I haven't quite completed the game yet, but after 15 hours in (i'm quite close to the end, on normal difficulty with all ui elements disabled) I have more or less come to a conclusion about the game.

It's **** fantastic. Very well may be the best money I spent all year on games.

The stealth is engaging, the combat is visceral, the story is interesting, the visuals (i.e. environment design, art direction) are phenomenal -- probably the best I've seen since say, Bioshock. I wish I could give it a 10, but there's minor issues here and there that keep it from being perfect -- but it's definitely above a 9. 9.5 maybe.

Wow!… Expand

Although not a horrific game, I think this is a step back for the "Deus Ex genre" - or whatever you want to call it. A hybrid of stealth and action - the action falls flat. You can run and gun in this game, but there's no omph to it. It's on par with the original Deus Ex in terms of pure gunplay. Or, maybe that's too generous - Deus Ex gives you a wide array of weapons over a decade ago. In Dishonored, you have three kinds of bolts to hurl with your tiny dart-slinger, and a shabby pistol. Action just isn't there, with gameplay revolving around running straight at enemies, using up your small ammunition stockpile, and then chugging mana potions while you hurl rats and wind about. There's very little to engage you, as most of the levels are extremely linear if you choose to take the action route. ||| The stealth side of things is better than I was expecting, but most of the depth of stealth is lost thanks to Blink. Granted, you can choose not to use the spell, but the stealth is balanced around it. And choosing not to use it simply makes every level a chore. In Deus Ex, sneaking involves passing through guard patrols, crawling through vents, utilizing security systems, and hacking. In Dishonored, stealth is patiently waiting about for your enemies to turn their heads toward the sea for a moment and seldom more than that. Occasionally you encounter a security system you need to bypass, but the ways of approaching those security systems involve blink, at least until you can slow down time. ||| What I'm trying to imply is that the depth of choice in Dishonored falls a little flat. It's easy to see that they tried, but the most striking failure of Dishonored is its lame level design. For a game as short as it is (… Expand

Another game that makes me feel increasingly alienated from this industry. There's been put a lot of talent, work and energy into this game, including marketing that promotes Dishonored to be about solving things in a creative way. All this is kinda sad, since ultimately, Dishonored plays just like another blockbuster which you'll forget about before tomorrow. Because: 1.) Stealth-gameplay is you waiting for enemies to look away, nothing more, because light isn't regarded, for example, i.e. enemies see you just as well/badly in broad daylight as within total darkness. Also, you only have really few options to be stealthy besides the "Blink"-skill, especially if you want to do it non-lethally (options: sleeping darts and choking... that's it, 2 options, there isn't even a blackjack). 2.) Action: Trying out the various gadgets and skills to lethally engage enemies seems nice, but just as with stealth, there isn't much tactics involved - it's repeating the same process over and over again, the skills just make it look differently. 3.) Personally, the seemingly unnecessary, overdrawn brutality you are invited to perform or is performed visually and story-wise just turns me off.. I never had any problems with the gore of the Dooms and Quakes and what not, 'cause they were silly games. But games like this, somehow, for my taste, are just... no, thank you... Feels like today's games are trying hard to impress little boys who want to be "really bad-as*", if you allow me that snappy remark.… Expand

I can't understand how people give this game a ten. This is game is not bad by any stretch of imagination, but some people stating how this is one of the best games ever is quite frankly astonishing. Yes, you have some nice little toys to use at your disposal, but when it comes down to it it actually feels limited. The stealth part of the game is basically limited to using the blink ability, a standard choke and an odd sleeping dart thrown in. When the **** hits the fan and enemies come from all angles the game turns into a mess and rushed and you feel never in control of the situation, unless you waste a whole mana potion slowing down time, but then it becomes a walk in the park with no challenge. Being in a shadow or in the light makes no difference, it's just same boring pattern of hiding behind a box waiting for the person to turn around and to then sneak up (blinking) for the quick choke...the textures also look horrendous, and the character development is non existent, quite honestly I couldn't give a **** about any of the characters. The plot twist can also be seen a mile away and is the same plot twist that plagues the film and gaming scene. You'll see what I mean when you get to that point. Like I said the game has nice features and is worth a look if you like this kind of genre, but it doesn't come close compared to the classics of Thief and Deus Ex.… Expand

I decided to play Dishonored because all the major critics were raving about it, I started it up on my PC after watching the cinematic trailer. Let me ask you a question, do you love Deus Ex? If you answered yes to that question then I think you'll enjoy what little time you get with Dishonored (And I mean little.) I disliked the game for a number of let me lay them on the table here.

1). Terrible narrative, and overall bad character development.
2). Linear (With branching paths) gameplay.
3). Heavily broken gameplay.
4). Deus Ex Human Revolution STEAMPUNK STYLE!
5). Feels like the art designer at 2K helped... The style is very similar

So let's talk about the narrative. I didn't care about Corvo, nor did I care about the little girl he should be saving, I found that even the villains are boring and not worth my time. I haven't seen such stiff lifeless looking characters since 2004... The characters do not feel alive, or even well animated, before you go running to that whole "It's not supposed to look realistic!" Yeah I realize that but the animations should have looked better, this part of the game just felt really unpolished and pulled me out of the immersion. I didn't find the story original. The whole "I want revenge for being betrayed BWAHHH!" is so overdone I could have done with out it, and the twists in the games story are just, well let's say that I don't know very many people that wouldn't see them coming. The gameplay is the big thing here though right? Wrong the "Play the way you want" model is the oldest trick in the book, the illusion of control. You do have several ways that you can complete the missions set in front of you, and let me tell you killing people in a number of ways, or knocking them unconscious has never felt so dull. I found that a lot of your options start feeling less like options and more like toys to play with, witch is neat except that I got that little feeling in the back of my mind that made me realize that they weren't as rewarding as they probably meant for them to be. I felt like even though my options were open they were limited. If you'd like to kill you have a nice set of gameplay styles to choose from like razor mines, a pistol, a crossbow for silent takedowns, even the sword takedowns pretty nifty to be absolutely honest, if you want to do the whole non-lethal thing though well... You get sleep darts, and chokeholds, that's all folks! not many options in there. Your essentially given the most game breaking skill right off the bat and that's the blink skill. Blink allows you to teleport anywhere you aim. Blink is neat but it makes the game amazingly easy even on hard. and I couldn't justify why it felt so limitless. The false feeling of progress also felt really empty to me with the game giving me dozens of objects to pick up! It felt almost like the game kept trying to give me depth but it just felt so shallow. The AI is ludicrously stupid, I found myself easing by them all the time, and if you want to kill easy, stop time! The game feels very borrowed, I didn't feel one ounce of originality or a sense of fleshed out personality from this game. "Deus Ex did it better" were the words that kept crossing my mind. I realize that the whole cyberpunk thing doesn't appeal to everyone and this steampunkish styled world might come off a bit more appealing to others! Well good news it does do a decent enough job at giving you an interesting idea. I enjoyed as much of Dishonored's setting as I did skyrim's arrow to the knee crap... It felt bland and lifeless, and once again I find myself comparing it to the all mighty Deus Ex. Have you ever played Bioshock? Great game, I enjoyed it tons! This game feels like it stole that charm. I feel like the art design for the game just felt old out-dated and bland. Bioshock had this way of letting us feel interested in the world around us, it thrusted us a man of mystery and unknowing into a world full of the same, and made us feel interested and charmed. Dishonored feels so borrowed and so un-original I don't recommend buying it if you played Bioshock, or Deus Ex. The game is REALLY short, ends suddenly, and becomes tedious. I think though if you haven't played a lot of games, and you by chance did touch those two games I mentioned because they're settings and plot didn't interest you, you might like it. I won't say it's a bad game but it is definitely overrated. I beat it twice and liked some of it, but I will admit to you that it in the end had a very, very, very, very hard time holding my interest... So if you want more of what Deus Ex had to offer but want a cut-short and flat feeling experience go for it.

Overall I'd say pass.… Expand

It's a Bethesda-published game, which means that it does the same thing every single other Bethesda-published games does: Completely fail to live up to expectations. I went in to this game expecting a nice mix of Thief, Bioshock, and a little Assassin's Creed, and I got a heap of average gameplay mixed in with a below average story. Let me start with the thing that bothered me the most: The story. In short, there's hardly a story in the first place, let alone a compelling one. The story is a cliche-ridden mess without an interesting beginning or a satisfying ending. I cannot care for any of these characters because I don't know them, nor can I connect with any of them. I cannot care for what happens to the city or the world around me because the game fails to immerse you beyond some supposed good gameplay. My second main complaint is the gameplay itself. It's average in its best parts, and completely vanilla in the rest of it. Swordplay is a joke, number one. It's completely uninteresting because of so few mechanics in play. Simple complexity is what a game should strive for, not plain simple. The stealth mechanics are DATED. There are many things that some be intertwined with the stealth side of the game that simply don't exist. The main problem of this is that the AI is dumb as a rock. I'm not expecting geniuses everywhere, but I AM expecting the enemy to wake up an unconscious comrade, run to a superior to call reinforcements, and to overall be much more aware after spotting me, or a fallen ally. The AI is the most simple you can get in a game like this: Once they lose sight of you, they lose all memory of you. They ignore dead bodies after 10 seconds, and they don't attempt to help each other. This makes the game WAY too easy. The only way to get any real difficulty is to remove the UI completely, never use your powers, and attempt to get the no-kill and the ghost bonuses, as well as collecting everything. And even then, it would just be time consuming, not truly hard. The animations and graphics, while secondary, are also pretty average. Animation is stiff, the graphics are standard and unimpressive. This is a shame, because the art style and the art direction appear to be pretty good; but they're held back by these things.
Even the game's good points are marred by either laziness or lack of explanation. The world is interesting, and I love the setting, but after the end of the game, I understand very little of it because it simply was not explained, and barely even touched upon. The setting allowed for some interesting elements to happen, but they simply didn't because of the simplistic gameplay, the lack of proper story-telling, and the apparently lack of simple EFFORT. My favorite thing about this game is both the setting and the sounds as a whole. I love both of them, but neither of them can carry this game to a better rating.
And finally; the biggest failure of this game is that it seems like the devs got all the basic stuff covered and simply didn't continue from there. This is a basic, BASIC game, and these days that simply doesn't cut it. It's a painfully average experience.

If you've already purchased the game; I'm sorry.
If you plan to; Don't. Rent it and see if you feel the same.
If you somehow think this game is still amazing; Well, good for you. I wish I could think the same.… Expand

I have to agree with others that have said this game is nothing special. It has a nice, Bioshock-style retro theme, and that's all this game has. If it had a contemporary theme and everything else was the same, everyone would be calling this the tedious piece of unremarkable **** it is. It's just boring. Bioshock has already done all this, but in a much more engaging way.

I just finished the game and I can say it's simply fantastic. Ignore all of the people saying it's "just hype" or "nothing new" because I honestly have no idea what these people are talking about. Dishonored offers it's own feel with a taste of cartoony graphics in a gritty steam punk world, with excellent and complex gameplay to compliment it. The story is good and though the missions are linear, the missions themselves are a sort of open area where there are many side missions. If you rush through the game like a lunatic you'll probably finish the game quick like a good number of foolish reviewers...but if you actually take your time and play the game it'll last a fair amount of time, maybe just a tad short. Make sure to note that the "choose your own way to do the mission" holds true throughout the entire game, Dishonored does this extremely well.

