Dishonored in 2021 is a Different Kind of Grim

this video is sponsored by skillshare the first thousand people who click the link in the description will get a free trial of skillshare premium so it's the start of 2021 and thanks to the lull and new releases i've been granted that rare opportunity to tackle some of my steam backlog hundreds of games to choose from each offering a unique escape from the barrage of new titles at the end of last year as well as just the anxiety-inducing drain of life and of all those games for some reason i decide to finally sit down and fully complete 2012's dishonored a game about a city ravaged by plague it's also about some other stuff sabotaging the plans of those that framed you installing the quote rightful ruler and all that but first and foremost is a game about the stark light an outbreak shines on the gross injustices of social hierarchy in a way that despite the game's obviously exaggerated setting and how this plague actually came to befall the streets of dunwall still manages to feel pretty raw right about now indeed there's something about dishonored's atmosphere that for me goes beyond most other games about societies crumbling under the weight of some outbreak there's an eerie quietude to the whole thing made so convincing through the game's washed out colour palette highlighting how empty the streets are in this city and countering the more swashbuckling freedom afforded to you through its action that action is still an absolute blast to be clear but the world housing it is draped in this mix of crippling fear and exhausted resignation that i don't know about you has become all too familiar over the past year it's a testament to just how well this world is built out obviously putting the decidedly more threatening tone of its signage to one side i'd recognize something about our current situation in the way citizens are warned to look out for signs of the disease and report it the talk of lockdowns of being told that we all need to make sacrifices for the greater good right now there's something that at least staves off the effects of the rat plague that many of those who need it most worry they won't have access to and i think that's the key to why despite me having a really good time with it overall dishonored has hung over me it's like a specter that i can't shake it's hard not to notice that dunwall is more or less at the same point of its crisis as we are of ours and i know that sounds dramatic but bear with me here this isn't the early days of the outbreak where people are panicking while trying to escape or merely understand what's going on nor is it a truly post-apocalyptic picking up the pieces scenario many years after the fact this is very much a world in the middle of societal catastrophe one where as you take a break from zipping across the rooftops to explore the dingy streets below you see that the plague is still going through its motions the only reason so many of the people you encounter seem so nonchalant about this still very prevalent disease until it's right at their doorstep is because their focus has necessarily been elsewhere they still have to survive make what little money they can all because they've been so callously thrown to the wolves or rats by the ruling classes the same people who are still able to indulge in all sorts of debauchery and callous profiteering seemingly without consequence in the middle of a city under collapse and it was this side of dishonored that really stuck with me which is interesting because potentially it's actually kind of far from the core gameplay experience in fact in line with its immersive sim lineage a lot of this world is conveyed through audio logs and diary entries scribbled notes environmental storytelling and overheard conversations all things you can blast right through as you race across the rooftops and figure out which way might be best to take out your unsuspecting prey in theory the society of dunwall exists in your peripheral vision unless you stop to look at it you can't get to the heavily guarded fortresses mansions and clubs housing your high society targets without first traversing the streets in whatever way you choose to get them but stop and look i did not simply to find the many alternate paths that quests can take if you talk to the right person and find some other means of dispatching your target but because that world building ended up dramatically informing the way i viewed my own gameplay and interpreted the game as a whole painting a picture of a world whose numerous gargantuan problems would categorically not be solved by protagonist corvo fulfilling the task bestowed upon it despite being tasked with infiltrating and taking out the most powerful members of this society in the grand scheme of things very little of what you do in dishonored actually matters for example you go to a masked ball where beforehand you're asked to give a letter to one of the attendees by a member of your own team i never know its contents i just give it to the masked stranger whereupon he calls it sender a gutless coward and leads me down to a private area he tells me to take a gun and we jewel i stand over his now dead body puzzle back at the party itself capturing that delightfully hitman-esque sensibility of hiding in plain sight amongst the rich and powerful a man confronts me offering a non-lethal means of carrying out my mission thinking his intentions pure and for the sake of the target i lead her to the designated spot without arousing suspicion a satisfying challenge and put her on the man's boat where things take an ever so brief but remarkably sinister turn and then he sails off never to be seen again the game and my comrades congratulate me well i wonder if it might have been more merciful to just take her out the old fashioned way such is the beauty of this game however grim its treatment of these massive events is completely mundane leaving me to question whether i'm actually doing anything positive for dunwall at all contrary to what your higher-ups have told you about being the hero the city needs things just kind of happen here your playtime feeling more like a series of disparate odds and ends than a grand mission with a singular purpose and it's all summed up for me in the moment where spoilers i guess you do indeed