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Dishonored - game by Arkane studio


Diego

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Went to pick it up at EB Games...and...60 bucks? Too rich for my blood. I can't justify close to a days wages on a game. Hopefully I can find it cheaper soon.

 

Heh. I agree, games are ridiculously expensive these days. Me? I'm just waiting until the game is on special discount on Steam. ~20 euros is a reasonable price I can pay happily for a single game. I'm betting the christmas sales on steam will show special offers. If not that, then the summer sales next year.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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This is the first game I bought at the store price (it's selling on Amazon for ~$40 now) since Thief: Deadly Shadows really. I just don't buy games new anymore, because my backlog is already years behind as it is. But I wanted to for this one to show my support for Digi & Purah and because it's a game in "our" tradition, or closer than any other game around anymore. I'm happy I felt like I splurged a little for it. Sometimes it feels good to do that for things you care about.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Not only did they work on the game, but two maps are *their* maps as lead mappers ... I mean they built the architecture & a lot of the gameplay. Digi did a city map (haven't played it yet so don't know the name), and Purah did the mansion mission. It's effectively like playing Digi and Purah FMs. I couldn't pass up the chance.

 

I would message Digi (Dan) sometimes while he was building it, and I loved asking him about how professionals make maps. (It wasn't like spoilers, so he was free to give me a lot of details.)

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Except for the Mass Effect games this isprobably the first new game I've bought in years. I've played the first four levels and so far this is pretty awesome. You can definately see the Thief inspiration in the level design. So much mantling and lots of alternative routes. I'm having a blast with this right now.

"I believe that what doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger"

 

The Joker

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You can see their influence - there is actually a rather strong thematic connection between the White Rose Hotel and the the Golden Cat, and I could detect some of Purah's stylistic touches in the city mission I played. I don't know if it was a direct influence, but there might be a connection since maps today are huge group projects.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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Finished tonight - then replayed the end to get the two endings (or are there more?)

 

As has been said - shorter than expected but I missed an awful lot, often only getting a small fraction of loot etc. and not visiting all locations.

 

It's 95% Thief gameplay - though the form varies: blink = rope arrows, stranglehold = blackjack, etc. I played, believe it or not, on Easy! I found the stealth a real challenge and the fighting easy which is how I like it. I suspect the stealth can't be much harder on the higher difficulties surely(?) and it's just the fighting which is harder. I think many locations were not ideally designed for ghosting. I found myself forced to take a blind chance much of the time which resulted in lots of reloads and learning the route from previous failures rather than being able to observe and reason it out. The reason is the low number of safe niches. The alerts are more realistic than Thief/TDM but that doesn't necessarily make good gameplay. Poor AI vertical vision made stealth unrealistic when high up but made better gameplay so it balanced out maybe. That said, if you go with that then it's a very good game. I wanted it to continue which is always a good sign. Been spoilt by Oblivion and Skyrim which can be played for months.

 

It's very encouraging to see a new stealth game like this and I hope it does well if only to promote others to produce this style.

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I think thief has a simpler visibility parameter: you're invisible if in shadows and visible if under light. Unrealistic but this clarity of the game rules works in favor. In dishonored the relation between visibility and shadows is completely hidden from the player, you have to play by ear and hope for the best (a hint screen tells the player that shadows help conceal him if the AI is distant). So it boils down to hiding behind cover and moving through higher ground, the AIs are blind as bats to anything above their heads.

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The alerts are more realistic than Thief/TDM

 

Yes, I put that rather badly. As Diego says, shadows are ignored except at distance. In Thief/TDM you can crouch in a dark shadow and not be noticed even in a moderately small room. That's unrealistic but good gameplay because our shadows represent complete darkness even though the player can see an AI easily in the same location.

 

In Dishonored, the AI don't notice you up high even in bright light - at least until alerted then they see you well enough to through rocks or bottles. Yes, they can be alerted if eg, you open fire on them or a tallboy walker comes buy with the controller at your eye level, or a guard comes out onto a balcony opposite you.