It's not about making some original amazing breakthrough game that'll make you go insane with astonishment like many seem to think, it's about making a fun game. All in all, no what you say about how original or good it is, it's definitely a very fun game that's worth your time.… Expand

It should have been called "Dishonest" - this game delivers NOTHING it promises

Stealth gameplay? Sure, if you consider teleportation and basic "attack-from-behind or only at extreme distance" stealth. Light and shadow have NO impact whatsoever..enemies all have night vision, which YOU have to buy with a precious upgrade. There's also NO way to knock out enemies once they spot you except for a crossbow with sleep darts. Mind you that killing people makes the game get uglier, more rats and zombies and an even MORE terrible ending. Its like the devs were just laughing as they made this game thinking of how mad the Thief and Deus Ex fans would get when they realized they'd been f*#ked. 90% of everything in this game is stolen from Bioshock, Half Life II and other games - they don't even try to hide it. Anyone who says this is an "open world" is LYING. An "open world" is what you get with TES or FO..this is nothing like that. Its just levels with invisible walls like 99% of the games you've played before. Duke Nukem 3D was more "open world" than this!! The game is a cakewalk if you just kill everything which seems to be what the designers wanted. You're so overpowered by the second mission that you can clear a level in under 10 minutes if you want to..everything is handed to you on a platter, there's no real "searching" for anything. You even have a stupid BEATING HEART you carry around that points you to everything of interest, maybe the biggest joke I've EVER seen in a game. I bet the designers thought that was really edgy, LOL! There's a million empty bottles with nothing in them - well except for a few that explode a little (not enough to hurt anything but YOU). Low-quality graphics, stupid and useless abilities..I could go on but why bother? Name any game of this kind made in the last 10 years - its better than Dishonest-errr, DisHONORED.… Expand

I was really looking forward to something fresh or new alternate to the fps and rpg genres. Despite all the good review, the game was not mind-blowing or freshly innovative as the hype claimed. The graphics and plot to the game are good but that seems to be the only thing that keeps this game afloat. Personally, I would rather save the cost and buy some good old game like Fallout 3 or wait for the new release of Bioshock Infinite. After completing 3 missions the game was not thrilling enough to pull me back to play again-not better than something of Assassin's Creed stature.… Expand

This game is plan and simple overrated lacking in numerous areas for its hype. The game is an assassination game that punishes you for killing people. The more people you kill the higher your chaos meter rises leading you to one of two game endings. It is more of a stealth hide from people and choke them out game. The graphics are cheap water color texture that while some say is "artsy" is just in all honesty cheap and unfinished. It looks like a PS2 or Iphone game. The stealth mechanics do not work well and hand to hand combat is atrocious consisting of holding down block then clicking your mouse to counter. No combat, no real stealth mechanics, where is this awesome gameplay again? The only three things that are fun are "blink" which allows you basically spring forward, possessing animals, or stopping time. Far from revolutionary and amazing. Sound is awful and so are character models. There is "free running" like most open world games offer now.

High action? Far from it. If you want a high action game go play one of the new batman's or assassins creed. This may be a decent game and give you some moderate entertainment for the VERY short play through, but it is by no means acceptable as a "blockbuster" or game of the year.… Expand

The story is horrible, the writing and voice acting are even worse. The game's concept and location are cool but the gameplay mechanics don't work most of the time. This game is extremely overrated just like ever other game Bethesda publishes.

This is a ok game, not more than that. The story it's not good, don't have tha "feeling" at all. The graphics are PS3 graphics, it can be ok for a PS3 game, but not for a PC game. The Stealth its not so stealth, the combats are stupids

I don't get all the hype about this game, the producers are good peoples, the bethesda is great but this game sucks
I really want to like this game, but...

I've come to expect nothing less from Arkane. Dishonored is everything you could have hoped for in a new IP and more. The beauty and functionality of this game far exceed any idea of standards I may have had. Simply a joy to play....art in motion. Bravo.

Picked up this game without watching any trailers and the moment I got the controls, Skyrim and Thief: Deadly Shadows popped up in my head like a prostitute wearing a party hat out of a cake. While by no means lacking in quality, the graphics are great, (For PC) story is decent and the game offers new ways to explore the sneaking-around genre with various "magic" abilities. The lacking parts however, are quite severe. The more people you kill, the worse ending you'll get and you cannot render enemies unconscious in combat by say, a club weapon or with the hilt of your sword but you must instead strangle them from behind (while undetected) or shoot expensive "Sleeping" bolts into their faces (In which you can only carry a maximum of 10 with upgrades). Challenge or not, you'll be extremely disappointed at the moments you simply must kill to progress in missions (Some allow a non-lethal approach but you'll still draw blood on some), leaving any kind of 100% perfect play-through impossible. I found myself just running through the entire game by repeatedly gulping down mana potions and stopping time because rendering enemies unconscious was an insane bother, like having to ride a unicycle up a mountain instead of taking the sky-lift. For sh!t and giggles, i went ahead and took Hardcore on my second play-through and wouldn't you know it, the game is still dirt-easy. Sadly a flaw that will forever appear in console-ports like this even if they do a good job with most of the stuff, the rest will be sticking out like a huge pimple.… Expand

I've played several hours of this game, and so far there's nothing to dislike in the slightest. Intricate and interesting plot/setting/characters, excellent stealth, fighting, etc. mechanics for your choice of play style, gorgeous painting-like graphics that run really easy on a system but look great, etc. My prediction that this would be the best singleplayer of 2012 looks like it's coming true.

[For PC] It could have been so much better. Thats the feeling I got both times I completed this game, the first time i went through with a combination of stealth and brutality - i sneakily killed everyone. Second time I went through like a ghost, killed no one and aimed for an alternative ending. The mechanics of the game are fun - however theres so many places it could have been better, for example - no matter what difficulty setting, this game is way too easy - the AI are thick and for whatever reason your char is blessed with godly powers over your enemies who, in any number are completely at your mercy. yet, its still fun. The plot is awful, its execution is slightly worse. They use this loosely coupled slot as a means of producing levels, each level gets "harder" but only terms of the number of guards, watch towers, tall boys and gates. I don't think that multiplying the amount of dumb NPCs dotted around the level is really a progression. It gets dull after a while. each level is somewhat open-world and there are many ways you can achieve your objectives. In this sense it kinda works but in reality your scored on key things and if you, at all care about your score and the outcome of the game, suddenly your options become limited to a very linear step by step process your being guided through by the AI and clues shoved directly under your nose in case you missed them. Other games like this, hitman, deus ex to name a few have all been compared to this game countless times and many of us went in with some expectations. its not like any of them. This game is entirely "Console", it's perfect for chilling on the sofa and playing without giving it your full attention. PC Gamers tend to look for an immersive experience with plenty of choice and feeling. This game lacks both - it's linear and its easy. I still played through it twice though!… Expand

Incredible. And I thought Borderlands 2 was GOTY. WOW. I'm blown away, it's a perfect mix of Bioshock, Deus EX and Assassins Creed, or it's a one of a kind masterpiece. Incredible. Just finished my second playthrough and it just keeps surprising you with all the choices you can make. Can't wait for round 3.

One review for this game mentioned something about it being like Deus Ex and Bioshock had a beautiful child. A beautiful one, perhaps, but not a bright one. It takes a little from several games and doesn't really do anything special with it. The Good:

Powers are interesting and the horribly overpowered Blink can be quite a lot of fun. The world does look great, despite the character models. There's also the option of neutralizing your targets by methods other than murder, which is something I'd like to see more in games.

The Bad:

I can't really say it's boring, but the story certainly was. When the 'twist' came up, it was expected and I was a little disappointed that I had obviously finished that much of the game so quickly. It didn't help that we have yet another silent protagonist, which makes it tougher to care. Did he like the empress? Was he her lover/friend, or did he resent her for some reason? We'll never know, and the main motive being given is simple revenge which came off as, "STFU and play the game already". The interactions with Emily were nice, provided you chose to do them and chose the less deadly options.

The morality system was a major source of contention for me. For starters, it affects Emily's actions and outlook, and it bothers me that it's not explained how she or anyone else found out about whether or not anyone died. Sure, it could have been overheard, but with the ruling power being like it is, that's the sort of propaganda they're likely to spit out, regardless of what happened. Secondly, Corvo is frequently referred to as an assassin, but killing is what you get punished for. I should add that if you decide to go the non-lethal route, you'll be very limited in your choice of weapons. There is a round of ammo that puts enemies to sleep but, with a maximum of 10 rounds, you'll run out very quickly. Art style for the characters is pretty terrible with the exception of Emily and the Empress. Maybe this was done to reflect how monstrous the new regime is and if that's the case, congratulations are in order.

Finally, there's the stealth. Unless you're completely behind something or too far away, enemies will spot you. Staying in shadows is almost meaningless in this game. The lead level designer said, "In Thief the light is very very important. At the beginning we tried to be in the same mood: use the light, use the shadows. But we realised that when you're standing in front of an NPC like this [hand in front of face] it's not realistic - we must admit that. In the real world it's not like this."

Yes, we realize that it's not realistic, and there's an explanation as to why Garrett can do that. It just seems odd that someone would, in effect, say, "I'm sorry, it's not realistic for our rat summoning, teleporting, time stopping, body possessing, wind controlling, wall seeing through protagonist to do that because it's not like that in the real world." The other half of the claim is that the art direction inhibited this. Okay, got me there when you get to a well lit area, but what about when it's dark? To sum up, it's not a terrible game, but doesn't really deserve to be compared with the titans that are frequently mentioned, . Certainly not worth paying $50 or $60 bucks for, just wait until there's a huge discount on Steam or rent it. I'd give it a 4.5, but I don't have that option.

Let me rebut some comments here: "You rushed through the game!" I did not rush through the game intentionally. I read everything that could be read and listened to all the conversations and recordings (My favorite was when the guards were talking about how Corvo was probably hiding somewhere near them). "You can add a lot of game time just by doing it in stealth!" And? That's only a justification for a lack of content. How would you feel about a 2 hour FPS with 15 difficulty modes? That's 30 hours of gameplay!

"I don't understand why people are saying there's nothing new." That means you missed out on one or several of Bioshock, Deus Ex, Thief, and many other games with stealth or morality options. If there is something new, someone, PLEASE, enlighten me.

"It's a sandbox!" Not even close. You get taken area to area. Sure, you can explore a little, not like Elder Scrolls or Fallout though. You don't even have the option to go back to those areas unless you're required to by the plot. "People who don't like this game are too used to hand holding." Please. For starters, personal insults don't explain why you like it or why I'm wrong. Secondly, these are opinions which will vary wildly depending on the experience of the user. I played the games this one is being likened to back when they came out, so I see it as a copy of those. Thirdly, what do you call it when you have an item that tells you where items are, as well as UI markers telling you where to go?… Expand

Its overrated.

Terrible graphics and extremely short game-play.

Its very basic, just keep killing on and on.

Not challenging and quite straight forward.

Overall, its still a good game but its not worth the money.

WAY too easy! Even on very hard with all notifications off, cross hair off, using no bone charms and leveling up nothing ect the game is a cakewalk. There's not much challenge at all and it's a real shame.

It's still a great game but that really holds it back from being one the greatest games of all time.

Mehhh. Game is just o.k. It's such an obvious console game that it really feels kinda scrub on the PC. Illusion of choice in all the levels, because they are actually quite linear. The game basically punishes you for killing people, so the "right" way to play it is to avoid everything and not kill anyone. This basically ruins the point of using all the cool powers and weapons. My biggest complaint however is you basically HAVE to keep the power that lets you see through walls on 24/7. Without it you are at a huge disadvantage. The problem is this means you're playing in washed-out sepia mode with annoying music / sound the entire game. Could it have killed them to put in an enemy radar?

