why do people love Dishonored?

no game has true Freedom it can't a game is coded and everything you do within a game even glitches is a product of a line of code that tells the game that it's possible within a game in context the idea of freedom is manifested through breaking the rules unorthodox skips glitches and entering areas the developers never intended you to True freedom is breaking the laws accessing areas you can't not being limited by the engine the game or the lack of developed out of bound areas nobody could hold a game to the standard so we settle for a profound trust in what we can see understanding that much like a magic trick we are being deceived the games that offer the best player Freedom are the ones that simply fool the player to the point where while caught up in the smoke and mirrors they forget the orchestra of Marionette strings strained above them with that said Dishonored is a master Illusionist the streets of Dunwall are quiet but in the dark corners of the sewers an infection grows festers multiplies and infects in an attempt to call the lower class Royal spymaster here in Burrows led the rats which were immune to the disease to the slums where it ran through most of the population as planned but it didn't stop there rather the plague spread to the middle class in some of the upper class to the point where it seemed the whole city was facing decimation from the plague the solution wasn't simple but the means were one man whose name and honor have been tarnished through the gift of a supernatural entity was given the power to choose the city's fate have it Prosper past the plague which would leave it as a mere footnote in the history of Dunwall or allow it to be the final chapter of the city's story Dishonored like many games has an emphasis on player choice what separates it from its contemporaries is that it is as advertised sure the fate of Dunwall is left up to a binary high or low chaos but even the smallest of decisions have ramifications that are visible on both a macro and micro level your decisions actually matter a slow methodical approach is therefore encouraged in both story and gameplay leading to a game that warrants multiple playthroughs and hours of experiment fermentation mix this with a story that while simple has many layers and enough lore to fill a novel and gameplay that kept me coming back from where we have a game that despite seeming like something I wouldn't like is a product that I feel near embarrassed for not having tried until close to 10 years after its release Dishonored takes an idea that is often fumbled by other developers and genuinely delivers on its promises I'm sure many more would appreciate this if the game didn't sell itself short but others certainly made up for it reviews for Dishonored were glowing across the board with many praising its open-ended level design but noting that it is a double-edged sword which offers so much choice in how you approach a level that some may find it ironically unapproachable its story was praised for its intricacies but the overarching narrative was seen as lesser than the sum of its exceptional Parts with some finding the ending to be rushed and rather sudden but in recent years fewer and fewer have discussed Dishonored likely in lieu of its sequel which seems to have inspired a far greater divide why is it then important to look back at this game well simply put it seems that game still to this day struggle with freedom and choices we we've covered the Infamous games before on the channel and the decisions in those games were criticized for having very binary black and white outcomes even the likes of Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Valhalla have become Masters at Deception presenting decisions that may slightly mold scenes or characters down the line but only within the restrictive concrete confines sometimes we get so caught up in the advanced mechanics in large-scale Worlds that we forget how to make these worlds feel lived in and alive and how to make it feel like a world that while not revolving around the player is reasonably influenced by them and it's in those times where flipping back to the front page of the player choice manual can be beneficial so why don't we go back to the basics and look at a classic in first person stealth games and analyze what made Dishonored so damn good 10 years later and a warning spoilers ahead [Music] one thousand years ago an ancient civilization occupied the land that would become Dunwall a whale hunting civilization that praised an entity known as The Outsider a morally ambiguous character that presides over both reality and the void in between life and death existence and non-existence The Outsider is a seemingly unbiased figure one with few goals and nearly seems bored imbuing those he finds intriguing with immeasurable power and control over the following events as far as we know in this game this is done out of curiosity more than anything though it's clear the outsider has bigger plans corvo otano the Royal protector of empress Jessamine caldwin and subsequently their daughter Emily caldwin spent his years guarding his royal family until being sent on a mission to find other cities that could help Dunwall after two years of unsuccessfully fighting the plague Upon returning empty-handed he reunites with Emily and Jessamine only to see her assassinated by some masked assassins who have the ability to teleport and have other strange abilities the Assassins take out Jessamine and kidnap Emily as corvo is incapacitated by the time he can regain his bearings though guards show up and pin the death of the empress on him and because he's a silent protagonist he says absolutely nothing to defend himself ending up in prison over the next six months corvo is tortured by his captives until receiving a golden ticket out of his cell allowing him to break free from prison once rendezvousing with a man named Samuel the two ride the river to the Hound pits home of the Loyalists who claimed to be loyal to the empress and give corvo a series of tasks with a goal of rescuing Emily and restoring her position on the throne as you'll complete these tasks you'll learn more about yourself your fellow loyalists but most about the half-eaten World you'll be inhabiting and sculpting based on your actions Dunwall when you first visit is a bit of a Victorian bit of Gothic city that has clearly seen better days buildings often crowd the skyline and what gaps our present are occupied by hanging speakers used to enforce the martial law in place it's a city that plays well into the highly stylized presentation the outfits of the many guards and corvo himself look believable and and while the faces can look Goofy on some characters as their hands are the same size as their heads it generally looks great and serves the game better than a hyper realistic art style would I find this art style mesh is better with the supernatural elements too and it caused it to age beautifully the buildings that act as your boundaries look great and feel very unique in their designs never giving off the impression of a control C to V however they don't stick out enough to take away from the main course in most missions the surrounding vacant homes will serve to frame the larger structure you are meant to infiltrate which almost always captures your attention whether that be the grand pillars of the golden cat or the fireworks in Bright Lights accompanying the Boyle Mansion the Interiors get the same love as that same Mansion is full of food confetti and secret Nooks for you to find well Secrets when some of the best gameplay of the story is resting on this kind of aesthetic Foundation it creates a product that