Now playing: Dishonored

Sometimes a game just jumps to your mind when the right questions are asked. What kind of game do you find really engaging? What game triggers a child-like sense of joy? What game challenges you to do your best? What kind of game warrants lots of replaying? What is one of the best games of this generation/recent years? Like the in game ability, Dishonored springs into mind as swift and mercilessly as it can be, slicing through most of the market.  Dishonored is not just a great game, but its among those that are so good and so personally well tuned to what I like that its one of those feelings that your gaming hobbey is re-justified. Its just one of those games that reminds you of how much you appreciate certain qualities when they're in the right hands. The evesdropping chatter, and the rich lore of a totally fake but well crafted fictional world. The joy of first person platforming through sprinting across terrain, crawling along walls, up furniture, and finding places you think your not supposed to be able to reach yet can actually dance upon. The characters that have paper thin personality traits but are so eccentric with them they entertain you more than a moderately rounded person could ever do. Oh yeah, and lets not forget how the game plays up unique combat traits and stealth powers leaving the game up to open ended player experimentation and heavy replay value. So... I'm playing it again happily.

Before I continue I really need to address something that pesters me. I've actually heard a lot of fuss over Dishonored really. Don't get me wrong, I hear more praise than anything else and I even feel like this game is up there among the very few games I love that caught mainstream-like attention for a bit. Yet despite this I still heard a lot of guys who bought into the hype who were clearly never cut out for a game like this. Complaints that the AI was stupid (Must be your first time, welcome to stealth gaming), or it was supposed to be a super serious stealth game but held more entertaining combat, or on a related note that it committed the crime of super powering the player. I just can't see eye to eye with these people, and I think the developers never intended to either. This isn't Abe's oddysee where being spotted is supposed to murder you horribly, this is a game about assassinating and open ended play with high pressure and reward for those that tap into its large stealth side. The combat is honestly in my opinion the most boring part. Sure you've got super powers, a toolbox of odd toys, and an interesting upgrade system, but if you rush through the game alerting everyone and blasting away you miss out on SO much! The eavesdropping, the collectibles, the hidden traps and potential tight spots to exploit, and you probably close out many of your target options. Oh and of course the obvious tension and precision fun that comes with trying to go all stealthy All of this for what exactly? You get to use a floaty gun, and spam R1 to do the same cut animation over and over? Yeah the combat on its own honestly kind of sucks, and even with powers that would get old fast. How many times can you wind blast a guy before it gets old? Honestly these tools and powers are here for experimentation, moral choices, and open solutions more so than flat out mass murder. If you're really having fun ONLY doing that, then I seriously question your gaming play styles. If you hate the game for that, you are doing it wrong. This is a game that rewards the clever and resourceful, patient, playful, observant, and if you aim to do the best there's quite a bit of precision and trial & error within it as well. It was never trying to tell you the only way is stealth, but that is indeed a big part of the fun. This is also what makes Metal Gear Solid an amazing series... with more items and less super powers of course. Its not a forced stealth game, its rather a linear sandbox.

Wait, people thought this was supposed to be taken seriously?

So the game does indeed execute itself well as something incredible. I once spent a little over an hour on my 3rd playthrough just re-exploring the hub world mid-game. Just soaking up the detail, trying every dialogue, playing around with the platforming and my limits, trying to turn over every stone, etc. Its just an amazing game. My main problem with it might be how the moral system makes me a little OCD.  Every time I screw up and get caught I just sort of lose steam and let myself walk into a death and reload the last save. I've done things violently before, but only on a run where I was prepared to do so. Outside of that, it puts this unusual pressure on you that you can't do but so much damage. However I'm willing to confess this is more of my problem than the game's. Dishonored sometimes has that feeling of a binary morality system, but just the same there is a sense that it tries to go beyond it. People actually react differently, the city changes, certain choices are recognized and show up later, and the creativity of your actions blends in nicely with the narrative. Its just a shame it kind of hits a funnel effect at the end of narrowing everything down to good and bad ending. Apart from that, a lack of new game +, and some combat oddities (hit detection, and floaty-ness) I have almost no complaints for the game. Its still amazing. The platforming, lore, characters, graphics, gameplay, options, the actual "options" (so many settings!), and the general immersion all blend to make a fantastic game.

However I'm not exactly here to review it. I guess its just easy to get carried away gushing over how awesome the latest arkane game was. Despite all this I also still need to grab the DLC, though I don't have the digital wallet currency for that at the moment. So what am I doing now in this amazing game? Trying a hard play through, and near the end of the first real level where you "kill" (or just seriously screw up) the high overseer. Its honestly one of the better levels of the game, despite it coming so early when you have few powers to play with. It makes up for that in general design. Then there's the 2nd level which is a great revisit, the party level, and the Lord Regent level among my other favorites. Playing on hard difficulty really doesn't kid around all to much. Detection is pretty quick, and I'm fairly certain I die in around 3 well placed hits. I'm trying to play naturally, but I honestly can't help but fall into that stealthy moral trap of doing things perfectly. Trying to fix that though, and I am sucking up the fact I murdered two in one with a good tripmine, and a couple with a take-down kill to get around faster (its not my fault they make themselves great cushions). So far I have mobility, dark vision, and possession going on for powers. I probably wont bother upgrading dark vision. I plan to go max on time slow, and possession soon though, then blink, and if I have enough left over maybe wind blasting or vitality just for when I want to have a little bit of violent fun blended into all the stealth. I do hope I can get around to playing the DLC Daud expansions soon though, they seem really good even if a bit detatched. It seems almost like a mini-sequel of sorts. Speaking of which, while I can see the flaws in the leaked Tyvian sequel I hope we really are getting something good out of Arkane soon.