Rent it, don't buy it.… Expand

Providing some balance to all the paid reviews :) If I was being totally honest, I'd give Dishonored a 3 (4 at most) for being unoriginal, lying about the stealth gameplay and other inexcusable design flaws. Sooo obvious it wasn't finished when they released it..tons of stuff they reference that ends up being placeholders. DO NOT BUY. If this gets GOTY from *anyone* it will only be due to bribery.… Expand

Here's what right with this game: * It doesn't crash. * Most of the voice acting is OK, but not without issues (see below). * It runs pretty well with everything maxed on a system that was considered high-end two years ago. Here's what's wrong with this game: * Everything from plot to mechanical design to you-name-it is a derivative mish-mash of Half-Life II and Bioshock, with a dash of FEAR, Assassin's Creed and even Oblivion tossed in for bad measure. Its painfully hacked together and non-cohesive, like the devs were fighting over which game world they most wanted to copy. Ironically, there are a few legitimately creative strokes tossed in, but their mostly lost in the noise. The backstory is almost painfully contorted to explain the bizarre mix. NOTE: I have only gotten through (I believe) about half of the game so maybe - just maybe - it makes a little more sense later on..but I doubt it.
* The graphics are about four years out of date. The male faces are hideous, hopefully due to a limitation of the Unreal engine and not artistic intent. Tim Burton wouldn't make men this unattractive, or women this identical. Even the dogs are ugly.
* Music, visual design, most of the characterization and plot elements make for a brooding, dark and depressing atmosphere. Seriously, does every game need to go down this road? I know its supposed to be a region gripped by plague, dark mysticism and a totalitarian conspiracy, but..sheesh, enough already! Not every setting needs to be an Orwellian zombie apocalypse. (Yes, Dishonored has zombies. Sigh.)
* The voice acting is decent and better than most Bethesda titles, but the R-rated swearing seems out of place in this steampunk world. It definitely hurts immersion.
* If you're going to sell a game as having multiple playstyles, then by the Nine you best deliver. Dishonored fails utterly in this regard. Killing is supposed to be optional, but good luck with that effort. First off, there is no way to disable an opponent in combat except by using sleep bolts in your crossbow. Once you've lost the element of surprise you can't choke out a person or dog (yes, I did this to a dog one time but it never gave me the option again). You play the royal bodyguard, one of the best fighters in the land, and you don't know how to knock a guy out? Hell, you've got a flintlock with a huge club-like butt - that's what it was designed for. You can carry ten sleep bolts and there are only a handful scattered through the missions I've played - and some are fairly hard to reach if you didn't put everything into movement powers. You can buy sleep bolts between missions and some missions have vendors who will sell them at an exorbitant fee, but if you rely on them for non-lethal takedowns you will run out eventually. BTW, you can upgrade your carrying capacity for normal bolts to 20. Normal bolts do damage and are an easy button for killing at range, superior to your useless pistol in nearly every situation. In fact, on the hardest difficulty the game presents no real challenge if you simply kill everything you see. But that's the real kicker with Dishonored: the game makes murder a cinch and then punishes you for killing. The city gets nastier and the game ending will get "darker" as your body count grows. I might add that anyone who dies during combat with you, be it from falling off a bridge or friendly fire from other NPCS, counts as one of your kills. I'm pretty certain even the dogs count as your kills.
* You only see your progress stats when a mission ends (i.e. body count, runes found, etc).
* There are some technical problems, at least on my system. The savegame routine is horribly botched and provides no way to identify saves other than which mission and level their from. Worse, it seems that old autosaves are never really deleted and pollute the list when you're trying to load a game. Trying to figure out which save is the one you need is a horrible sort of mini-game and hearkens back to the worst of Bethesda's sloppy programming (although Bethsoft may have nothing to do with the actual game design or coding). Sometimes character voices sound like their coming from the environment Corvo is in rather than the one they actually occupy. You'll be standing just outside the door to a tunnel and the NPC's voice will have no echo, as if he were right beside you. This makes for some confusing positional audio, making the bogus stealth gameplay even more of a joke.

To sum it up, this is a game that promises beauty, originality and multiple playstyles and delivers none of those things. Its a pretty stable console port of a mediocre game with confused, misleading design. I'd skip it or at least wait for some serious patches before giving it a go. And another thing: its very obvious there's paid reviewing going on with Dishonored. Don't think we don't notice, Bethesda.… Expand

Dishonored provides solid assassin gaming experience but remains very short. Some of the skills in the game make playing almost too easy. Graphics are a bit old compared to now days standards but it doesn't ruin the game.

TL;DR: The stealth and non-lethal portions of this game are weak when compared to similar games of it's type. The mechanics are not as good as others of similar style. It manages to break suspension of disbelief multiple times. The mechanics of the game are in the way of the game itself.

I tried very hard to like this game. I put in over 7 hours of play time, so I did indeed give it a fair shake. It contains many of the elements I enjoy. Stealth, no need to kill, cool abilities, and the ability to slow time. Your actions will even affect the later parts of the story, and even the ending. Yet for some odd reason, I was quite bored. Playing the game in stealth & non-lethal limits you to just two weapons (one type of ammo for the crossbow, and unarmed choke holds), which means an entire part of the game is unavailable to you. Yet the game strongly pushes you towards non-lethal by giving you a happier ending, and future areas are easier the less you kill. So on one hand it punishes you for being non-lethal, and on the other hand it pushes you to being lethal. It's not that the story really encourages either, it's that the game mechanics do.

The graphics and controls very much felt like a console game. Many of the controls were very awkward on a computer to start with. For example, to slide you hold shift and w, and at the last second tap c. Sure it's a doable combo, but it's awkward. Sure, the controls can be remapped. But it's just an example of how the entire game is meant for console.

The stealth is not very realistic when compared to other games. It only takes into account cover, and not things like shadows. Enemies don't think to ever look up, so if you go up, the game is too easy.

Once you are spotted, you have very little options for non-lethal. So your best option is to run and hide, and try again, which is very much a "two steps forward one step back" approach. So instead it's best to just sneak around choking people until spotted, and then reload.

Overall the mechanics of the game very much got in the way of the game itself. The UI often times was disruptive.… Expand

It's mediocre fun, as i knew it would be. In all honesty i prefer the old Thief over this thing any day. It has a lot of good ideas, albeit sometimes poorly executed. It demands a very high suspension of disbelief, even with menial things. The AI is surprisingly dumb. It seemingly boasts with open world and lots of choices, but that's a lie. There's only one large area and a dozen doors leading to a handful of other, smaller areas. It tries very hard to be the Thief of this generation but humbly fails, in my opinion. I read somewhere that Dishonored's stealth system that was supposed to be based on Thief's but was discarded because it was too "unrealistic". Instead they put a system where the only direction an enemy faces is straight, so even in broad daylight you can stand above an enemy's line of sight and they'll be none the wiser. There's also the superpower that lets you see through walls. I really don't get if they were being sarcastic, or just plain old stupid, but there it is. The story is a cliche mish-mash, set in a fantastic but very unbelievable world. All in All, i liked playing it for a short while, but when i stopped there was no real craving for another run. After Thief 2 I was left with a void for a good sneaker installment (Thief 3 was ridiculous, aside from the Asylum mission). This comes close, but i don't think this is IT. Rent before buy is my advice. It might not be your 50$ cup of tea.… Expand

Everything about this game was well designed. I loved the story and the quality of voice acting and characterization in this game was incredible. The characters had very good detailed models and the art style, although it can easily make you perceive the game to be bad graphics, was actually very good quality.

I didn't find the story short, however it was also not too long such that it felt as though it dragged on. I honestly think it was pretty much the perfect length. My only complaint is that one part of the game seemed unnecessarily boring and slow, a part in the sewers.
Asides from that the story was well paced and enjoyably long, lasting a full week of quite high playtime. In my opinion, well worth the money

The mechanics were fluid and you could easily just spam off abilities and murder everyone crazily and the game will still be fun. I personally went for the stealth approach and still found the game incredibly enjoyable.

In terms of good design, the fact that steam achievements that pertained to the story were hidden to prevent spoiling the story blew my mind because it was the first time I had come across a developer taking such a simple step to keep the player experience from being spoiled.

Another example of good design I experienced was (to prevent spoilers I'll stay vague) when there was an escort type mission (there only was one) to protect a group of people, my initial reaction was eye-roll as my experiences with these types of missions tend to be me running around frantically diving in front of bullets secret service style in order to protect the mindlessly running NPC's.
However what I actually found was that the NPC's would wait patiently and intuitively hide in their initial building beside an alley way until I stepped out into full view in the alley way, thereafter taking that as their cue to run across.

The levels were filled with lots of incredibly nice looking environments and lots of cool little side missions that you could stumble across if you were paying attention (saving a civilian from a bad situation involving guards that you can just stumble across, for example).

The characters were VERY thoroughly developed, with each character having a heap of voice lines to pull from at each stage of the game. On top of that there were audio logs and diaries that they kept. All three of these aspects would change as you progressed with the story.

I have to say, this game was the single most enjoyable game I've played in a long time.

Looking at other reviews I can see that people are making stupid comparisons with other games. People need to realise that not every game ever being made is trying to copy the same set of old games (either Half Life 2, Deus Ex or Bioshock), and stop being pretentious **** They made sequels to all those games and people are still not happy.

Also "Deus Ex" is NOT a GENRE of game.

Honestly, 10/10 would buy again.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Dishonored is fun, but it is certainly not the 8.7 reviewers give it. The game is really linear. Although the levels are large, you end up going back to the same areas. Another problem is that the gameplay is very repetitive. I spent most of the game hiding behind boxes with dark vision on. Jump out when they turn around and knock em out. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum until you've beaten the game. This game really reminded me of the old Thief series, just not as much fun. Although this is a stealth game most of the upgrades are for combat. Of all the runes and weapon upgrades most were pointless. You could easily beat the game with just the starting equipment and no runes or charms.

My biggest problem was the silly story. It was painfully obvious that you were going to be betrayed by the loyalists from the beginning. The dialouge was sooooo boring, and little to do with what you actually do in the levels. Graphically the game was OK, but not incredible. I have to give this game a 6.5 out of 10.… Expand

I beat this game on the hardest level in under 15 hours on my first go, killing almost no-one. I wanted to go for the "ghost" achievement as well (as I normally do) but it is impossible to tell if an NPC has spotted you or not. As, is my first complaint, there is no meaningful indication to if you are hidden or not or if you have been 'spotted'/ Peeking over corners and sides always puts you in line of sight, and it's basically luck if they see you or not (reminiscent of FPS mode in Metal Gear Solid 2). NPCs will start looking for you on one side of the map if you throw an empty bottle on the other. The entire hide and seek system is wonky and unnatural feeling.

I've been told this game is a sandbox and I'm playing it wrong. But how can you have a sandbox game with linear objectives (even the "alternative methods" present themselves linearly) and static environments. You can't blow up walls, knock over things, or put anything to use in the environment. The extent of environment interaction is turning off a barricade, disabling a turret, throwing empty bottles or throwing explosive barrels, take your pick. Oh also, this is a level based game… Expand

Best game I have played since Skyrim! Has a bioshock feel to the artstyle and atmosphere, and the controls and gameplay are amazing! I finished the game and started it again almost directly afterwards and am having even more fun the second playthrough!