is so much greater than the sum of its parts and one that as encouraged by gameplay you'll return to time and time again to find new details things like red X's being marked on houses to inform The Outsiders that this building has been hit with the plague it reads enforces this idea that we're in the middle of a pandemic the level of detail is present from the larger buildings to the Fine corners of the Interiors yes I know that the trash littering the floor wasn't placed meticulously and I'm not going to sit here and praise trash though I've dabbled in it before but what I'm saying is that the environment has little dead space and feels lived in homes are not simply a desk with a few paintings we have actual furniture and rooms that while not useful for the game's mechanics are useful for the ideal inhabitants sinks [ __ ] and chandeliers are in their proper place and it offers plausibility to the idea that someone actually lives here the circumstances of the time also lend themselves well to reasonable World limitations plenty of games have doors you just can't open because the devs don't have the time or resources to model the inside but here it makes sense in what is essentially a reimagining of the Bubonic plague barring doors with metal wood or barricades is something people actually did during some of the worst outbreaks of our time this level of detail in the world is what truly prevents the art style from feeling cartoonish at first it's a little goofy but it's played so straight you can't help but see it as normal after a few minutes one of the most striking locations in the game that is memorable for its brevity as much as its style is the void a dark and distorted Beauty covers a landscape acting as the land in between realities it shows plenty of important figures and locations relevant to not only corvo's story acting as foreshadowing for his journey but also foreshadows lore and World building like the whales whose oil is used to power almost all of Dunwall waterfalls flow endlessly into nothing platforms are floating and the Mist that migrates from one unidentified direction to another is it South West there's no telling in this uncanny slice of masterful environmental design the voice acting was fine enough and I never noticed any standout performances aside from the likes of Dowd but none of them were too bad aside from Piero whose dialogue is delivered at such a sluggish speed that it puts me to sleep where I dreamed of his dialogue having a skip button fortunately the major dialogue has a skip button so repeat playthroughs can be as quick or in depth as you like animations also looked great except carrying things in the way your hands barely move in front of you give off the stiff Bethesda vibe that I'm sure any fan of the Elder Scrolls will be familiar with I wasn't a fan but it's a minor blemish on the Greater Image the UI itself looks good too and never clutters the screen with objectives many Maps or anything of the sorts the game has a beautiful world and won't do anything to needlessly prevent you from seeing it this assists the gameplay Loop too as Dishonored is a calculated game and requires a calculated playstyle knowledge of the map and layouts in front of you will be Paramount to your success and being able to see everything in front of you makes this goal possible but a Charming art style isn't what pulls people back in it's the gameplay thank you the gameplay of Dishonored is where it shines most that is because you're sent down a tree of decisions with each successful Choice leading to two more choices until eventually you are in a web of Hydra heads the First Choice begins at the beginning of your playthrough and is one of the weakest decisions in the game chaos your chaos is dictated by how much chaos you cause which I understand is rather obvious but I feel the need to State it because many have the misconception that this is a faux morality system it is not while low chaos involves less killing less hysteria and fewer sacrifices this influences the amount of objectives in front of you such as finding evidence or means of ejecting your target from their position of power but it also deals with how you handle guards for most this means strangling a guard instead of stabbing them but because strangling takes longer it means you might opt to pass by enemies more often than not certain options might be entirely locked off if you don't have the means to take down those in your way or more enjoyably it means that you'll spend more time planning and executing different strategies to see what works your next choice would be how to enter a building and these could range from two or three entrances to 10 or 20. I can't go into all of them but the consistent routes are something above ground below ground and invitations you can go above riding the rooftops until you find an open window unlocked balcony door or vent below swimming in the sewage to find an entrance or you can find invitations these are not often genuine written invitations but rather means of being welcomed into the place you're meaning to infiltrate sometimes that's a letter a punch card or a disguise once inside you I think you get it there are plenty of choices to make and it makes Dishonored a game that gets better with each playthrough because it's one thing to know you have the choice to do something different but it's an entirely new beast when you see that the alternative choices have actual ramifications and are just as fleshed out as the latter each level is a Sandbox which could be completed by beelining the objective but exploring will reward you with upgrades lore or story and characters that do plenty to entertain doing a low chaos run and then a high chaos run is just the tip of the iceberg with the deeper layers being the runs where you find ways to complete the level without abilities without being seen without taking down anyone except your targets and so on these repeat playthroughs get exponentially more enjoyable as you come to learn the map like the back of your hand but let's take a greater look at that tip of the iceberg because it has some problems chaos likes to present itself as more than a morality system but eventually falls into the same trap of being a binary choice you make at the beginning of the game and never again calling these decisions just or morally correct for starters is a stretch one of the first victims you encounter is high overseer Campbell who carries a laundry list of evil Deeds over his shoulders the suffering he has caused justifies his death but does it justify Eternal torture as an outcast in the non-lethal route the one many would consider morally Superior you force him to be branded as a heretic this causes him to be exiled just like the hundreds before him sounds like an awful person getting a taste of their own medicine but a few days later you see that he ended up in the flooded district and became a weeper during the final stages of the Rat plague the infected began developing symptoms similar to a zombie blood drips from their eyes and black bile covers their insect-ridden clothes internally their compromised immune system has led to parasites festering within them their cognition deteriorates to a point where they lose the ability to speak and become hostile to the non-infected but whether these hostilities are a result of their rotted brain or simply the best Cry for Help they can achieve is undetermined a cure for the plague is a constant variable so let me ask you again what is morally just killing a man or subjecting him to the very hell he put so many others in I wouldn't blame you for failing to answer I can barely come to a conclusion this is what makes the chaos system an