Is a man Dishonoured worse than dead? | Ian O'Sullivan

Ever played Thief? Neither have I, but apparently it’s great. Really, really great in fact. So great that is the biggest compliment people are paying to Arkane Studios’ Dishonored is that it’s better than Thief. Now, seeing as I’ve never played Thief that was a really pointless comparison to make, but rest assured Dishonored is great. Really, really, really great.     Dishonored is a first person stealth action game from Arkane Studios. Over nine beautifully constructed sandbox missions, the player has to work their way past an army of guards towards their assassination target. That is the essence of the game, neutralising your targets. To borrow a tired expression, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. And so it proves here, with the real fun and meat of the game arising from the sheer number of creative and immensely fun ways there are to skin said proverbial cat.  It is a game that does away with all of the unnecessary fluff that surrounds most of today’s blockbuster franchises. No online multiplayer or horde modes here, just some good, old-fashioned story driven single player.     Dishonored puts you in the muffled boots of Corvo Attano, disgraced former bodyguard of the late Empress of the city of Dunwall. Framed for her murder, your first task is to escape from prison. Bethesda really do seem to have a thing for prisons, or at least escaping from them…You are aided in your escape by a group of Loyalists, who know what really happened. They want justice for the Empress and send you on a number of missions aiming to right the usurper’s wrongs and place the Empress’s daughter on the throne. You’ll try your best to right those very wrongs and along the way meet some very interesting people in some even more interesting places.The city of Dunwall itself is a work of beauty. Even if does bear a striking resemblance to Half Life 2’s City 17; an assertion that is supported by both games sharing the same art director. The city, based on mid nineteenth century London, is in the midst of a horrific rat plague. The city-wide epidemic serves as framing for Convo’s adventure.The city is brought to life by the lore surrounding it. In perhaps a tribute to Bioshock, a series Arkane assisted with, and akin to other Bethesda published series, Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, journals and books are dotted all around the world - each one containing a rich variety of stories, diaries, sea shanties and more. These add tremendously to the experience, giving the player the impression that despite your vengeful mission, the citizens of Dunwall are real people, struggling to survive the plague.Throughout the game you will visit a wide variety of locales, starting off in the slums of the Distillery District before visiting each corner of Dunham. The variety and ingenuity of these areas is really a joy to behold and a credit to the studio’s art team. In terms of graphical quality Dishonored isn’t one for precise detail, instead going for a more water painted style that really helps immerse the player into the world. As I played I wanted to find out more about the world, eagerly reading every note and diary I found, desperate to know more of this fascinating world.The sound design is good. Guards chat to each other as you near and weapons sound realistic but it doesn’t go that extra mile. The voice acting is very good, even if the dialogue seems forced at times, it can be quite inspired in spots. Ambient noise helps to further immerse the player, the sounds of seagulls overhead or rats underfoot lend themselves to a wonderfully atmospheric world.Now I know none of this means anything if the gameplay isn’t up to scratch - well fortunately, it is. While admittedly not perfect, Dishonored’s gameplay really is tremendous fun. The stealth mechanics may not be the most realistic or consistent seen in a stealth game to date, but they certainly make for interesting scenarios.Combat is based on the use of both of Corvo’s hands. In his right hand he will always carry his sword, and in his left he may carry a variety of powers or weapons. Convo’s arsenal includes a hand crossbow, pistol or grenade. Each can be upgraded, adding new abilities; the crossbow for example may be modified to fire sleep darts as well as conventional bolts.The powers are where things get interesting; powers are broken in to two categories, active and passive. Needless to say, the former is the more interesting set of abilities. The first, and most useful of which is Blink. This allows the player to essentially teleport short distances, and when upgraded, longer ones. This is an essential tool in-game, proving necessary in almost every encounter. Plus it’s heaps of fun.These abilities would be useless without good gameplay surrounding them, fortunately Arkane have obliged. The levels are beautifully designed sandboxes, leaving the player to find their own way to their target. Killing, neutralising or avoiding any guards in the way you want. The guards’ AI is generally solid, even if the detection system often seems somewhat random, detecting you from long distances one second, then failing to notice you from three feet away even if you are only partially covered in darkness. For the most part it works well.The manner in which you deal with the enemies you encounter is entirely up to you. Feel free to go hell for leather from the start, forgoing all pretence of stealth and just going out and stabbing everything in sight. This is not an easy game. I played on normal and even then I found myself dying pretty quickly anytime I was spotted, hence my more considered approach. Stealth is definitely the better idea, allowing you plot out your actions and lure the poor guards in to your well laid traps. There’s no better feeling than hiding in the shadows waiting for a guard to round a corner so you can take him silently, alerting nobody to your devious misdeeds. Granted, on my play-through I tried, often in vain, not to kill anyone. It’s easier to kill guards than to choke them in to unconsciousness, it takes less time and there are infinitely more ways to do it, such as the much vaunted drop assassination. But such convenience has its drawbacks; more dead bodies means more rats, more rats is not a good thing. More dead leads to a darker city later in the game, though in truth I never really noticed.One thing I did notice in Dishonored is how much waiting there is, but not loading times or extended cutscenes, but waiting, biding one’s time, during gameplay. Dishonored’s gameplay is genuinely tense; it makes the player think about every decision they make. That in mind, trust me, save early and often, you won’t regret it.     Dishonored is a great game, one I enjoyed playing immensely, though it has flaws. The gameplay mechanics can be a bit fiddly, too often did I have to finely adjust my positioning of  the reticule for the right prompt to appear, allowing me to Blink up an object rather than to it, something that could cause serious annoyance in combat. The game could also be criticized for drawing too heavily from other games; the dual wielding from Bioshock 2, the architecture from Half-Life 2, sneak mechanics from Thief, as well as a huge resemblance to Deus Ex gameplay wise. But then if Arkane are going to borrow from past games, they may as well copy the best. 9/10.