It's a pretty game. It looks old, but artistic direction does turn out here and there. That's probably the best thing I can say. Everything else is just so incredibly, incredibly bland and dull that I don't know where to start. Okay, let's start from the beginning: the story. You're thrown into it and from first 5 minutes (of which you barely understand anything besides plague and assasination), it's clear that story continues to be a experiment on writing a novel by a professional welder or truck driver. I literally had zero interest, let alone emotion as introductory part unfolderd. Next, steampunk. Now, steampunk settings in a computer game means usually 3 things: level design consists of pipes (excuse to be lazy), you'll be collecting cogs and scrap metal (why?), and third, whole point of thing is to avoid being creative and use conventional weapons and gear with some gears and cogs attached to fake unique look. It's all true with this one. Plus, steampunk always results in games that has story which falls flat, fails to be comprehensible or stops to be interesting. True again. To sum it up, it's somewhat pretty and incredibly boring first person shooter/Bioshock clone which I have no intention to complete, ever. Simply because I fall asleep after half-hour of a gameplay. Also, it's clearly evident that this is no PC game, even despite the port and very stable running in my experience. From general game mechanics to oversimplified combat and non-existent stealth, this game has nothing to do with PC gaming. I guess you could hook a gamepad to your pc and play it as a console game, but why in the hell would you want to do that? PC has way more first person shooters, which, for start, are GOOD. Dishonored is not.… Expand

Great job Arkane Studios!!! Let me start by admitting that Dishonored is not a flawless game. The AI and the stealth system could use some improvement (better overall AI, and a stealth system more similar to Thief's Dark Engine). The game has great art design and story (a little bit predictable, but still good...). The music and sound effect are really good. The city of Dunwall, which is modeled after late 1800s-early 1900s London and Edinburgh is just amazing!!! The world of Dishonored is rich and complex.

I enjoyed the non-linear and flexible maps, and the different powers the player can upgrade during the campaign! That adds a lot of replay value to the game!

I wish there have been more weapons in the game...
A Great overall game!!!… Expand

Despite its a solid game, i think its overrated. Its more a "Deus Ex want to be" game than it is. The Story is okay, and the idea is working. But the gameplay is just to linear. Its more a simpler gameplay version of Deus Ex mixed with the World of Half-Life 2. The weapons are more or less to weak. If you want to play stealthy you never can do other things guards hear your silent bow trough walls. So the "silent" way is always getting behind enemy's, one by one.

Its not bad at all, but it could be so much more. And so DX and DX:HR are the better alternatives.
And maybe there has been some cuts for being playable on consoles what it makes it to simple to play.

I would rate it lower just because it was so much hyped.… Expand

all i can say is meh. the graphics are circa 2009 and the pc port looks terrible. it just does. Unreal Engine 3 shows many signs of wear. the gameplay feels like thief + assassins creed in first person. the game is not a true open world fps, where the "open" element exists within the confined areas you are given to do missions. i felt on a rail the entire game. item finding to build powers makes it feel like sleeping dogs. there is no sense of vulnerability in Dishonored game. i never once felt threatened by anything that attacked me due to the overpowering abilities i had. to add to that, the A.I. is pretty horrific. its great to have alot of options when you want to kill people, but what is the point if they are just cannon fodder and stupid as bricks. its like wayne gretzky playing in the minor leagues. dialogue is nothing more than scripted cutscenes with no choice from the player. really hate to say it, but i feel let down.… Expand

This game touts itself as a game that lets you play your way..... It is not..... Everything is spoon-fed to you. You cannot beat this game even on the easiest difficulty without using your crappy unbalanced magic... The mask that you wear is just that...... a mask..... Oh wait... It's got a completely worthless zoom function? That makes it all better.... The gunplay sucks, the swordplay sucks, the story is ok. The world is pretty cool...
This game just failed to impress..... When this game hits the bargain bin, pick it up. At $60 it's not worth it...… Expand

It's one of those games that you start playing with your "positive" glasses on because of the hype from critics, reviews and a respectable studio name. As you play, you slowly start picking up on negatives and after a while all you can see are the negatives and you find yourself wondering if any of these critics played the whole game before giving it a 100. The atmosphere and the setting is impressive and it gives you a good start, but once you get accustomed to these factors you start looking for more. That… Expand

New and innovative is something I reserve for games like Portal - which brought a whole new dimension to FPS strategy, or From Dust which built on the Populas idea with a refreshing new twist. Generally speaking the new and innovative these days comes from the same place it's always come - Indie gaming. The thing about Dishonored is that it mixes ideas already in use, and not to a remarkably new extreme. First I'll mention the graphics. From the reviews I read I was expecting something special and the artistic style is actually a very nice blend of steam/cyber punk and ye olde world toffery. But the graphics themselves leave a lot to be desired as they feel incredibly flat, and they actually aren't too atmospheric. The feeling of a living breathing world is also somewhat absent due to the linear nature of the levels. True there might be a side alley to lead you to your objective by a hidden route, but it is literally one purpose built alley and built for that very purpose. The premise for the game play is not a million miles away from Hitman or Splinter Cell - only you have a few magic tricks to help you on your way. The difference is that a game like Hitman will provide you with many different options for completing a mission - you might steal a key card, steal and wear a uniform, assassinate from afar with a sniper gun, poison a meal, etc etc. With dishonored you might steal a key - but that's the only option you really have in terms of open play because you are given no others. And so few civilians too. Even dark shady enterprises have civilians working for them. The story is also not the best. The setup is fantastic, the setting is great but the story itself was only vaguely interesting to me - and the more supernatural elements to the story I just found boring. In terms of what I was expect/hoping for I was disappointed. I put it on hard level and completed the game in less than 15 hours. I don't have any real yearning to go back either. When Bioshock came out and got rave reviews - the game I played surpassed my expectations (yes it's amazing!), I can say the same about Arkham City and Skyrim. The latter 2 games I have poured hours and hours, days of my life into - and which have rewarded me immensely! But I payed an equal price for all of these games. All at approximately £30. Had this game come in at half that price then I would probably mark it higher. But there is simply nothing in the game mechanics that struck me as 'wow I can do that!?' like the Gravity gun in HL2, or the Portal gun. Possession is only a new idea if you discount any of the sci-fi games which allow you to take control of robots. Teleporting is not a new idea. Sneaking around to get to an object is not a new idea. I wanted to like this game, I really did. But I was left rather hollow by it. However, I have played at least 70 hours of Skyrim and have loads left to do, so if I add the two games together and split the cost (same developer) then that's currently 42.5 hours per game and £30 a game, so it's not all bad.
I feel a bit like a marketing genius has mind freaked all the critics into believing red is yellow, and they all went 'Oh yeah!' It's not a bad game, but it's not as exceptional as one might have hoped.....or been lead to believe!… Expand

This game is amazing. Its a new take on gaming that we desperately needed in these times of repetitiveness. The art style is unique, scenes and maps amazing. Personally I love the sand box feel and the separated missions much like portal 2. This also lends a hand to those completionists as it assesses your mission stats and you can always work on improving. Maybe the endings leave much to be desired but do we play these games for the story or for the awesome supernatural assassin powers and awesome gameplay? May be a bit easy but up the difficulty and we have a contender for game of the year. I'll rewrite this review after one week to comment on replayability.… Expand

Just avoid this game. The hype was unjustified beyond reason. Started the game on the Very Hard difficulty (the hardest of 4 difficulties) within 11 hours of gameplay I was on the second to last mission (had to check due to problem that will occur further into the review). This gameplay flew by the whole time I was thinking this has to get harder Im trying for difficulty but no matter what my approach, stealth or combat I found that nothing was an issue. Walking into a square with 12 people took them all down with 1 skill didn't need a weapon or any of the other fancy things the game offered. The entire game came down to blink on them push attack cut their face off and repeat. Health and mana potions were beyond abundant. I always seemed to have all full potions full health full mana and an abudance of ammo and money. As I progressed getting ever more bored and distraught with the game, I reached a massively game breaking error. The 2nd to last level you do (a very specific thing) and are met with a cutscene this is followed by a loading screen, Every time the loading screen ended it would replay the same cutscene and go straight back into the loading screen after 14 hours of leaving it on to load and attempting to restart to try loading again I finally gave up. The games setting was nothing new and nothing else offered by the game made me even remotely interested in restarting in an attempt to get past that bug.

The game is extremely dissatisfying and should be avoided. Gameplay 0 - The stealth mechanics are shotty, the AI is hilarious in its levels of bad, the originality is non-existent, Combat is laughable in its ease, Character development is non existent as well. Insanely short!
Concept 1- The game offers nothing new just a mesh and swarm of everything that's been done before put into 1 game, the sad part is every game it is using as inspiration is longer and has much more depth to every aspect that was "stolen".
Sound 0- Turned it off within 10 minutes, music was dull and never matched the pace of the game, sound quality during all game mechanics was the same... time always slows down, blink possess, opening menus, using any of your powers, blocking, swinging your sword... they all had the same sound effect of time slowing down.
Play ability - 0 - Game glitched tot he point where beating it became a physical impossibility no game that does this will ever be awarded anything but an absolute 0 in this category. In addition to this massive bug there are little ones that I constantly noticed around the game. Things like getting shot by a guy holding nothing but a sword, or killing someone only to have their dead body kill you as well (death by cutscene into they somehow managed to shoot while you were ripping their face off).
Replay -0- I dont think I would ever replay this game, I couldn't be bothered to replay it to see the ending of it and the only other 2 people I know agree that its so easy on the hardest difficulty that there is no reason to replay it.

Overall .25 which will be rounded down because they lose 1 point for un playable game. If I could neg this game I would.… Expand

The gameplay is excellent. Stealth and combat are exciting and unique. The story, however, is reaaaaaalllllyyy bad. The ending gets even worse. Most of the character dialogue is forced and there aren't really any dynamic characters in the game. The dramatic shift in the story is WONDERFUL, but that's the only time (for only like 10 minutes) that any of the characters become interesting. I was really hoping you'd get that feel of a huge expansive city like Assasin's Creed, but you end up playing on only a handful of really small, limited maps, with some replays of previous areas. This really hurts when you hit the invisible walls at the top or sides of the map, or just look in the distance to find cardboard cutout buildings instead of real models. There's a horrible contrast between interior detail and exterior. Building interiors are AMAZING, detail is great, and each has a unique feel. Exteriors are bland, with repeating textures EVERYWHERE, low-poly distance models, and many reused item models and textures.

Graphically, you have almost no options at your disposal, there's almost no customization in the game menus. You can force many options to modern standards through .ini modification, but to even have decent antialiasing you have to downsample or use Nvidia Inspector. Shadow detail is capped at a depressing level, but can be forced much higher without much of a performance hit.

Many levels have really clear A, B, or C type choices for pathways, so where you would like to be creative and find new solutions, you kinda get kicked into the mold. This hurts especially in the end, with your typical Evil/Neutral/Good endings. The game is SHORT. 9 hours on my assasination/clearing playthrough. It feels like the areas could have been doubled, a much better introduction to the story (through some theatrical expose to the plague and its history) would have actually given you some attachment to the characters. Because of how compressed everything is, you never build up an attachment to any of the characters. They're all flat and boring, and you're thrown onto them like you've known them all your life.

Overall a disappointment. Wait for it to go on sale.… Expand

For a mid-teir game, the mechanics and gameplay are serviceable. But it is only a mid-teir game, so don't expect greatness there. For this to be a worthwhile game, the art design and story have to be very good. The art design, albeit very low rez, is excellent. Moody and distinctive, it had the potential to really suck me in.
The story and dialog, however, are terrible. Cliche, piled on top of trope, pilied on top of cardboard character. Then there is the fact that it treats the player like he/she is an idiot mongoloid. Do we really need to be told half a dozen times "you are brave and our only hope, you must save the empresses daughter from Darth Bowser." There is nothing to discover, because the game is afraid that you will miss something if it isn't spelled out in CAPITAL BOLD LETTERS twenty times. And can we please quit with the constant monologuing (see The Incredibles movie). Oh, and lest I forget, there is Zelda level holdhanding with the constant 'helpful' popups.… Expand

Brilliant game.
I have played about 2 hours and all I can say is... wow. The gameplay is so well made, the story is exciting but easy to understand, the voice actors are brilliant and the music is brilliant.