enjoyable one because it isn't a binary good or evil if you subject Lady Boyle to death are you wrongfully taking her life or are you being merciful sparing her from being sent off with a stranger who clearly has ill intentions what I find interesting about these choices is that I don't believe they were intended to be so morally gray developers from Arcane have stated specifically that they were misguided regarding lady Boyle's low chaos fate explaining that the idea would be that she'd have her stalker wrapped around her finger through the signs we instead allow her to live a good enough life but remove her from an environment where all she does is cause harm I've believe the Intrigue and richness with the chaos system was accidental the developers make it clear that choosing to kill will only result in negative consequences but the gameplay doesn't support this it leads to mixed signals and the biggest green light no red light wait green light to your actions is Samuel Samuel is your chaperone for the levels as he speeds down the river getting you from point A to B he's constantly giving you tips and at the end of a level he delivers some kind of dialogue encouraging whatever action you just took with Campbell his dialogue is the same and his dialogue doesn't mention your actions much at all until the very end at the climax of The Game on high chaos he begins berating you for your actions and even sabotages you during his final ride it made all the moral gray areas black and white clear as day the game was directly telling me that the choices I was making were wrong I wouldn't want Samuel to congratulate me for my Slaughter but the people we killed assuming it was only the targets and those directly in your way deserved it and were arguably spared from worse conditions this could be my own problem as this is caused by my own reading of Samuel's dialogue is the game telling me what is right and wrong rather than a character telling me but the mixed signals here create a morality system that works when you play it as it causes you to really question your actions but when the developer's intentions are revealed it feels misguided I know I focus heavily on the interactions between you and the world but anyone who has played this game knows that the decisions and ramifications for your actions is what this game lives and dies on when you don't have these interesting decisions you're stuck with gameplay that while having interesting mechanics isn't reliable enough to Warrant experimentation and is outdone by its contemporaries in a lot of ways the movement feels weighty at first and your movement speed feels good I was fortunate enough to never get stuck on any geometry I never felt that I should have made a jump that I didn't the stealth will be perfectly familiar to any fans of the thief series as leaning crouching and walk speed matter but it never reaches the same complexity as its spiritual successor it's enough to have a great time with but it isn't going to be knocking the old thief games off their Throne anytime soon when stealthing does fail and you don't immediately reload you'll be thrust into the very basic combat I have no quarrels with its Simplicity because many won't engage with it at all you have your basic swing of your sword and fire of your Flintlock mapped to the right and left buttons respectively this feels wonky though as you're pressing the left side of your mouse to initiate an action for your right hand but I bring this up to praise the fully customizable controls allowing me to swap to something more comfortable and the game's tutorials account for the new controls you can block attacks and if you block with the right timing you'll perform a Parry that staggers the enemy and once the enemy's health is low enough you'll perform a finisher ending the fight if you happen to attack at the same time as your enemy your swords will meet and you'll need to match to stagger them it's basic stuff but it's done decently enough but let's get back to stealth the stealth is good and your footsteps make a decent amount of noise but sometimes your abilities don't make noise the blink makes noise meaning you can't just teleport behind somebody without a plan and with an upgrade you can keep them silent but even when that buff isn't equipped sometimes enemies won't notice even on the hardest difficulties this can lead to some believing that the blank should be in fact silent when it should be otherwise pair this with the game's lack of tutorial and we have a game that I felt was tough to grasp at first when a new ability is unlocked you get a single splash screen explain learning how it works and every ability has a strategy guide on the menu but things like the sound of blinks are not as well explained as it could be another issue I came across was when making quick decisions I mentioned that Dishonored is a slow game one that requires planning and strategy but the execution of those plans cannot always be so slow and steady when attempting to swap abilities or weapons there is sometimes a slight delay this is only present when scrolling to change weapons but reaching for the numbers is a bit too out of the way and using the weapon wheel pauses everything which just kills the pace so scrolling despite being the most effective means of swapping would result in activating the wrong ability despite me being perfectly accurate this becomes an especially problematic inconsistency when rather than using an ability like blink which costs temporary Mana I would use something like time bending which not only defeats the purpose of going fast but consumes permanent Mana meaning I often had to use my finite resources to get it back I also found hitboxes to be strange at times but chances are if I got into open combat I'd be reloading my save anyways which the game new people would do so they conveniently added Hawk keys for quick saving and quick loading and this is a double-edged sword on one hand I don't enjoy this idea that I have to constantly use what is essentially a Save State because it almost feels like cheating the game encourages you to do it as evident by the level design and the hints during the loading screens which say to save often but God forbid I get sucked into the world and end up not saving for five minutes it can be frustrating when you mess up over something that may not be your fault once I got into this habit I enjoyed the game a lot more I do wish the game immediately told you about the hotkeys because my dumb ass would navigate to the menu which was by no means quick but I know these hotkeys are present in a ton of Bethesda games so I probably should have known better while I don't necessarily enjoy doing this it's far better than suffering the losses from Powers not being selected properly enemies not taking damage or enemies flat out seeing you through walls I also wouldn't experiment at all as much as I did if I wasn't saving before every single encounter the quick save is a Band-Aid solution and would be rendered useless if the mechanics were Rock Solid and reliable in some segments where quicksaving doesn't save you time or just can't be done at all it makes the gameplay frustrating let's Circle back to what continues to make the gameplay fun and unique which is the powers here thanks to the outsider you have a selection of black magic powers that range from teleportation to possession while I often don't do this because of the limited selection of powers and the extensive applications they have I'll go through them all one by one the first is the blink the blink is your means of quickly getting from point A to B many have referred to this as teleporting and for semantics sake that's not exactly wrong