Dishonored Webpisode for game pre-release

[Ladro]

From the bethblog site:

 

<< We have just released ‘The Awakening’- the first in a three-part Dishonored webisode series entitled ‘The Tales from Dunwall’. These engrossing prequels, scored by Daniel Licht (Dexter) and narrated by Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick Ass), gives you a first-hand glimpse into Dishonored’s shadowy whaling world of Dunwall, where plague is rampant and the city is in disarray and on the verge of dystopia.

Concepted by Rokkan and developed by Psyop, each episode was predominantly produced by hand. Each frame was a fully rendered style frame, which was then enhanced with 3D elements to add to the painterly atmosphere, dimension and depth of each shot. >>

 

Here is the first webpisode:

 

 

Really not bad! It reminds me the thief videos mission briefing.

 

Waiting for the game :-D

[stumpy]

after seeing a gameplay video at E3 I Pre-ordered this.

[Melan]

Ladro - yeah, what struck me about them was the thematic and stylistic similarity to Thief briefings. Some very impressive stuff there.

[Ladro]

Here is the part 2:

 

 

And the last, part 3:

 

 

I'm really impressed for the work on deep narration/motivation of the main character. Awesome style art for this born (anti)hero.

 

I can't wait for the game! ;-)

[Sotha]

Damn!

 

I was rather indifferent about Dishonored at first, but watching these clips made me watch some developer commentaries and suddenly I'm eagerly awaiting for the game's metascore. I'm even considering getting this game if it is available via Steam for discount during special sales, doesen't have bullshit additional DRM and gets excellent reviews.

 

I'm a victim of a successful advertising campaign!

[Fidcal]

I might order this. Friday I think it's out.

 

http://uk.ign.com/ar...shonored-review

[7upMan]

Seems Dishonored is the next big thing. To achieve a Metascore of 90 percent is no mean feat.

[Professor Paul1290]

I just got partway through the first assassination mission.

 

So far, I really really like this game. I will say that, setting and theme aside, a lot of areas do feel pretty Thief-like, especially indoors. It's not as much of a shadow-stealth and looting game as Thief (stealth is mostly line of sight), but it feels like the influence is definitely there.

 

If the first mission is anything to go by, they seem to have gone pretty far out of their way to construct significantly sized areas around the mission-relevant areas, enough to tuck several side-quests into the missions. There are plenty of places to loot if you feel like doing so. There are lot of buildings with a lot of entrances and a lot of streets that branch of into a lot of interestingly designed alleyways.

 

I also want to mention the mantling. Mantling in this game is pretty darn good. I'd say it feels a bit like TDM's mantling except more sped up.

I actually found myself trying to press C to mantle without jumping but that ended up with me crouching repeatedly.

 

 

One thing I would recommend for most people here is to set difficulty to "Hard" or "Very Hard" right off the bat. I started on "Very Hard" and it feels fairly comfortable, so I'm going to guess "Normal" in this game will be a bit too easy for some.

Edited October 9, 2012 by Professor Paul1290

[demagogue]

The Thief influence is unquestionably there.

 

All of you ought to get this game not least because two TTLG FM mappers made maps for it, Digi (who made the first two Cosas FMs) and Purah (who made Autumn in Lamfire Hills, Calendra's Cistern & Legacy). We should support our own.

[Fidcal]

I thought it wasn't out till Friday. Amazon only have it on pre-order still.

[demagogue]

It's out in the US today. I recall reading somewhere a UK release will be a bit delayed.

[Xarg]

The benefit to having the US get a lot of games a few days before the rest of the world - if it's awful, or has massive amounts of bugs, you can still cancel your pre-order.

[Melan]

My order at Amazon.co.uk lists Dishonored with an estimated dispatch date of 11 October, which is... tomorrow. Alas, I will be away for a week, so it will have to wait a bit.

[STiFU]

[brethren]

This game is a lot of fun so far with lots of options for different styles of gameplay. Definitely Deus Ex/Thief inspired in a whole lot of ways, but still a cool new IP on it's own too.

 

I think they borrowed a little something from TDM though - as soon as I jumped up on a ledge where pursuing AI couldn't reach me, they started throwing rocks at me.

[Professor Paul1290]

This game is a lot of fun so far with lots of options for different styles of gameplay. Definitely Deus Ex/Thief inspired in a whole lot of ways, but still a cool new IP on it's own too.

 

I think they borrowed a little something from TDM though - as soon as I jumped up on a ledge where pursuing AI couldn't reach me, they started throwing rocks at me.

 

 

I regret not having Fraps on at the time, because when they first started doing that I had one of my TDM "OW! Goddammit stop throwing rocks!" moments. XD

Edited October 10, 2012 by Professor Paul1290

[Fidcal]

Right - ordered for tomorrow. It was the rock-throwing that swung it. heehee! That is so Dark Mod they ought to pay us a licence fee.

[Professor Paul1290]

I just finished a run through Dishonored on "Very Hard" difficulty. It's definitely not a very long game, I finished it in 15 hours.

