What shall we do with the drunken whaler? Let’s feed him to the rats for dinner or maybe slice his throat with a rusty cleaver? Either way, it’s your choice! This is the core thought of Bethesda’s latest game “ Dishonored” and it suits the game perfectly!
Dishonored sets the game into the dark but yet colorful city of “Dunwall”. A city formed by industrialism, politics and victims of the plague. Unfortunately the city starts to crumble when the Empress is killed by a mysterious group of assassins while her daughter is being kidnapped. You play as Corvo, the beloved bodyguard of the Empress who gets the blame of killing the Empress and abducting her daughter. You’ve been thrown into the dungeon and locked up. Another group called “ Loyalists” helps you escape the Dunwall prison . Together, you search for the Empress’s daughter while you get a chance for revenge. Corvo also gets a visit of “The Void” that gives Corvo some extraordinary abilities to reach his goal! As you progress, you start to realize that you’re part of something bigger…
Dishonored is a very beautiful game in its own way. It’s a very dark world but there’s room for colorful places as well. Most of the time, you’ll be blinking (teleporting) your way over the city’s rooftops or crawling into the filthy sewers of Dunwall. Nonetheless, there’s a good variety in environments and I must say that some of them are truly unique. You’ll be visiting the cold streets of Dunwall, delightful parties , enormous light towers, … Bethesda uses a lot off lighting effects that creates some beautiful panoramic views. The graphics in this game are very good like the face textures, water effects, abilities, … Now and then, there are some texture pop-ins but it doesn’t take you off the game.
The gameplay of Dishonored is very fluid and action-packed. From the beginning, you have the choice to play as you desire. You can play the game very stealthy or you can charge into battle, leaving trails of your brutality. Either way, it’s totally up to you. Every path you take or every choice you make, has an impact to your game. Not only in story, but also in the way the game unfolds during your progress. If you kill every single enemy, you leave more bodies behind which generates more rats. More rats means more victims of the plague which will eventually lead to a darker ending. Or you can find it in your heart not to kill anyone but making them unconscious or avoid confrontation at all, just killing your key targets, and this will eventually lead to less security and a brighter future. Bethesda gives the choice fully to the player. During the game, you’ll have to eliminate certain people but the game will always give you a choice between lethal or non-lethal decisions. This doesn’t mean that those 2 options will be available directly. You have to explore the whole environment in order for you to get that second option.
Every path you take or every choice you make, has an impact to your game.
Dishonored also gives you a set of abilities and perks to build your ultimate assassin. You have 10 abilities that you unlock by collecting runes . You have the opportunity to unlock those abilities in the order you want. The first 5 abilities are active abilities that you can upgrade several times. Each upgrade of that ability makes it stronger and better. The other 5 abilities are more passive. They are more like boosting your agility, health, … There’s also a perk system in Dishonored. You unlock those perks by collecting bone charms. Each born charm has a certain passive ability that will boost your assassin. In the beginning, you can only equip 3 bone charms but as you progress, you can buy more room for your perks. You’ll also have the chance to find blueprints of certain equipments. These blueprints unlock upgrades for your equipment.
Now you won’t be able to fully unlock those abilities and perks to become the ultimate assassin but you will have a taste of different ways of playing Dishonored. You’ll be able to have 3 fully unlocked abilities and 1 or 2 backup abilities.
Those backup abilities are very useful in this type of game. Dishonored is kind of a sandbox game, it lets you play the way you want it, but you can also approach targets in different ways. You can blink your way into a building or you can posses a rat and run into a venting hole to get inside. You certainly have different ways to reach your goal and that’s the fun part in this game. It let’s you take control of your game instead of those scripted quick- time events like other games.
Dishonored also makes you think about a certain approach. While the story unfolds, you’ll be confronted with other “special” enemies. Each opponent has its own ability that makes you think about how to approach a situation. Enemies get more difficult to kill as you progress towards the end of the game.
Dishonored is a good game and this game is certainly one of the most innovative games of this year. The game is really simple and yet it does so many things right. You have a good story, a unique environment, a set of abilities, … but most of all it gives the player the power to play the game as he or she wants. Every single decision you make, will have an impact on your story and to your gameplay. You’ll always have a choice!
9/10