The sound engineering is perhaps abit below average and the main character name is silly (in Swedish korv means sausage and his name Corvo sounds really silly) but the rest is just top notch. Best FPS since Half-Life 2.. perhaps even best FPS since ever. Arkane Studios have really made an amazing game doing all the right design decisions.… Expand

Right off the top I have to say this is definitely a GAME OF THE YEAR contender.

The game begins with a bit of linear game play. You are forced down certain pathways, but are given about a half dozen ways of working your way through the environment. This quickly opens up to a fairly large open world. You can tell that Arkane and Bethseda developed this game with multiple play throughs in mind. That being said the game is a bit short. If you explore the environments to the fullest you can get about 30 hours out of it. If you run through it you will probably get about 8 hrs. TAKE YOU TIME. you will enjoy it a lot more when you explore.

Overall an excellent game and well worth the money at full price. If the price drops any time soon (which it won't) I would suggest you buy it right away.

Oh and I have a fairly powerful computer... GTX 570, ACER Predator G5900. It runs very smooth on it and the GPU doesn't over heat.… Expand

So reading some reviews while I have not finished the game yet; the intro story wise falls completely flat. Its kinda just like this is a city and if you want to care about it you have to read 30 text journals hidden everywhere. Oh and were the good guys because we said so. Anyway story failure aside, I cannot possibly justify the cost of this game. 60$ is fine for a full game single and multilayer with more than likely a custom game engine. This is sadly not the case when I hear people beating the single player in only 7 hours and a bad implementation of the unreal engine(by bad I mean the graphics are absolutely atrocious not to mention there aren't any settings to change anything other than bloody rat shadows I mean really you've got to be kidding me). I'l give this game a 3 and hope it improves but I can't even force myself to play through more of this without giving myself a headache from crappy visuals… Expand

The game play is absolutely great but the story is not smooth. The combat system feels like a mixture of Skyrim and Deus Ex H R. There are many dilemmas that the player must decide and many hidden places to explore. The player's decisions and skill selections will change where the player can go and cannot go. It means the player must replay the game several times to explore everything.

Mediocre game at best. With all the hype, I expected better game play and graphics. It seems like this game struggles to find its own personality. AI is clumsy and weak, even on hardest setting. The "stealth" is waste of time as there is really no stealth actions, and you get "punished" for just killing everyone. The graphic art is interesting at first but I found it to get annoying really fast. I found myself only playing for about 45-60 minutes at a shot because the motion blur / camera design made me sick. Maybe worth a rent, but not $60.… Expand

I don't understand why some people are giving this game low ratings ! The game is an absolute beauty.. great graphics, great plot, great tactics, great character skills.. enough said... 10 for me

This is without a doubt one amazing game. It is filled with something gamers don't see these days: great game-play. The reason we play video games. On top of the endless possibilities you have to complete your assignments the world is amazing. It is filled to the brim with little details(which i will not spoil for you) that create a cohesive story without showing it down the player's throat. All these elements create a deep and rewarding experience that just never stops giving. I will be playing and replaying this game for years to come. P.S. The combat is great and the minimal system requirements are total BS. I am running this game perfectly with a 5 year old Core 2 Duo(2.1 Ghz) and gtx 460, on max details at 1080p. Buy this game. It's an instant classic.… Expand

I haven't been able to box this game into a specific genre, or similar game. I really love the environment and art design. You spend half of the time looking around you, and the other half playing the game. I'm really looking forward to see where the story goes.

Ok, this is it! The spiritual successor of one of the most underrated but for their battle system and body awarness known game "Dark Messiah" of the "arkane studios". And it's a hell of a game. It's mindblowing, brutal and thrilling 1st person action. If you are a man, you love that game. If you are a console player and scream for a 3rd person view: JUST RID OFF!

The word to describe this game would be creative. The developers forces you to be smart and create criative ways to complete your object. The action of the game is unique and inspiring, there are many possibilites and really funny ways to play. The graphics are not the best and not even great, maybe they can be considered as good, but it won't interfier your gameplay, besides, the enviroment is magnific.. I would like to give it an 8.5 but I don't have this option and a 9 sounds too much. The worst thing about the game is that it's not that big, I would consider it as a medium size game, bigger that many, but small compared to what could have been.… Expand

It did not take me long to fall in love with this game. It feels like you can really take charge or your character however you want. If you wanna rush through enemies, hacking and slashing everything in your sight? You got it. You wanna Stealthily sneak through the entire game with shooting a single bullet? You got it. This game is what I would call a great game to bring Arkane studios on to the map of real gaming. I hope to see more stuff like this from them. This isn't a game that you will follow through doing whatever the next objective is, it is a game for you.… Expand

Dishonored is a truly profound title that separates itself from the market while also embracing what fans love most about the FPS-RPG genre. It has a provoking story, engaging gameplay, and not to mention it's pretty to look at. This is easily one of the best games of 2012.

It was quite upto the expectations, first thing I will say it looks really really cool. The distant view, texture quality and overall look was amazing this is one of the best looking game of this year. While the stealth mode was effective many times it does prove faulty at several places despite of having many option I felt out of option often in times. AI was considerably fine and dialogue was helping to go on with the script. There is still a lot I have to explore in the game but so far I am happy with it.… Expand

This was an excellent game. From the terrific atmosphere, to the complex back round story, Dishonored gives a fantastic gaming experience. I look forward to seeing if the creators will expand this universe even more. The only downside to the game is that the story is a little predictable in some parts.

I really love this game, probably the best game I've ever played. Everything was great: the atmosphere, gameplay, graphics (little cartoony and I like that) and the AI. What I like most about this game is the many different ways you're able to finish it, like 5 different ways to get into a building or killing everyone or leaving everyone harmless. I definitely rate this game 10/10 even more if I was able to. The only negative thing I have to say is that I've finished it in about 4-6 hours on normal difficulty, it's great that there's a mission replay option, though. It's a mix between: Assassin's Creed, Skyrim, Beyond Good and Evil and Mirror's Edge.… Expand

I don't know why there is such a hype for this game for being something fresh and new. I bought the game in hope to finally find a good first person assassination game after it got so many good reviews. But again it seems like the review sites got paid to give it a high score, I couldn't play the game for more than 3-4 hours. The combat is pretty boring and dull, you get some spells and other features that just make the whole game easier than it already is, if you want a challenge don't use any spells and upgrades. The missions are boring, along the main story you get side quests that don't really give you any benefit. The game promises freedom and choices that have influence in the game, but the freedom they promise is pretty much if you want to run through all the guards to your goal or use the roofs or sewers, and the choices you make in the game end up to nothing. The atmosphere in the game has potential but the graphics ruin it, it would have been much better using realistic graphics than this comic stuff. The game is basically linear, getting easier with every spell and upgrade, and a dark atmosphere being ruined by comic graphics. If you played something like Deus Ex or Thief, don't buy it, you're gonna be disappointed.… Expand

It is really baffling me, how this game gets top ratings everywhere. Ideas from other products get shamelessly recycled. What you get for your money is a basic sneak-and-shoot game, in pretty neat Steampunk'ish environment, along with an unnecessary half-assed skill feature. Rather then depending on your skill as a players you can unlock abilities that make the game ridiculously easy. The choice of weapons is reduced to a generic pistol and a generic crossbow /comes now with the official cheating ammunition: Sleeping darts!!!)

Story: 4/10 Standard stuff and mostly predictable (to me at least)

Graphics: 5/10 Beeing a fan of Steampunk, I was enthusiastic at first. However after playing the game for some time i noticed, that the graphics are not quite up to date. Texturework tends to get muddy, animal models are laughable (espacially the dogs). Because most of the levels look quite alike the sections look Sound: 6/10 The score is ok but nothing too memorable, overall it gets you in the mood, nothing more nothing less.

Gameplay: 4/10 You get 4-5 hours of unspoiled and exciting gameplay, where you have the impression of an open world in which you can interact. Until you suddenly realise that this game is more linear then plain old Half-Life and that most of the encounters can be handled in quite similar ways. None of them seem balanced to this point. The two main options are either Sneaking or sabotaging (difficult but more exciting) or Fighting and performing magic (easy and unrewarding). The few instances where you have to forge plans on how to infiltrate a place are spoiled by the fact that the possible alternatives are pointed out so plainly obvious, that it hurts.
Verdict: Not bad, but in dire need of some balancing/expanding. For now better stick to System Shock 2, Bioshock, or the Thief series...… Collapse

This game is .... ALL that I ever hoped from a game. That is the reason I pre ordered it with no hesiation.
Now I've played it and it's just what they told us it'll be and what I expected from it. I love stealth games and Deus Ex is one of my favourites. This game has more ways to avoid enemies than that one and that's a big +. The story is just awesome ( Yes I read every text, poem, journal that i find )

There's so much I can say about it but you should try it yourself. You won't regret it. This game is a masterpiece.… Expand

great game. runs at 60 fps no issues, contrels really well, art style is fantastic. deus ex meets bioschock with a little of half life in it. best combo ever made. cant recommend it enough, if you are a pc gamer this is the game to get along xcom. two gret games that will keep you busy.

This is honestly one of the most creative and unique games I've ever played. And that's coming from 24 years of gaming. The developers struck a PERFECT balance between open-world gameplay and story-driven gameplay, and allows the player to make use of the environment like I've never seen in any game. The art style is unbelievable, the whole game feels like a big painting. It's quite possible that the most satisfying thing I've ever done in a video game is teleport to a rooftop 20 feet above me as I sprint away from seven frenzied guards who's reaction is "huh?"… Expand

What a gem. This game is everything we want as gamers. It's new, fresh, innovative, and just a damn good time. It doesn't take us for fools and is a smart and well thought out game. Love that you can remove the hud as well. This isn't a game you are supposed to rush through. Take your time, explore, etc. Unbelievably great game.

I am in love with this game. It's soooo beautiful and the world is so well made. I love exploring the levels and finding everything it has to offer. I am playing a full stealth game and it's so intense and fun. If I get caught I consider it a failure and reload I haven't had this much fun in a game since Deus Ex: Human Revolution!

The game is lacking, its just a scripted play-through story basically. There is no real depth, the character doesn't feel like your own, and everything you do feels scripted. I played for a few hours, but couldn't get into it, I have tried to open the game twice since and can't play for longer than 15mins. I love some of the companies other games, but this was a let down. If I had to describe dishonored in a phrase? Sub-par! Its just not what I was expecting. The game gives you the feeling like they were trying to copy Assassins Creeds success, but they failed. The new Assassins Creed kicks dishonors butt. If you really want to get this game, and you're unsure wait until its $25 on steam for sale! I am interested strong in this title, and because of the company and the hype I fell into the trap of another mainstream sub-par video game.

Pros - A nice environment, nifty story, interesting gameplay mechanics, polished, crossbows and muskets are interesting feature.

