out "wow" moments, something the greats of the genre make sure to give players almost every level. Some reviewers have argued that the best part is going back to try different ways through each mission and shoot for those ghost/deathless scores, but so many other games already have that great retread.It's fantastic that the depth is there (and believe me, the depth of the level design is awesome), I just wish there was more of it to explore. I'd still highly recommend this game to FPS/Stealth fans, especially those that wanted "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" to be better than it was, but at the end of the day the game sits, for me, as an enjoyable "Aw damn. So close, yet so far."… Expand

   • Helpful? 9 of 20 users said Yes.
3. Dufflad

   3

   I'm struggling understanding the love for this game. I wanted to love it, really I did. But the controls are poor, the story line is not very good, and the options bethesda gives the gamer in conversations are a joke. On that subject, after choosing to progress (after answering a ridiculously stupid question i.e. would you like to go back to prison?) the screen just goes black and leads into the next chapter, there's no traveling, there's no cinematic, there's just a loading screen. Also the graphics are poor. Beer just looks like jello in a glass for example, and the textures are not very good as well (characters arms will go through their sheathed weapons). As I said, I wanted to love this game, and though the gameplay itself can be quite fun after getting past the many annoyances, I will certainly be trading my Dishonored in towards Assassins Creed 3, as it will CERTAINLY be a better game, in fact, Assassins Creed 1 was better.… Expand

   • Helpful? 17 of 42 users said Yes.

See all 63 User Reviews