 

I still far prefer the Thief/TDM shadow gameplay but Dishonored's approach is a refreshing alternative and I'd definitely buy a sequel if there is one.

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Just finished playing this. The ending was a bit underwhelming but overall this is a really good game.

 

Gameplay - I love the emphasis on stealth. Im a big fan of Dark Messiah (Arkanes earlier release) and while there is the option to play as a rogue / thief I found the oppertunities to utilise said gameplay style to be minimul compared to mage and warrior. Right off the bat you are encouraged to to use alternative routes that avoid AI. Even if you prefer combat you are still rewarded for exploring alternative routes by finding areas with Items such as ammo, health potions, upgrades etc. Also the mantling system is great fun. Its as good as TDMs but the levels seem to really try and take advantage of it by making some great challenges.

 

Story - Its not very original and you can see a plot twist coming a mile away. What they do however is create a world that is rich with history and is very immersive. I really enjoyed the readables and the different areas of Dunwall.

 

Graphics - Nothing impressive in terms of visual quality but very beautiful in terms of design. For example the masked ball. The way the rooms were designed was fantastic. I also really enjoyed little touches like the tower in The Hound Pits area that used to be part of a wider building and had now been reinforced by steel girders (has anyone been able to mantle to the top? I think I spent an hour trying).

 

Sound - I cant remember anything special wrt background music but again there were some great little touches like in the masked ball when you were upstairs in the living quarters you could still hear the conversations downstairs but they were all muffled.

 

I hope they make a sequel. I really enjoyed my time in Dunwall and I think its history and locations were fleshed out enough that I would be more than happy to go for another visit. Im also glad to know that Digi and Purah worked on this. Im a big fan of the Calendra and COSAS series and while I would never say my mapping skills are equal to them, its nice to know that people who are passionate about making Thief / TDM FMS like myself have gone on to make something great like Dishonored.

"I believe that what doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger"

 

The Joker

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just started playing this today. playing around with the interface options makes me happy. lots of minimalist options. i'm kind of torn between allowing the game to 'guide' me for the first level or 2 just to get the hang of things, and be directed towards the things that can/cannot be picked up or stolen, things that can/cannot be used, doors, ladders, trapdoors, anything of that nature, or just go straight hardcore, disable all overlays and highlights and GUI, and find my own way. Might even be good for a laugh if I did an LP of groping in the dark without any help.

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I have completed the game, and this has really felt like the most Looking Glass-feeling game since LGS was actually around. Both the weird, Lewis Carrol-influenced dark magic-meets-technology world and the gameplay felt right. They took different approaches, and it is a modern title, but to my surprise, the game is a lot less consolised than anticipated. There are always nudges to guide you along, and if you leave them on, a whole lot of guidance like objective markers, but the experience is very pleasantly non-linear both in navigating the huge and open levels and in the way you can approach the challenges and situations you are presented with in a large number of ways. This is tricky to accomplish since many games are just designed with an a-b-c-d list of possibilities, which is technically right but doesn't represent real freedom (DX: Human Resources had traces of this). Here, you really can use the environment to your advantage by creating distractions or combining your powers to bypass obstacles.

 

Interestingly, it is very hard to stay stealthy even after a decade of Thief / Deus Ex experience. This is partly due to the lack of a lightgem-style stealth gauge (although the alert markers and the sound cue that plays if you are spotted is an interesting replacement), and partly, as Fidcal writes, a lack of absolutely good hiding places. As I got closer to the finale, I was starting to feel my approach was probably flawed in that I relied too much on striking out from static hiding places, and I should have focused more on flitting from place to place using powers like teleportation, possession and time slowing (which I did not have). As it was, I went mostly for assassination, which is way easier, although still challenging against multiple opponents (especially with some AI respawning in certain areas), and got a suitably dark finale. That's a great point about the game, and I'll replay it some time with more stealth.