Cons - Limited gameplay overall, no sandbox feel, no kind of character development, narrow path gameplay, way to scripted, swordplay is arcade, and just not as fun as its counterparts.… Expand

Instead of writing a wall of text, explaining why this game is great, I will just name cons that i have found during my play through.
- Story is a bit too predictable, but nevertheless, ending left me more than satisfied (wich is rare nowdays).
- Although it is actually a great stealth game, stealth here resides around "blink", rather then the play with light and shadow. In such a dark place as Dunwall, I would make a lot of sense to make dark places actually safer. Increasing mana cost of blinking above regeneration value and making light actually matter would have done game much more challenging and thus interesting for me. - Speaking of challenging. I've completed game on "Very Hard", and i would not say it is actually that hard. Sure thing I've avoided any direct contact with enemy forces and completed all missions in ghost mode because playing otherwise would be a suicide. But overall, blink is too powerful both for eliminating enemies and vertical/horizontal movement so with a keen eye and mind you will feel kidna godlike even on highest difficulty level. - "Darksight" ability, if im not mistaken that's how it is called , is done very wrong in my opinion. It has really high usefulness factor, so it will be turned on really often. Question is why would you do it with such an annoying sound and visual effect? - Guards are acting good enough, when facing suspicious sounds/visuals, but their view distance is very limited. Horizontal angle is ok, vertical angle is ok in 90% of situations, but view distance is just laughable. That should have been like 2x or even 3x as it is right now. Still would not be much of a problem with blink, timestop and other goodies.
- High variety of devices, although only for casual walk through. If you gonna play it on normal or easy, rushing on enemies and dealing with them in most exotic ways then you will use your arsenal to full potential. But if you are planning on going silent, or even bloodless way if you choose so, you will be forced into using same tricks all over and over again. Grenades, traps, pistols, incendiary ammo, fatalities, etc. + all sorts of upgrades to them will be useless to you, coz they will be either lethal, or just too loud to make use of. Wider variety of silent and nonlethal weaponry would make this game a lot more interesting for stealh lovers.

Summing things up, this game deserves solid 9, assuming the fact I'd never give game a 10 just because no game is perfect, but i will just to compensate for some dumbasses giving this game 3/10. Most of my complains are regarding difficulty, but that's mostly personal. Some people might find it hard enough im sure. This game could use some tuning in abilities and gear department to make things a bit more balanced to diversify gameplay, but even without it, it is just one hell of a journey. Your only excuse for missing this game is only if you cant stand sneaking up on people.… Expand

Dishonored is a steampunkish hybrid of RPG-elements using Melee/FPS/magic combat-styles set in an Industrial-age imperial city being ravaged by a rat plague. It also has a Bioshock vibe to it. If none of that sounds like potential fun for a game, Dishonored is not for you. For the rest of us though, this game is a really good time and well worth the sale price of $30 I paid for it during Steam's post-

thanksgiving sale. Although I thought the emotional attachment was a little thin from a player perspective, the main character's motivation was quite clear, so his actions during the game made sense to me. My only significant problem with Dishonored was that it crashed on me 7 or so times during my first playthrough.

**COMPOSITE SCORE: 8.875/10**

**ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 9/10**

Arkane Studios gives the player the opportunity to complete the mission objectives in a true role-playing manner. If you believe Corvo wouldn't want to kill a couple of hundred city guards in order to meet his goals, you don't have to do that. Or, if you think he's so angry that he'd destroy anyone in his way, you can do that too. This gives opportunities for varied playthroughs. I recommend going stealth your 1st time, because it's more challenging than rampaging through the city. Save that for the 2nd.


**GRAPHICS: 9/10**

Although Dishonored is a console port, Arkane did a good job at making it feel good for PC gamers. I would have liked more people in the cities and larger areas, but the people who were there looked pretty good, and the settings were fun and looked good as well. I did not like all the fog, but I think that was an artistic choice rather than hardware. Being only DX9 limited how good water looks, but it's still decent.

**SOUND: 9/10**

The sound was solid although not ground breaking. The music was fun though. ...drunken whalers. haha

**DESIGN AND GAMEPLAY: 8/10**

Like I said before, you have options on how you want to play. I don't want to get into what your options are too much, cuz that might spoil things, but you can either move around and kill things really fast, or you can go super slow and sneaky, or you can be somewhere in-between. It's pretty cool. There are definitely easier ways to complete the missions than others. And, the side missions are just that. If you skip them, they don't really affect the game's difficulty... just the ending. I did not like how picky the achievement for Clean Hands is. If someone finds a person you knocked out, that counts against the achievement. I also didn't like how sometimes mobs will completely miss seeing you in broad daylight but other times see you in shadows from about the same distance. Lots of daytime missions. Makes it tough to be a magic ninja with all that light.

**GAME LENGTH: 10/10**

Playing the stealth path, it took me ~28 hours my first playthrough. With the different options to use, Dishonored offers a lot of replayability. People who complain about the game being too short (7 hours) are skipping most of the exploring and side-quests. It would be like doing only Skyrim's main line and finishing in 10 hours... why do it??

Have fun!… Expand

This is one of the better games that I've bought in the last few years. It exceeds guild wars 2, battlefield 3, and many others in terms of how much I've enjoyed it. The gameplay is smooth as silk, and you get very immersed when you are stalking your prey. Huge fights give an adrenaline rush from all of the unpredictable chaos that happens which is a big bonus. I'd give it a 10, but the game is a little more cartoony than I would have expected, and the blood effects leave just a tiny bit to be desired in your killing sprees… Expand

It's perfect in every aspect apart from it's length. The characters designs are brilliant and the atmosphere really allows you to immerse yourself into the game world. There's a perfect balance in deciding whether to go for the lethal or non-lethal approach, which many games tend to get wrong such as Deus Ex. The only problem I had with Dishonored was it's content. Sure, what you get is amazing but you can't help but feel you could've had more. It's a good job the game has great replay-ability and I'm sure than any future DLCs that come this game's way will be just as brilliant.… Expand

This game is soooo fantastic! It's sverything Deux Ex HR wanted to be and never achieved: original setting (a 100% believable steampunk universe), immaculate mission design with multiple solutions (sneak or kill, blow it all up or turn into a mouse - up to you!), great characters and a fluid storyline. Oh, and the game controls are super intuitive and become second nature after 1-2 hours. Above all, it's FUN. Whereas so many other games want you to fail and retry ad nauseam, Dishonored wants you to succeed. If you make good use of all your gadgets & abilities and pay attention to the environment plus the clues scattered around you can complete a mission without a single reload (on normal difficulty setting). For me, this is the holy grail of PC gaming. To be rewarded, to get this sense of accomplishment and not be punished & frustrated by stupid and unfair game design. Buy it now, you won't regret it!… Expand

This is a specific kind of game for a specific kind of gamer, so I'll keep it short and say that it delivers on the immersive sim formula of games like Deus Ex and Thief in spades. Thankfully, while the game is true to those titles in spirit, it very much has its own personality and identity. It oozes style. You can play stealthily, violently, or anywhere in between, and all approaches feel thought-out and legitimate. Unlike Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which layed out several predetermined routes for the player, Dishonored focuses on building a place for you to explore, and therefore feels much more natural and convincing as an environment. Not to mention the fact that Dunwall is incredibly rich and interesting, both in architecture and lore. The PC version of Dishonored is very, very good. The game runs like silky butter (very few bugs to boot) and there are tons and tons of UI options. And the load times are shockingly almost nonexistent! I would have liked more UI options and I think the FOV slider should go up to 90 rather than 85, but these are tiny gripes.

While I'm on the subject of gripes, the plot is pretty standard fare. Which is not a knock on the writing as a whole -- the dialogue you hear and the books you find strewn throughout the city are very well done.

Anyway, this is easily the best game of its kind since the original Deus Ex, and a strong contender for Game of the Year.… Expand

I have to say that this is not a bad game from bethesda.First of all , I have not faced a single glitch in this game.Even though you cant tell this stealth mechanics a 100 % success anyway the freedom the game gives u to do a quest in any way u want to do , is a 100% success.Its a kind of open world with a open ended game game play.Graphics is not that good but it gets the job done .There is lack of depth in action part of the game .Oh and story of this game is really good . in the end one thing I can say is that Betesda is going in the right direction with this game.There is no doubt that dishonored 2 will be a blast with less flaws.… Expand

I have nothing but praise for this game, but first, I have something to say addressing other reviewers' complaints:
If the game was too short, you were doing something terribly, terribly wrong. My thorough (lethal) playthrough took me about 16 hours, doing all the sidequests, tracking down as much of the gold and as many of the runes and whale-bone charms as I could. I can only imagine it'd be much longer if you went non-lethal.
Now, to the actual review.
Graphics: Using a heavily modified version of the Unreal 3 engine, Dishonored portrays the steampunk city of Dunwall with a style and flair that hooked me instantly. The models and textures are as high-resolution as a PC gamer could ask for, and the unique shaders and strong, hard shadows conveyed a strong, graphic novel-esque sense of visual atmosphere. The world's grim visual glory was even further enhanced by the spectacular art direction, taking queues from Half-Life 2 and blending that aesthetic with elements lifted from steampunk subculture to create a unique, rich, and enthralling visual experience. 9/10.
Gameplay: It's difficult to address the gameplay and story separately, as the two are inexorably intertwined, but I'll do my best. Missions fling you into vast, open environments littered with hidden nooks and crannies, open windows, and rooftops just begging to be explored and immersed in. As you explore, you come across runes, coins, and whale bone charms. Runes are used to unlock elements of a supernatural toolkit, handing you various new strategies with which to engage in combat or exploration, but never overwhelming you with too much at once. Coins are used to purchase upgrades to your more physical gadgets, such as new lenses for your clockwork mask, or an automatic reloading system for your hand crossbow. And lastly, whale bone charms are equipped to give you small perks of a sort, such as gaining token amounts of health from drinking water, or swinging your sword slightly more quickly. Charms are randomized as well, so you'll rarely find one in the same place between playthroughs. Taking the elements the game gives you and combining them is where the real gold is, and every solution you come up with is something you created, not you being funneled through a narrow pathway or being told to do things a very specific way, as is common with modern games. This isn't a game where you're disappointed by hitting yet another invisible wall - this is a game where you're thrilled by discovering that yes, that did, in fact, work. 10/10.
Story: And this is where the game truly gets into its stride, and this surprised me. Before I played the game, I was expecting a thrilling experience, not really a complex story, or good characterization. Dishonored had the courtesy to hand me everything. I'm not going to spoil anything, but the story is intense and emotional, despite the fact that it can only really be advanced between missions. But it's not the pre-set story that's the best element here, no... it's how the player's actions impact the curve of events. The game gives you tools of death; it gives you a pistol and crossbow, it gives you mines that fling razor-sharp shrapnel in a metallic tornado, it gives you a power that summons a swarm of ravenous plague rats, but it also gives you a warning: if you take too many lives, the story, characters, world, and even you will change for the worse. Many disregard the warning, much like I did... and were left distraught when, at the very end, the game solemnly held up a mirror. There are games with intense stories and endings that make you tear up, but there is NOTHING as harsh as this. Games like Mass Effect or Spec Ops: The Line, as much as you can impact events in the former, are sending you along a predetermined path. The ending isn't a product of your actions - it's simply affected by them. When Dishonored came to a conclusion, I knew that all the horrible things that had happened were MY fault, not because I'd been forced to take lives, but because I'd CHOSEN to. 10/10.
Conclusion: Dishonored was everything I'd hoped for and so much more. This game is a work of art, and you owe it to yourself to play it any way you can. It doesn't matter what the magazines say, this is my game of the year without a moment's thought.… Expand

In short words its quite good mix of hitman and bioshock placed in steampunk ? world.
I love games which give me a choice how to play, and Dishonored is just the way i like to play, however story is rather dull, and game is little too short (i completed it after 15 hours of play on hard difficulty)
To be honest i expected more, but its still a good game.