but what is actually happening is you are moving very quickly to your destination hence why you cannot blink through people or objects in virtually every other case the blink is teleportation because you could blink past an enemy's line of sight and they won't notice you the blink is primarily used for moving horizontally though it has some vertical use but its length diminishes the farther up you try to go it uses temporary Mana meaning that after a few seconds what Mana was used will be replenished you'll see this ability being used most to Traverse Vantage points or to close the gap between you and a guard before they turn around an important note about the blink is that it can be used while carrying a body which is more helpful than I could properly explain I like the little detail of the audio getting distorted as you come out of the blink too the blink is well balanced with your other core abilities and combines with your extended movement options and its second tier that extends its range you'll find that traversing the map is one of the most freeing experiences on the table you won't just be running around blind though as dark vision will highlight traps Collectibles and enemies in your general vicinity this Vision also shows you with visuals how loud your footsteps are but that isn't really helpful so long as you're crouching nobody will hear you at its second tier it highlights things through walls and shows you the vision cones of enemies I find that along with this functioning similarly to detective mode from the Arkham series or God forbid any stealth game these days it shares a similar problem Dishonored is a beautiful looking game so seeing it through this muted Vision can take away from one's experience since this Vision lasts for a while and uses temporary Mana you can effectively use it indefinitely the major difference between dark vision and others like it is that I didn't feel like it was necessary to keep on I used it plenty but I never felt like I should keep it on at all times which is mostly due to the level design which doesn't have guards in unfair corners in any guards that aren't immediately visible or have footstep sounds at our clear as day if a little inaccurate a power that I saw littered throughout reviews and trailers was the devouring swarm of rats so you can summon this is a good power it has the spectacle the efficiency and the cost of temporary Mana but it loses its luster quickly it's ineffective at its base level and even after an upgrade it does more to cause hysteria than kill you won't use this on low chaos opting for not killing or using less frantic distractions but even on high chaos it's outclassed by a crossbow bolt or a knife in the shoulder there is one instance where the devouring swarm is useful and that is when paired with a bone charm that allows you to consume white rats for Mana if you are low on elixirs and you can use the last of your Mana to summon rats eat all the white ones that show up and it functions like an Elixir the rats can also be useful for eating any corpses you may have left behind but this use is nullified by the shadow kill ability which is more affordable what is widely believed to be the best ability is The Possession which I surprisingly Barely Used on my first few playthroughs at its first tier you can take control of animals like rats to move by unnoticed and once possession is over you appear in its place it can be really convenient when moving in restricted areas especially when you reach the second tier tier 2 sees you capable of possessing humans which elevates this ability from being situational to downright busted as you can cause targets to kill themselves without you laying a finger on them physically you can't use this too much as it uses permanent Mana but it doesn't prevent this ability from being well done next is my personal Favorite Time bending at its first tier it simply slows time but at its second tier which is the most expensive of the upgrades it halts it all together with a trade-off of a shorter duration coming down from 12 seconds of slowed time to 8 Seconds of stopped time the uses for this power are endless and make clear in groups of enemies far easier when added second tier you can take down a group of people but none of their bodies will drop until time returns to its normal speed this means that those who watch you don't they simply see their captors and within an instant they drop dead or in low chaos fall asleep there is little to say about this power it can't be abused too much because it uses per permanent Mana but it's as badass as it gets the final ability is the wind blast this allows for combat to be far easier as it knocks enemies over with its second tier making a crash into a wall lethal but a throw over a ledge will always do the trick using permanent Mana the wind blast allows you to turn the tides of battle but with how often combat is avoided here many won't use it much for high chaos modes are some of the weirdos that don't reload the second you're spotted it could be good but it doesn't apply to the average stealth user very well the next few abilities are passive upgrades more than skills Vitality is just more Health that eventually regenerates faster and like the wind blast doesn't change a playthrough much his failing emission will be due to being caught more than it will to being hit bloodthirsty allows you to perform finishers at the cost of adrenaline I didn't get much mileage out of this as there are far faster ways to dispatch foes but for long fights it added some depth agility is one of your most important abilities and I recommend upgrading it as soon as possible at Tier 1 your jump height is significantly increased and at tier 2 you move faster overall it's essential for properly traversing Dunwall and I wish the movement was like this from the start the shadow kill turns enemies to Ash upon killing them but not knocking them out making this a must-have quality of life upgrade for high chaos runs you won't be able to invest in everything by the end of the game on a normal run so again there is a level of choice here but many players didn't appreciate the lack of options for low chaos runs I don't think this is an issue though due to most players not being able to grab all upgrades those on low chaos routes will invest more into passive skills like agility and upgrading their blink and dark vision these upgrades allow you to Traverse better and not interact with guards even if you wanted to you wouldn't be able to get the top tier upgrades on paper is there more options and ways to kill yes but it comes to the cost of your maneuverability Vision Vitality blink ability and more I'll admit a low chaos route isn't for everyone but the inherent nature of a low chaos route is that you miss out on the fun of killing and the game can't do much to fix that for you I won't say that because it is optional you can't criticize it and that's a rabbit hole that could go as far as negating any creative decision it doesn't matter if you don't like a low chaos route just play high chaos don't criticize the story you can skip the cut scene and so on but I think a direct answer to the for some boring nature of low chaos is in not only the moral and narrative rewards for such a run but if it's high chaos you desire then there's nothing stopping you from enjoying it some like myself enjoy the extra layers of challenge that come with a low chaos run it isn't as simple as choking enemies taking longer than stabbing or choosing not to engage at all look at the many traps set around Dunwall it becomes clear that rewiring these traps to eviscerate the surrounding people is always more accessible than the power source