 

I must say the story was among the most enthralling and intelligent of the last years, and I can't even recall which was the last commercial game which got it so right. This is a very well-realised world, with influences from Verne to French comics to Victor Hugo (although it's set in a "British" city, the game feels French); with some of the most opulent, as well as the most squalid environments to date. The plague-stricken alleys and barricaded houses are super-creepy. It is larger than life, it is predictable (although I could see a large plot twist coming, it ended up being a different one than I anticipated), and it does not over-explain everything, which preserves the mystery. It is actually a fairly long game, too; not as long as Thief, but longer than most titles nowadays, and it looks very replayable. Even though I went rooftopping a lot (which feels very satisfying), I still missed a good deal of stuff.

 

It is hard to say how they could make a sequel, and they probably shouldn't, but I'd happily buy a Dishonored Gold edition or a game in the same style with a different environment and story.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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OK...it's £25 on amazon, which is about £20 more than I've spent on a game in the last ten years, so it's stupid to even think about splashing that amount of money out. And then you guys come up with this:

I wanted to for this one to show my support for Digi & Purah and because it's a game in "our" tradition, or closer than any other game around anymore. I'm happy I felt like I splurged a little for it. Sometimes it feels good to do that for things you care about.

the mantling system is great fun. Its as good as TDMs but the levels seem to really try and take advantage of it by making some great challenges.

I went rooftopping a lot (which feels very satisfying)

You know how to tempt a (spider)noob...

Edited by simplen00b
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That first multiplayer add-on sounds like the last things I'd want to see for this game, but the other two, which "feature a story-driven campaign" each sounds like something to check out.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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apparently there are different endings depending on how you play, and I have read complaints from people who get the game over screen after the hotel because they failed to do something important. am going to have to play through it again cos I missed a level out.

 

the whole city is based on an alternative London, where they use whale oil as a fuel and crude oil doesn't exist.

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I'm past the plot twist now. It hasn't been mentioned much, but for any of you that are into mapping... This is one of the most inspiring games for mapping I've played in a while, because it gets back to open-level style maps. It's gotten me to think a lot about urban level design and making a good cityscape, z-axis gameplay, multiple routes, I mean not just other physical ways to go (that too), but also conceptually, other ways to use gameplay to get you to your goal... You can often come into things from above, below, or various sides, and all of the maps have been pretty open.

 

I've actually been breaking the game a couple of times because I'm coming from so many alt or backwards routes (here's one story. I keep the objective arrow off for the most part, except when I really need it). I don't mean actually breaking the plot or objectives, just minor things. But I'm happy that the game lets me do it anyway.

 

I take a lot of screenshots of things I like, and so far I've taken about 750. I mean I have a lot of Skyrim too, but not that many, and this is in a fraction of the time. It's because I'll see some cool design element, or I have some accomplishment, and I want to get it documented so I can look at it later, which doesn't happen for other games as much. That fact by itself, I think, speaks a lot for the game.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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In case anyone was wondering, Bridgeport had a

Flood Ward and Plague Ward

before anyone had ever heard of Dunwall. I guess great games must think alike.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Just wait till someone releases a mission set in those places and gets accused of plagiarism. :D

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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I am finally through with this game too. Had little time for gaming the last couple of weeks. It was an ok-ish game. It had some great levels (I particularly enjoyed the flooded district) but sometimes it just felt a little boring. By the end, I knocked out almost anybody because I just wanted to get through the game and be done with it.

 

If somebody asked me, how they should play the game for most enjoyment, I'd say just go with the flow and try to reload as little as possible. Don't obsess over the overall chaos-level. If you want to take revenge on somebody, just do it. Don't let some mission-debriefing-evaluation stop you from that.

 

Having the mission-statistics displayed at the end of each mission, really somehow lessened the enjoyment of the game for me, as you instantly try to get the best results.

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