What is more to say... It's so boring and insulting, it's not even worth the download of the unofficial demo version. I feel very embarrassed I had it on my system. I have to perform a restoration now, for good measure. They lent something like $40,000 for the Unreal license to write it off against taxes. Same goes for Bethesda's marketing budged, making all the fake rating possible. You know what that means? Those ***** having a nice little party at your expense, whether you are so stupid to pay double for it or not - they couldn't care less.… Expand

This is one of those gem games, that you always try to search for and search for, and once you find it you get that feeling in your body of "Holy s**t, this game is amazing." The story is fantastic, the type of NPCs you meet are all very unique, and the varied play-style they offer is something all games should have. Every game I play I mostly space-bar right through the story, I'm not a lore guy at all. But this game, the atmosphere, the vibes you get from the environment just pull you into the story and you actually enjoy it, and want to see what is going to happen next. You also have the power to change up the story a bit depending upon what choices you make.… Expand

Dishonored is definitely game of the year. not only is this game a great time, its also a prime example to the gaming industries that a game with great story will much more draw an audience rather than grapics, or saving merica. This game is going down in my back as the best game of the year. Thank you!

Im brand new to pc gaming and this first story game for pc and i enjoyed this game ..... only downside in my opinion is the length i would have like it a bit longer.

Dishonored contains very different experiences based on how you play it, so let me prefix this review with my setup: fully non-lethal; mostly unspotted but lots of take-downs; no UI; much exploration and side questing; difficulty 'hard' (fourth out of five). I completed the game in about 19 hours. | And those were some truly enjoyable hours, since Dishonored gets most of the core stealth gameplay right. It implements a solid formula -- cover/line of sight/patrol based sneaking -- but mostly ignores shadow and sound. In my opinion that's for the better, since line of sight is a mechanic that is intuitively understandable and therefore predictable, which gave the game a certain puzzle aspect and made me recognise my failures as indeed _my_ failures, not failures of the game's systems. When I was discovered, I usually knew what to do in order not to screw up the next time -- which doesn't mean that I actually managed to do it, since Dishonored is not afraid of throwing some good challenges in the non-lethal player's way. | What makes the stealth gameplay stand out, though, is the level design combined with the awesome Blink power, a short-range teleport that only costs Mana when executed in rapid succession. This seemingly small addition allows players to exploit vertical movement to a great degree, which is enough to set Dishonored apart from its conceptual brethren. It enables the player to move between cover, reach vantage points or quickly exploit tiny holes in a patrol route. In more open areas, getting onto the rooftops gives an opportunity to scout and plan the next steps. | The other big thing about the level design, making it by far the most compelling aspect of the game, is that it literally always provides multiple ways to approach an objective. On the large scale, all 'assassinations' can be achieved without actually killing the target, with the non-lethal options being interesting and fitting into the story quite nicely. Expose someone's immoral behaviour and that person no longer plays a role in politics; let a lover take his beloved to a foreign country far away. However, the binary nature of things -- there's always exactly one non-lethal approach -- certainly gets repetitive, and I would have loved to see a wider variety of possibilities. Additionally, some of the non-lethal options could require a bit more thinking on the player's part: taking the pacifist route more often than not doesn't feel like a witty accomplishment but rather like the completion of a slightly more complex quest, leaving barely any room for the player's own imagination. | The design also shines when it comes to providing multiple routes through the level. While the approaches mostly boil down to a few recipes, some of their applications are genuinely surprising. More importantly, there are always plenty different ways through a level, all with advantages and disadvantages, and finding an alternative route when you thought that there was clearly only the one you took in the first place is rewarding in and of itself. | Unfortunately, the few recipes issue also applies to low-level combat, where the non-lethal ways seem too repetitive compared to what lethal approaches offer. To incapacitate an enemy, you can basically sneak up to them or use a sleep dart, which is uninteresting compared to the array of lethal possibilities that have been demonstrated a lot in the trailers. The AI also does little to make stealth more engaging -- enemies are a little more intelligent than in most games, but still fairly dumb. | As far as story is concerned, there isn't a whole lot to the game, and it makes me sad that Arkane put together an intriguing setting only to fill it with forgettable characters. The voice acting and dialogue is generally decent, but there's just no way a game could tell an interesting story via the very short gatherings between missions. | However, the missions themselves provide ample background and lore that let the city of Dunwall become a more living place than most locations I have visited in games. There's a large amount of detail hidden in every level, revealing tiny parts of stories about totally unrelated characters that still manage to form a bigger picture. The diary of a man who describes in dry words how he watches his children die from the plague one by one; some guards' chatter as they throw plague victims onto a heap of corpses; the nobility's habit to steal valuables from each other. Dishonored is clearly a game for explorers -- people who explore for the sake of knowledge and impressions, not tangible benefits. | All in all, Dishonored is a great stealth game with an extraordinary focus on indirect storytelling, and many of my criticisms mostly boil down to 'I want more': more combat options, story, mission diversity, time with the game. Considering my slow motion approach, 19 hours is not exactly huge. Still, what the game offers is rock-solid and at times brilliant.… Expand

Honestly, I think the critics are sometimes completely blind. I really thought this game was something out of this world. It's true that some of the game play is quite good but nothing to shout about. The A.I is mediocre and quite repetitive. One area that baffles me is where you have to kill the lady at the party. You have to blend in with the crowd but then you walk with a sword full of blood, the people just don't seem to give a damn if you are here to kill and the only thing the guards tell you is to put it away. I mean WTF !! Anyway, I still haven;t finished the game yet as it's getting a bit boring now ! I'll give it a go during the weekend to see if it's worth carrying on !!… Expand

Amazing game. If this was made in a shinier engine, the stealth was a little more challenging, and the game had a couple more missions to it... it would be my GOTY for 2012 hands down. Sadly I can only give it a 9 as despite having an amazing art design, brilliant gameplay, high replayability (of at least 2x required to see mostly everything), intriguing story/characters, and a nice atmosphere/sound effects/music, the problem with this game is just that it isn't challenging enough... you start the game and the first few levels feel awe-inspiring, but once you realise the terrible limits of the vision of the AI you really are too overpowered for any mission without getting a single upgrade. (And the upgrades are lots of fun, but they make the game become a theme park rather than the gruesome travesty that the story seems to think you are in). Still I highly recommend it. I don't know what my GOTY for 2012 is going to be, so this could still be it, but Dishonored 2 on UE4 or some other engine would just about blow my socks off. Please make it happen Arkane :)… Expand

Decent game. The art style is great and the gameplay can be lots of fun in later parts of the game as you get more powers. But the story is lacking and the characters are hard to care about. In the end, nothing memorable or particulary exciting.

If you're after a stealth-em-up that's more story than mini-game (i.e. not another assassin's creed) then this is it. Dark and steam-punky, this is the game that us Thief fans have been needing for years. So...

GOOD: stealth game-play is awesome, world has depth and is well designed, visual style is carefully considered, voice acting is good. Did I mention the stealth game-play? It's really brilliant, especially if you're one of these gamers who can't drop a mission until you've done it perfectly.

BAD: fairly short, even if you re-play for achievements and alternative endings - this is the second game I've re-played in 5 years, and I'm still putting it away after 25 hours; a single walk-through could take less than 7. BTW, not a shooter!!! If you're expecting sparkling gun-play, go to Deus Ex or COD. Overall, I absolutely loved this for being brave and giving us a truly new, carefully considered world alongside some amazing stealth game-play. Sorry that it's such a play-and-put-away game, but that doesn't make me regret the purchase at all.… Expand

It was an ok game, the combat and stealth were decent, but the controls are so clunky, the same button does 3 or 4 things (using the same button to both grab a chain and drop to your death from the top of it was a ridiculous oversight imo), and maybe its just my game was bugged, but my saves were constantly dsappearing, and none of them had the actual time in them, it just said day/month/year hour:minute:second, so when you try to find the save you're on i have to load each until i find the right one (if its even still there)... its good, but it could have been better, and i would recommend waiting for a GotY or collectors bundle if you want more than 20 hrs of play time.

Oh, and don't try shooting between bars, even hand rails with 2 foot by 4 foot openings, apparently dishonored was programmed back in the day when everything had to be a solid wall. I thought game programmers had evolved past bulls**t like this, but I guess I was wrong.… Expand

One of the most atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful games I've played. The stealth-action gameplay and supernatural assassination options are a lot of fun to experiment with. It doesn't quite get full marks from me as I didn't find the story as gripping as something like Deus Ex: HR, for example. And, because the overall length of the game was around 12 hours and relatively easy. Admittedly there's plenty of replay value here, but I'm really hoping there's some great new DLC in 2013. 8 out of 10. Thanks Arkane/Bethesda!… Expand

Fun game, the gameplay is pretty similar to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, stealth is required, but the levels you play in feel open, and have a lot of opportunities for exploration and finding hidden stuff. I was kind of hoping this game would be like an RPG, while it does have some RPG elements, like upgrading your weapons, there's no level up system as I hoped it would. The game is VERY immersive, with good voice acting, very well mixed sounds of ambiance, the music is more subtle, but gets stronger when your character is in danger, like when a swarm of rats is chasing after you. The combat can feel a bit clunky at first, but you will get used to it. It's similar to Skyrim's combat, you have a weapon in your right, and one for the left, the right weapon controlled by the Left click, and left weapon for right click. You can use a dagger, a crossbow with multiple kinds of darts, a pistol, and all sorts of magical abilities. I recommend this game for anyone who enjoys the stealthy games, like Human Revolution, probably not a good choice for anybody who enjoys charging out and fighting, as you will get killed.… Expand

wow!!! is this game good, all the areas are unique and around every corner u spend alot of time exploring areas are geniunly interesting and i havent played a game like that since half life 2 this is definatly a special game buy it without hesitation !

I haven't completed the game's campaign yet but it's game-play is great, the art-design of the game's environment makes an applaud for me. The setting of the game is unique and original. What else could I say? One problem I did not enjoy was the NPC s suddenly shooting something at me out of nowhere and stopped. A minor bug I suppose?
9.5/10
Still, another Great Game Of The Year.

Dishonored is by far the best game Arkane studio ever released.
It offers much more than the usual "stealth" games.
This is not a game where you get 3 choices for a mission. The choices being stealth, negociation, and force.
Here you will get 8 or more choices. You can mix them up, you can do go everywhere, no part of the map is closed to you because you chose to go the bloody way. The areas are completly open (even though there are loadings between each, which are VERY short, around 1 second for me between each area), and you can sneak everywhere looking for the best ways, instead of being pointed to one direction by the level design.

The game really let's you play. Once you are dropped in a map, it's up to you to do anything you want. And it is SO satisfying.

The setting is absolutly incredible. The world is believable, and so well crafted. The graphics won't win a polygon count, but they are just beautiful. Ignore the people saying the texture are low res. It is not true. They just "seem" that way because of the "water painting" style the artists chose. Proof can be seen all over the map, writtings on walls and billboards can be read very clearly, if the textures was low res, it would not be possible.