which will not only be harder to get to but will prompt the surrounding guards to investigate alternatively you could possess a guard walk through a trap which won't hurt them and appear on the other side there are only so many ways to make a passive approach engaging and Dishonored offers enough of them that I didn't find a low chaos route less enjoyable it challenged me more but sacrificed action High chaos is where you can really get creative though this is where the community for Dishonored comes in handy as it really opened my eyes to the different brutal ways to dispatch my targets my favorite trick to use on the practice dummy low chaos Havelock was to aggro him stop time as a bullet is coming towards me possess him and position him in the line of fire and let the hilarity ensue these abilities all felt balanced and properly designed with my only complaint coming from the blank the blank can often be finicky when attempting to mantle an object especially if done in the air as it requires extra Precision I didn't have this problem when playing the main game but the remedy provided in the knife of Dunwall where so long as you aren't moving time is stopped makes this a hindsight criticism more than anything Dishonored is a game that despite marketing itself on Choice alone has an inverted hourglass of Freedom throughout its story as its starting and ending levels act as a linear bookends to corvo's Tale the first sees you moving through a tutorial within a prison it isn't very long once you get the hang of it and the final objective is also short but there's a good reason for it everything in between is where a majority of your decisions and consequences will be seen as mentioned the most notable changes and choices stem from your chaos route but there are smaller choices in between that alter events down the line what makes Dishonored so enjoyable to mess around with is that you don't know what will and won't have an impact hacked on your story I know the entire pitch for Dishonored at the beginning of this video was about your choices mattering but the game doesn't entirely sell itself to you like that this is less of a praise to Dishonored and more of a criticism to other games but when a game does everything in its power to tell you that your choices matter I stop feeling like they do it's as I said before Freedom isn't an actual option so instead a game should pull the wool over our eyes having a butterfly in the corner or on a character's shirt or even a message saying Clementine will remember that calls to attention the very idea that your consequences are not the product of poor forethought or by any means your action but the result of what is intended ironically spelling out the consequences of your actions diminishes them at least in my mind Dishonored does not see corvo saying it seems my previous decision has led to an unforeseen Consequence the consequence just happens it makes the world feel lived in and as though you are not the center of it my favorite decision in the game which I understand is beaten to death by now is actually during the prologue Lord Campbell is having a portrait done of him by sokolov and in this portrait is an Elixir which you can pick up and if you do it'll be absent from the painting when you invade his personal quarters in the first mission you influence the world and the story it tells and this is a perfect example of that no matter how menial Dishonored tells many stories through its World design one of them is with high overseer Campbell and the courtesans he likes to take advantage of rather disturbingly after seeing that the courtesans have a problem with him we can check his secret quarters and see that next to his bed is a few glasses and sleeping darts which I assume are used on those unlucky enough to be brought back to his quarters these little details add so much to a character and make the decision to Brand him a heretic more complicated now you aren't just torturing someone who's part of a larger corrupt system but you're doing it to a murderer abuser and other things that might get this video demonetized if the mentions of plagues and viruses don't already I struggle to properly explain how Dishonored levels are so good without just listing the hundreds of causes and effects but if what I've said thus far hasn't convinced you then perhaps this game just isn't for you what I can properly articulate are my thoughts on the design of these levels every route feels accounted for and fully explored with enemy layouts being challenging but never unfair no matter the playthrough some patrols will be easier on high chaos and vice versa but I never felt as though I was stuck and if through some poor quick saving I did get stuck the game's auto save was reliable enough to get me out of it I appreciated that I often wasn't unsure of my objective or had to get from point A to B in fact one of the biggest hurdles I've Dishonored is learning to ride without the training wheels the first official mission taking down overseer Campbell took me the longest of any Mission because I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go this is a play style the game doesn't support it won't hold your hand and for a bit I felt I was being thrown to the Wolves but in retrospect I realized that feeling overwhelmed or unsure of where to go and Dishonored is a product of a newfound agency previous games despite attempting to offer a situation that can truly be tackled in any way I wanted were false prophets only offering two or three routes that deviate from the main objective which had the most attention given to it and where an objective marker would funnel you to in Dishonored you have a goal and a general idea of how to do it but everything in between sees the game shrugging his shoulders and saying figure it out kid you'll get there Dishonored makes use of some interesting techniques to encourage player exploration and freedom enemies gradually become more and more difficult to take down some being in positions where you can't take them out at all without stopping time some having headgear that prevents a one shot to the head and so on this forces you to step outside of your comfort zone for the first few levels I went on my way only strangling enemies but with enough blunders and pushes in the right direction I began looking at every enemy every obstacle as a puzzle a means of picking a lock should I blink use their trap against them simply pass them without engaging at all and what's just as rewarding as completing an objective in an unorthodox way is realizing holy [ __ ] they thought about that my only complaint with the level design is with the prologue as a pop-ups that accompany every new mechanic and ability are at their greatest abundance here I understand keeping the mechanics clear and approachable but there was a borderline annoying amount here I can't fault it too much as it's the opening level and as such I found your choices didn't matter as much here regarding chaos the final level is a lot like the prologue in coldridge prison because it surprisingly is the most most linear in the game the final level is less about the choices you make and more about the ones you've made it's a culmination of the entire playthrough and by virtue offers little causes for you to see through to its effects the entire level is dictated by your actions from Samuel send off to the very weather of the set piece your fate is decided by the time you arrive and this is rather a means of tying up the story a highlight I didn't see people talking about online is the return to the Hound pits Pub I enjoyed this set piece so much because you spend a majority of your playthrough exploring this location at your