 

However, I have to say that was the best 15 hours I've gotten out of a AAA first person game since the original Deus Ex. In fact, I haven't liked a AAA game as much as I've liked Dishonored in a very long time.

 

I'll go even further than that, and say that for me Dishonored has already earned itself a place with the original Deus Ex and Thief 2 for re-playing at least once or twice a year. Yes, I like it that much.

 

 

To anyone here who's about to play this game:

-If you're comfortable with The Dark Mod you'll probably want to start Dishonored on Very Hard or Hard right away as the default difficulty is probably going to be too low for you.

-The interface is very hand-holding by default, but don't let this put you off because it has a TON of options to toggle various HUD elements on and off. I think I saw three different toggles related to how the items frob, so you can set things how you want here. The game seems to have options to turn off just about everything in the interface that may put off a hardcore Thief player.

-In addition to the above, don't be afraid to turn off objective markers here. Unlike certain other games that let you turn off objective markers, Dishonored's maps are actually designed to be navigable by eyes and common sense, so you can turn them off and not feel crippled.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Professor Paul1290

[Fidcal]

Now, that is really interesting. I usually play new games on easy so now I'm in a dilemma. I think I might compromise and go for 'hard'. As for time, I'm a slow player, savouring the minutes in the dark shadows. So long as there is not a time limit on objectives, it's likely I'll take much longer than 15 hours.

 

I hope all those options are available on the Xbox version.

[brethren]

Yeah, if you're used to TDM, I'd crank up the difficulty. I'm playing on Very Hard, and some areas are challenging but overall it's still smooth sailing. 15 hours seems like a bit of a speedrun, I played a more casual pace and tried to explore every inch of the first full level, and it took me an entire evening. That's with quite a few restarts and some experimentation too though. Overall, a really fun game, with not only decent stealth gameplay but a lot of references and nods to the Thief series.

[Professor Paul1290]

Now, that is really interesting. I usually play new games on easy so now I'm in a dilemma. I think I might compromise and go for 'hard'. As for time, I'm a slow player, savouring the minutes in the dark shadows. So long as there is not a time limit on objectives, it's likely I'll take much longer than 15 hours.

 

I hope all those options are available on the Xbox version.

 

I'm not sure about the Xbox version having as many interface options as I only have the PC version.

 

However, I can say that objectives don't have time limits for the most part.

I think the closest thing to a time limit I recall is that one of the assassination missions involved the target attempting to kill a possible secondary objective, but that didn't start until you reached that specific spot.

 

I think most former Thief players will spend the majority of their time in this game putting off the primary objectives and going around to exploring and loot everything, and this game actually seems to encourage that a lot.

Dishonored doesn't have loot goals, but amusingly at the end of the mission it does give you a loot count and tells you whether you've successfuly ghosted the mission.

 

 

As an amusing side note, I'm starting think "choffer" (not sure about the spelling) is Dishonored's equivalent of Thief's "taffer".

Edited October 11, 2012 by Professor Paul1290

[Fidcal]

Right thanks. This sounds better and better.

 

Choffer? Rock throwing? Really does seem to be thief and TDM-influenced. I wonder if it's got any religious sects with big hammers called eg, Mechanicalists? or Fabricators or something?

 

Anyway, I've got my confirm email for delivery tomorrow so I'll be looking out for that.

[Professor Paul1290]

Right thanks. This sounds better and better.

 

Choffer? Rock throwing? Really does seem to be thief and TDM-influenced. I wonder if it's got any religious sects with big hammers called eg, Mechanicalists? or Fabricators or something?

 

Anyway, I've got my confirm email for delivery tomorrow so I'll be looking out for that.

 

Well, there's a religious order called the "Abbey of the Everyman" that's the main religion of sorts (though they don't have big hammers). They're against a supernatural being worshipped by some heretics called "The Outsider".

[7upMan]

A question: Several German games magazines complain a way too easy enemy AI. Guards supposedly ignore you when you kill their comrades while hiding in the shadows, and they gladly run into those high-energy-barriers you just switched around to kill your enemies. Can you confirm that, or did those losers (they never mention the difficulty level they played on) play on Easy?

[Professor Paul1290]

I didn't notice the guards doing anything too jarringly stupid. If you rewire traps and such they do tend to run into them, but I didn't think this was a problem.

 

As for noticing you killing their comrads, I think they seemed to pick up on this just fine as far as I could tell. They found bodies I've left behind several times, and grabbing someone to knock them out didn't work too well if another guard looked in your direction or was standing too close.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by hiding in the shadows causing them to ignore you. Shadows don't really stop guards from detecting you in Dishonored unless you are pretty far away, otherwise they just delay the time it takes for them to recognize you as a threat.

At ranges close enough to melee or knock people out without using bullets or darts, stealth is more or less completely line of sight.

 

Then again, I played on "Very Hard" (the highest difficulty available at the moment) and I'm not sure how difficulty affects guard behavior.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Professor Paul1290