go after the mastermind behind all of this hiram burrows now surely this should be a huge important moment that's what everyone back at base has been telling you here is the man responsible for framing you for so decimating this city all is the result of a failed plan to project an air of affluence by eradicating those in poverty and upon getting there you find that he's no stronger than anyone else you've taken out his guard only slightly more intense with his death as unceremonious and ultimately meaningless as any in his retinue i transported behind him like i had so many other enemies up to that point knocked him unconscious flung his body on top of his bed where i knew the rather boneheaded ai wouldn't be able to find it and thwacked him with my blade zipping out of the building with the same ease with which i'd entered it he's just another target and if you've played the game before you know far from the end of dunwall's problems said problems aren't going to be solved by placing a young child on the throne who doesn't want to be there by having an assassin on the run take out the corrupt ruling class to replace it with other members of the ruling class and as you come to realize everyone in this world has their own motives beyond the greater good they claim to serve it's all [ __ ] political games coming at the direct cost of the citizens these people are supposed to help left to die horribly as your cohorts pat each other on the back for a completely meaningless job well done congratulations i guess the vote went the way the admiral wanted it to and corpses are still dumped on top of more corpses i like most of you i imagine don't really get out of the house much these days the dense population of the area i mean means there's a non-negligible dice roll involved with just taking a stroll i'm an anxious person anyway so it's hard not to notice the massive tower blocks and financial skyscrapers of a once bustling cityscape closing in on you a bit as you try to anticipate who or how many people might be around the next corner will they be wearing masks all of that i find myself looking at blocks of flats and thinking i wonder how many people in there have it or have had it and chances are given the numbers it's not none it's grim but i can't help but wonder how many have succumbed i'm reminded that the sight of mass graves for victims of something like this is something i never thought i'd actually see in my lifetime but here we are and that hurts i worry and at the same time i see leaders having a big old circle jerk for the slightest of attempts made to clear up the messes they themselves made through years of drastically underfunding health services and giving insanely lucrative contracts to their bumbling rich pals demanding that the poor's show gratitude for the scraps of support they've been thrown that could be pulled away any minute all while their livelihoods and mental health have been obliterated multiple millions of people are dead crippling fear mixed with exhausted resignation in 2012 there is no way that arcane could have foreseen things ending up the way they have done back then it probably would have been easy for me to read this game as a pretty well told revenge tale in a well-established setting it could have been driven by any cataclysm and you'd likely still have profiteers pursuing and celebrating largely meaningless alterations to the hierarchy of power and leaving the poor to fend for themselves and die in the process the purpose of this game was clearly not to illustrate the means by which humanity might survive and prevail against an actual outbreak arcane just happened to use plague as the lens through which to examine these deeper societal problems with that in mind it's hard to find much hope playing dishonored in 2021 a time where all we want is to be free from illness and despair but what it does offer is a still immensely enjoyable suite of mechanics with which to navigate this playground where if only for a few short hours you can soar above it all a fleeting moment of existence outside the vice-like grip of an unjust hierarchy instilling a fear in those at the top that they so consistently enforce on those below them and if there's a more relevant and cathartic power fantasy to be found in 2021 i don't know what is oh that was all about grimms let's shift to something positive taking the next step in your creative journey like millions of others already are with today's sponsor skillshare skillshare is an online learning community for creative and curious people explore new skills deepen existing passions and get lost in creativity 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you all enjoyed this piece on dishonored i'd like to thank my patrons here the outpouring of support after my game of the year video was nothing short of humbling and the patreon pledges specifically have a more dramatic impact than you know on my ability to keep the show going i haven't been able to respond to every message yet but please know that i have read them and they really meant the world to me thank you all so much and thanks to those that have checked out the writing on gamescast 2 link in the description if you've enjoyed any of the videos i've put out and want to help the channel continue so i can keep making more you can directly help out as well as get things like early access to ad-free video uploads by heading to patreon.com writing on games and pledging only what you feel comfortable with i am forever thankful for your support in whatever form it takes special thanks go to mark b writing art john vitsjuk nicholas velenov captain knew sprig sorry lei chanello henry malek bryce snyder lucas david burke winter timothy jones phibia mori the nameless guy tommy carver chaplin dr motorcycle shardfire rob anna pimentel jesse rein spike jones dallas keane charlie kimball and charlie and with that this has been another episode of writing on games thank you so much for watching stay safe and i will see you all next

Channel: Writing on Games

Views: 171,467

Keywords: dishonored, review, analysis, critique, discussion, arkane, bethesda, immersive sim, pc, 2012, dishonored 2, years later, bethesda softworks, xbox, microsoft

Id: i2qCjxVouek

Length: 12min 18sec (738 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2021