own pace you have a friendly environment to learn the shortcuts Windows entrances and when you do return and now have to use that knowledge in a stealth scenario it's amazing the enemy layouts here aren't even special but the context is as this is the only time you'll get a chance to run through a level without enemies before being thrown into the thick of it I believe I've alluded to it enough by now we need to talk about lady Boyle's last party I want to analyze this scenario specifically because I think it highlights some of the greatest strengths of this game despite what you may think the area surrounding Boyle's estate is just as detailed as your objective and offer a stark contrast the Alleyways are dark cold and drown you in silence but from every point on the map the extravagance is visible and audible this tells a story in and of itself the people of Dunwall are decaying but the upper class is partying as though the plague doesn't exist the very party-goers State how repulsive the surrounding buildings are not even venturing to the closest of dark corners from fear of what may hide within the first objective is to enter the Mansion which can be done by finding an invitation in an earlier level or finding one that got lost by a guest alternatively you could fight your way in possess a guard that is already inside Blink from a rooftop through the guard quarters or through the sewers once you do enter you'll find the environment is warm bustling and lavish like nothing you've seen up to this point everyone dressed in masks and including Lady Boyle what's more there are three ladyboys in the mansion and we don't know which one of them is our Target and with all of their identities obscured we have a few ways of identifying them one way is by speaking to some of the guests one Miss White will reveal the names of the boils and their costume colors through a bribe but that still doesn't tell us who is the target we're looking for the Lord Regent's right-hand woman and with the arrival of Lord brisbee we get confirmation of our Target and the alternative non-lethal route in another run one may opt to sneak upstairs through the wall of light it's up here that you can find written Clues to confirm the identity of the Target and once you find out who's who you can play off their fears Waverly is paranoid and can be coerced into secluding herself into the wine cellar esma is a horndog and through some seduction will escort us to her room for some private time where she can get a few more inches than she Bargains for Lydia just likes music and will ask corvo to play her a song in a conveniently empty room of course all of them can be killed anywhere you like or subdued and brought to brisbee all this and I haven't revealed the best part yet the identity of the target their accompanying clothes are completely different every time you replay the level according to the extended lore Waverly is the Canon Target but this level is easily one of the most replayable for this reason another interesting portion of Dishonored is its story it is rather simple and does have some pacing issues but due to the way your actions and consequences dictate not only the story of corvo but of Dunwall it feels incomplete without a second run it's a short tale that while not answering every question does not overstay its welcome it has a cast that feels well-rounded and knows when to take a back seat to the gameplay conveniently presenting itself in scenarios where the experienced player could skip it on the nth run The Story begins with corvo otano returning from an unsuccessful voyage and attempts to find a cure for the plague that is eating away a Dunwall also a quick aside I know a lot of you haven't played the games I talk about I know some of you are fresh off your playthrough so I've left chapters and timestamps so you can skip the summary if needed as corvo approaches done while Tower he runs into his daughter Emily who he conceived with the empress but was kept Under Wraps as corvo comes from a lower class and had to keep up appearances as the protector of Jessamine it's within this opening that we can see the very allies that are conspiring behind our backs the fruits of which are plain to see in the following cut scene which sees a group of Assassins teleporting over to us killing Jasmine kidnapping Emily and leaving us to be accused of the empress's murder six months later we are being interrogated and tortured by high overseer Campbell a day before our execution until being given the key to our cell as delivered by an unnamed friend as we make our Escape in rendezvous with Samuel we return to the rundown Hound pits Pub it's there we meet our fellow loyalists who want to see Emily the rifle here to the throne return to her seat there are a few characters here but the most important are Pendleton Havelock and Martin the de facto leaders before sending you on your journey you meet with Piero the questionable genius capable of crafting the many consumables and upgrades for your journey even making the new iconic mask this mask was created through the orders of the outsider who pays us a visit too he explains that we have the power to enact great change upon Don wall and he will give us Powers as a gift but we are not given a goal acting is no more than a curiosity for The Not So benevolent God the Loyalists first tasks you with hunting down and killing High overseer Campbell discovering along the way that Emily is being held within a brothel called the golden cat his next Target are Pendleton's two brothers and while Pendleton is against it he knows what must be done corvo rescues Emily neutralizes the pendletons and returns to find that his next Target is one that does not need to be neutralized but rather kidnapped sokolov is a genius who developed the Technologies of the new Lord Regent is using and threw some interrogation reveals the Lord Region's financer Lady Boyle we neutralize her and with that we now have the Lord region vulnerable and immediately leave to take him down upon doing so we return to the pub to celebrate only for Samuel to oddly not join us and after a single drink we've become too sloshed and passed out as we are half asleep we catch the conversation between the loyalist leaders explaining that we were but upon and used so the Loyalists could put themselves in power not Emily we then wake again to hear Samuel explaining that he only gave us half of the poison lest he be killed and someone else do the job properly and wishes us well before we're knocked out again and wake up floating down the flooded district being captured by the very man who ruined our life months ago after Dowd sends us to the depths of the district we climb out and Ascend the flooded streets to track him down deal with him and exit the district returning to the Hound pits to find where the Loyalists and Emily have gone there we can save sokolov Piero and kalista before heading to the lighthouse dealing with the Loyalists and saving Emily the game ends with a narration from The Outsider explaining the fate of Dunwall and its credits from there the length of that summary speaks volumes for how simple the game's story is but I don't think that's a bad thing I've compared this game before to other games like Infamous that have these binary choice playthroughs and those games also have simple stories an issue that comes from this style of game is that one side could be more are fleshed out than the other an Infamous 2's case despite having a fantastic story it's clear that the good karma playthrough was given more time and more thought was given to Cole's actions making the evil karma play through only appealing to completionists and Psychopaths here both sides