The voice acting is excellent, and NPCs will interact between each other when close.
For exemple, I was about to kill one guard by jumping on top of him, when he started to chat with a maid, I got curious and waited to see what it was about, at the end of the little chat the guard said with a sigh "Is this what it's going to be like when we are married?". This were 2 randoms NPCs in a house, not important quest related NPCs, and suddently, they became "more real". And I couldn't kill him.
Another favorite of mine, is when guard patrols and they whistle lullabies our mother would sing us when we were babies. It adds to the setting, and the feeling of despair. Everyone is afraid, everyone is at risk, and so when they whistle to relieve their mind, they go back to a happier time, when their mothers used to sing for them...
Just beautiful.… Expand

BUY THIS GAME IT IS AWESOME. There, you don't need to read my review. But if you stick around, ill explain you why this game is probably the best game you will play this year. Dishonored takes you in this magnificient, plague-ridden diesel-punk (or whale-punk) universe, where you take the role of Corvo, the lord-protector of the empress, falsely accused of her murder. Within this setting of vengeance, you will, sneak, assassinate, knock out, shoot and teleport your way trough many and deeply satisfying assassination missions. Freedom is the main aspect of arkane's game. Tough it is not an open world game like Skyrim, exploration is both rewarding and really fun to do, thanks to the many upgrade items, lore objects scattered throughout the city of dunwall. Exploring that environment is fluid and fast, thanks to a smooth navigation system that works really well. It is rare to have that much mobility in a first person view. When you are not going from rooftop to rooftop, searching of a treasure, you are killing... or not. the number of possibilities to achieve your objectives is almost endless. Just in the first mission after the prison escape, i could think of at least 20 different ways to end my target, one of which was non-lethal. Thats the beauty of the game, you can play the missions many different times, as not only there are many ways to do a mission, but also because loot and guard patrols are random. Some peopples are hesitating in getting the game, unsure if the fun will last. Well, i would say that the time required to play trough the game varries from one person to an other. If, you are an idiot, that doesn't get the main idea of the game, that plays on easy and never explore or do side quests (yes there are side quests and they are surprisingly amazing) you might end the game in six hours. But, if you take your time with it, explore, play at a high difficulty, and try different ways to achieve your goals, well, lets just say i am in the second mission and i have already played 10 hours. In conclusion, this game will blow any hardcore gamer away. If you are tired of the same old IPs, well there is the game you seek. Minors complaints: i think there could have been more conversations with the Npc's and the graphics, tough beautiful are somewhat underwhelming. My score would be 9.7, I hope this review convinced you at least a bit and if it didn't, just check the meta score.… Expand

It doesn't have the best stealth (the Blink ability is a mixed bag; it opens up for some interesting tactics, but can make sneaking a bit TOO simple in some environments) or the best action ever (only three weapons not including your powers, some of which are impractical in combat) but it makes up for it by offering a breadth of freedom and choice to the player while still being approachable to players who are more used to simply following a linear path. There's an "obvious" solution to your missions, but there's also less obvious solutions that are often more satisfying than the former, encouraging you to really explore and weigh your options. Some people still say it's too linear. To these people I have to ask... how open do you really expect this sort of game to be? Even Deus Ex and Hitman have a finite amount of ways to approach objectives, and this game is still pretty open.

I's not a perfect game but coming from a fan of Deux Ex and Thief it's a heck of a lot of fun and does more things right than it does wrong. I can only imagine most of the people who are actually rating this game as a 5 or lower are nostalgia-goggled, disillusioned old gamers who won't be satisfied with anything other than the games they played as kids.… Expand

A great game, let down by some very minor issues. The stealth is fantastic. There is a tendency in stealth games for there to be a lot of waiting around for someone to walk away, and then a lot of sneaking up behind them only slightly faster than their walking pace. The blink skill completely eliminates this, and keeps the gameplay to a great pace. The story is pretty generic- your classic revenge plotline with a slightly disappointing twist. The graphics, however, are astounding, and the sprawling level design is always fun. The main problem with dishonored is length, balance and the whole moral choice thing. The game is only about 6 hours long, even when doing it stealth-mode, albeit a very enjoyable 6 hours. The balance is a problem because once you have acquired the power to teleport long distances, possess enemies so you can literally walk through tricky bits, and stop time, there's not much that will really get in your way. I found the moral choice thing a problem because there are realistically only 2 ways you're going to play this game: trying to get no kills at all, or killing everything that moves. The problem is, for a game that encourages stealth, with lots of ways to complete a mission and special extra challenges for people taking the non-lethal approach, most of the gear is designed for the lethal approach. I found that I never used grenades, my pistol or most of the powers when doing the stealth approach, and in doing the lethal approach you miss out on most of a game that was DESIGNED around being stealthy. The game would have definitely been a 10 if it didn't have the binary moral choice, I wouldn't mind it if it had some middle ground, with lots of possible endings. Even so, it was one of my favourite games of 2012, with some REALLY cool ideas and lots of originality, and fantastic game mechanics. I know that a second game is in planning, due to the success of this one, and I am really looking forward to it. Despite its flaws, I would definitely recommend this game, it is a lot of fun.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Sadly, I can't in good conscience give this game a score higher than 6. It was fun, to be sure, but it suffered from some major flaws.

1. The stealth is incredibly encouraged, to the point where the game practically forces some levels to be done in stealth. HOWEVER, there are only 2 powers that are used to encourage the stealth style- the sleep dart and the blink ability. After a certain point, these begin to run dry.

2. Length. I was shocked when the game ended when it did, and the final level was disappointing. I choked out the final boss from behind with no trouble AT ALL, and then it was game over.

3. Textures. I understand the graphical style the game was going for but some of the textures are plain ugly.

Good game overall, but please rent it, it's not worth $60.… Expand

Once i saw CGI trailer of game, i was cheated to think and hope Dishonored would be finally 1st true stealth game of last 5 years, since SC3, HBM, T3 and Crysis that does it right, unfortunately it didn't.
I expected stealth mechanics to be just like in Chronicles of Riddick of Thief 3 (in FPS mode) or Splinter Cell 3 or at least like in Dark Messiah - i wanted to hide in shadows and have advanced AI and be aware of full body with legs. Unfortunately stealth gameplay in this game is frustrating and broken, even worse than latest DXHR was (where you also cant hide in shadows and where AI is pretty dumb and when most of stealth features locked for about half of game), it even worse than it was in Dark Messiah. AI is dumb, deaf and blind to compensate lack of hiding in shadows. Yes you heard me right, thats another pseudo-stealth game that ignores lighting, also when you sneaking you do not even produce footsteps sounds.
I expected hand to hand combat to be just like in dark messiah or even better, but instead it became worse, i cant even punch anyone and send him flying into death trap, because i have no legs, animation is no that smooth as i expected, sometime it shifts from one phase to another quite jerky, and combat is just a bit random, combo of magic and sword is not that effective as it was in Dark Messiah.
I expected parkour part of game to be just like in Mirror's edge, realistic, fluid, with full body awareness. And yet again there is nothing like this, everything done simply by cheating and moving magic pointer in right place.
And shooting... well there is no shooting in this game, pistol is useless and darts - part of primitive stealth gameplay.
I also expected pc version to have dynamic shadows and lighting and high res textures, but everything is pretty much static and lighting of arm is delayed, body of any NPC can disappear randomly (in stealth game where you need to drag them? seriously?), and textures just awful, super low res. Strange, but Splinter Cell 1 on PS2 was far more advanced that this so its not really a hardware limitation.

I expected character to be part of game world, a person with voice that merged into world, but instead i have yet another unrealistic silent character and npc that doest care about his silence (Half Life anyone? Crysis 2?).

These things really disappointed me, this game had great potential, but it was wasted, and instead of having best of all games, we only get bits of other games, and these bits doesn't work well together, game feels and plays like some alpha version where most of necessary features not implemented and have placeholder like "we will add ability to hide in shadows in next build, now just play with almost blind AI instead".

I really hope that just like Skyrim, this game will have patches that will not only fix some minor bugs, but will add gameplay features as well, and 1st thing Arkane must improve - is stealth, they must add hiding in shadow, enhance AI, and make them blind only in dark places; second thing - they add fully animated body. It shame that in 2012 some first person games still have no body awareness. Just look at riddick and syndicate or mirror's edge - that how it should be done. Third thing they must add - voice acting for Carvo and bidirectional interaction between him and other characters.

But despite those flaws setting, art direction and story are very good (together, story itself, separate from setting is not that good), and only they keeps me from giving this game low score, without them i would give it like a 5 of 10, with them its 7.5 of 10, but stealth, body and voice improvements could make it a solid 10 of 10 i mean real 10, not over-hyped 10 like most of magazines and blind fanboys gave this game.

P.S. - its really sad to see how stealth genre was dumbed down and downgraded in last 5 years... most of current stealth games outdated comparing to old good Riddick, Splinter Cell 3 and Thief 2 or 3 or Crysis 1, most of current gen "stealth" games, including Deus EX Human Revolution and Dishonored, returned to state of 199X era, with very simple and primitive stealth features and AI.
Please keep that in mind Arkane and any other Stealth devs and do a proper stealth action or don't do it at all.

Despite i stated its a 7.5 of 10, when i wrote last part of review i started to remember how many stealth features of true stealth games missing in action these days, and since game was pushed mainly as stealth game i changed my mind... i was generous too much for ART and Settings, so my final score is 6 of 10. And one more thing that frustrates me - standards became so low these days, people overhyped about mediocre games and gives them 10 of 10, but clunky games would not have a chance to get more than 5-7 of 10 in 2000-2005 era.
Also i must note that i agree with what people, which gave this game a 0, wrote, but i disagree about giving it a Zero, 5 is minimum it deserves.… Expand

I sadly thought this game was going to be unique and a major change in the industries but I was wrong. The trailers were misleading along with countless reviews. The game has many fine aspects and ideas but all are horribly used. At the beginning the game seems interesting and exciting, but shortly after it feels like you have done everything before and the missions get repetitive. It also feels as if a large part of the game was missing, content wise. Their were limited weapons and abilities. Also the stealth aspect was poorly done which lead to alot of problems and very many of the characters seemed uninteresting. The story was also quite short and very predictable after about the third mission. Also their was no real need for strategies, But when you used strategie it was time consuming and easily destroyed by countless bugs and a poorly made rating system called "The Chaos metre" which counted the times you were seen, the number killed or left unconscious was also poorly executed. Finally the graphics and the rendering system in place were absolute terrible, it's 2012, not 2008. Many times when rotating around I was met with quite a fair bit of lag on a machine meant to handle resource hogging games, but apparently the devs never got the memo on efficiently rendering and good graphics and little ol'e textures. In all honesty this game had some great ideas but failed to execute them properly and was followed by a dull story. I will give this game a 4 for the slight enjoyment I had. So all in all, rent the game… Expand

Short and one direction. There is no point in replay because some of the achievements are, "play without killing an enemy" Or "Dont get detected through the whole game". So what is the point of having a massive game about fighting and killing when you are punished for playing? Secondly Its repetitive as hell. Its pretty clear that the enemies feel copy paste from other games so once you find an easy way to kill say a tank, then you have no problem fighting it for the remainder of the game. The writers put in things for shock and awe that please casual gamers.… Expand

I've only gotten as far as completing the mission where you have to deal with the Pendleton twins at the Golden Cat. But I think it's enough to get the gist of overall gameplay. The game seems to encourage stealth and benign neutralization tactics - that is, using nonlethal means to subdue foes. However, there are more lethal attack options than there are nonlethal. I must admit that it feels quite limiting to the overall approach one should take throughout the game. This is coming from someone who prefers more open-ended games with a lot of weapons and less feeling of guilt as a result of using lethal force to neutralize hostiles. Anyway, I'm not discouraging people from playing Dishonored. I'm just suggesting that if you're favorite approach to combat is putting all bad guys to sleep without being detected, than this is right up your alley.… Expand

Excellent level design and arts but the game have a really bad story and is actually a sandbox experience. There's absolutely no challenge, our character is too powerful (you can one shot each enemy of the game + weird escape with blink) and exploration isn't rewarded well. After a ghost run, I've finished the game in 5 hours in very hard without any powers/upgrades (only blink and knife) which reminds me that's a real problem if you don't like sandbox game and prefer games with real challenge.… Expand