are Justified though as mentioned the high chaos route is presented as the bad karma play through it doesn't stop it from being somewhat justifiable look if the mother of your child was killed that child was kidnapped and you were tortured for six months by horrible people planning to kill you I'd say that you're somewhat justified in killing those who conspired against you and anyone who is a part of such system now maybe killing everyone is a stretch but as the game will confirm it's Justified to at least kill your targets because if you kill only your targets you'll still get the low chaos ending for hopefully the last time let's revisit Infamous again which sees your karma reflected in your appearance an evil coal will stand differently black veins corrupting his skin and he will be more Stern with his allies the main characters used as a manifestation of your karma and in dishonored's case that manifestation is Emily rather than project the blood to your hands Emily can become more corrupted if you play like the steampunk Boogeyman High chaos thrives in she expresses herself in more concerning ways as reflected in her drawings they are Recreations of how she perceives the world a lone child locked in a tower as the surrounding Dunwall is set Ablaze from a rat plague on a low chaos route we'll see images of corvo labeled daddy which right on Emily you see in this guy will also find that upon sparing the Lord region the Loyalists are planning to teach Emily sciences and Mathematics but on high chaos Dylan said teach her religion and refer to her as a spoiled brat the greatest indicator of how Emily sees the world and us is in her large rendering of us which will either feature a very happy corvo or one that is hidden behind his mask fit for a demon of Steel these are of course the more obvious changes between playthroughs like when returning from neutralizing the Lord Regent Emily will either comment saying you've done good everyone says you did something good tonight we're leaving tomorrow aren't we or asking with an aggressive curiosity how many people you've killed did you kill anybody tonight how many [Music] the fate of Dunwall indirectly rests on you as your actions shape Emily who will rule the throne by the end of the game in almost all cases the low chaos ending sees Havelock poisoning his conspirators and keeping Emily safe locked in a room on high chaos Havelock will take Emily to the edge of the lighthouse and threaten to jump it's pretty easy to save Emily here and even if she does slip you can grab her from the ledge but if for some reason she does fall an alternative ending will play which we'll show Dunwall and shambles but with a power vacuum added as a cherry on top these three endings were satisfying but their pacing a delivery left some to be desired but we'll get to that later let's stay focused on the chaos the more subtle changes come from the world with more kills more dead bodies will litter the streets and that means rats will be able to eat more and multiply even the highest of echelons aren't safe on high chaos as the boils have rats invading their party Uninvited the flooded district also looks marginally different as the water is now much higher in the weepers denser in numbers across all of Dunwall in interesting detail I found out which admittedly has also been done to death is that even something as small as the radios around Dunwall can be interacted with I don't mean in the physical sense ends which I rather humorously discovered on my low chaos playthrough when I accidentally dropped it on top of an innocent bystander but you can actually change the voice when infiltrating Dunwall Tower you can interact with the man behind the radio broadcast and if killed he will be replaced by weirdly enough Carrie Fisher even stranger is that this was her first role in a video game further details apologies for the aside I just want to throw more praise towards the story before I talk about what bothered me the most which was the pacing and lack of development with some characters first the story plays out like a plane crash things move at a slow pace in the beginning but as the story moves towards its climax it Dives closer and closer to the ground moving faster and faster by the time the story ends rather than ease out it just crashes and abruptly ends after saving Emily we get a short dialogue from The Outsider and the game just rolls of credits I have two issues with the very criticism I just levied though and I don't explain these as a means of intentionally making myself seem like a contradictory [ __ ] but to explain how we could possibly remedy this pacing the first rebuttal is that the game has nothing left to tell no loose ends to tie up sure plenty of lower questions are left in the air but any integral plot points that are set up are completed so what more could we ask for I might say that I want more than a cutscene and perhaps some extra dialogue with Emily kalista and perhaps a ceremony where corvo has pardoned and Vindicated for his crimes but the problem is that the game outside of of the opening is very light on The Upfront story yes plenty of lore and story is here but most of it is left to optional dialogues audio logs and letters so why would I want there to be a greater explanation when the game didn't offer a greater establishment the only sorry heavy part of the game is the beginning but that makes sense and even then it isn't long the other rebuttal is at Arcane for their first game already cleared expectations and expecting so much from a studio that was so small at the time is unfair and to that I say yeah true but let me indulge a bit imagine if after saving Emily we saw the same cutscene but then had an epilogue at Don wall Tower similar to the way the Hound pits acted as a hub of sorts this Dunwall Tower would be similar to the opening bright skies and this time without Bloodshed or backstabs once inside the tower we'd see Emily on her throne being assisted by kalista and it's there we can talk to our allies that survived and see what their hopes are for the new Empire we could see the aftermath of Piero and sokolov finding a cure for the plague and see that perhaps sokolov is the lead of military Tech while Piero leads a medical Wing Havelock and friends could be locked up or forced to work for their Freedom the epilogue could end with you and Emily playing another game of hide and seek like in the beginning of the game except in an attempt to hide Emily finds a secret room with the audio graph left behind by her mother giving Emily a newfound somber resolve ending the game and the caldwin story on a hopeful note alternatively if Emily survives a high chaos ending we return to the castle at night during a thunderstorm littered with rats and at the top of the tower is a more jaded Emily ready to rule with an iron fist in order to keep her power Piero is now worked to the Bone attempting to create a cure to the rap play against sokolovs in a similar spot havelock's head could be on a pike at the entrance and the general environment can be more unkempt and dirty with jessamine's secret room going unfound I know it's a lot to ask but I just thought it was a cool idea as far as the side characters I thought they were all okay but I found Piero to be strangely unlikable he speaks with a tranquilizing molasses that makes every unskippable conversation a snooze Fest he also has a more Sinister side where he spies on Kalisto while she's in the bathtub it's all played in a creepy Manner and I was expecting some sort sort of justification for these actions if that's even possible but there was nothing maybe they were trying to make a greater statement about people during times of desperation or maybe I guess that's just one of Hero's quirks all the other loyalists were fine but I never found myself too invested in them but the exceptions were the characters on the streets Granny Rags upon first meeting her actually creep me right out her dead eyes I'm far too comfortable demeanor made me think that she was not of this world and clearly has a special connection with the outsider we'll leave Rags for the moment because another notable character you interact with is slack jaw the leader of One of dunwall's street gangs he is also defined of expectations as rather than being a Cutthroat businessman he seems to be far more compromising slack John Rags cross paths by the end of the game and if you decide to help Granny Rags then she'll reward you with a rune but choose to oppose her and you'll have a fight against her you'll need to burn a charm to make her vulnerable and then get close enough for a poke putting to rest a demented Spirit but something tells me that this isn't the last we'll see of her I mentioned before that the world itself has a story to tell and while I meant that in an environmental storytelling sense the game also spells it out to you through the the heart a beating heart that will speak to you and tell you about the location you're in noting the state and thoughts of its inhabitants it was a nice Supernatural garnish to the story told here the environment tends to foreshadow future events too little details like this make that second playthrough more enjoyable but that second playthrough exposes other issues with the story for one we'll notice that while plenty of things change depending on the chaos there is also plenty that doesn't in order to make the dialogue not lean to one side and imply a Canon playthrough characters often speak about very important events in a vague manner rather than talking about how you slid a knife through lady Boyle's chest or sent her away with a stalker loyalists react the same just saying that you quote unquote took care of her this ambiguity is what leads to the prior mentioned issues present in the chaos system with the likes of Samuel not hinting at his detestment of your actions until it is arguably too late offering confusion overall despite my issues with the story I liked it plenty most of my criticisms were not even with the story itself but rather me wanting more of it and that alone speaks volumes Dishonored is one of those games I feel bad criticizing it's gameplay so good and varied in this world so detailed that I'm still appalled that this is arcane's first full-fledged game its story is short but it does everything it needs to so I feel wrong for wanting more so I'll clarify that I want more not because I was unsatisfied but because I was spoiled fortunately this isn't exactly where the stories of Dunwall end as the addition of three DLCs add some great world building and gameplay some of which does more to expose The Kinks of this game than anything else oh the first DLC to Grace players was the Dunwall City Trials these are a series of challenges with no story whatsoever and I like that because these challenges while varying in quality are pretty good they are split into combat stealth traversal and movement the two stealth levels are pretty basic especially considering that the whole game can be played in stealth but these two levels see you attempting to steal some objects without being spotted which is just Arcane wearing the thief Inspirations on their sleeveless once again and the Second Challenge sees you having to find Clues to Target's whereabouts similar to Lady Boyle's last party it's clear that the game intends to play to its strengths and it works but when getting spotted at all here leads to a lower score getting spotted due to a bug is even more frustrating I mentioned this earlier so I won't bother hammering it in but damn these challenges highlight the rough edges around Dishonored for example the combat challenges were good in concept but showcased the dodgy hitboxes in the main game combat is barely engaged in at all and often you have plenty of ammo and health but in a challenge where both those things are limited and every move counts it becomes a glaring flaw the back alley brawl is where I saw this the most but ignoring these flaws the concept is good increasing waves of enemies and a limited number of resources forces you to get creative I might have a few grenades but opt to save them for when the tall boys arrive yeah that's actually their name by the way and I might choose to save my Mana for tight situations such as blinking to Higher Ground or stopping time for free every few rounds you get a random power unlock and a whale oil tank refills every round too meaning there's a good amount of variety here the Second Challenge is the Assassin run which sees you tasked with clearing rooms as quickly as possible it exercises quick thinking and challenges your aim with the crossbow if you play on keyboard and mouse if you are on controller you could be dead at the wheel and still cruise through these with how busted the aim assist is this was enjoyable but I can't exactly say the same for the last challenge which is just shooting whale oil canisters in midair with your pistol it was a fun idea but it didn't offer the same replayability as other challenges the traversal challenges start with the bonfire runs it's as simple as it gets Traverse the map and touch a checkpoint to reveal another I think this is great practice for utilizing the blink in tight scenarios but it's here that you'll see how finicky this climb up ability can be and how tough it is to time a blank properly something we'll see remedied in the next DLC I found this next challenge the hardest for these reasons but it's also the one I came back to a fair bit the next is the Train Runner which sees you traversing a more linear path to be to train to the station simple but good enough the final is kill Cascade which leaves you moving in another linear line but timing jumps and blinks to land on top of some enemies before reaching the Finish Line I enjoyed this one more than the Train Runner but still felt that it was just okay I wouldn't have minded if one of these was swapped out for another bonfire run in a different location as I found those played best into dishonor its design philosophy Dishonored is at its best when the choice is on you in this challenge it's a matter of how fast you can Traverse the same path but in the bonfire run there are multiple different ways to get to your destination it's not the same level of Freedom that's in the main campaign but it's better than the linearity scene and the other challenges the puzzle challenges are where most of your time will be spent and play into this aforementioned design philosophy the first is you attempting to perform larger and larger kill chains within an area you'll see a few enemies and will have all the time in the world old to set up a route and some traps but the moment you make your first kill you must kill another Enemy Within 3 seconds and successfully doing so will reset the timer which only ends when you kill all the enemies on screen the best part of these is that you can retry stages many times as you like encouraging different strategies and play Styles the exception to this is the bonus levels which see unorthodox enemy placements that net a large points bonus but you're given only one shot with failure sending you to the next official stage I like this challenge but the one I enjoyed more than anything else in the DLC is the time Bend Massacre this is similar to The Kill chains as you have all the time to set up there are panes of glass separating you from the room you're meant to infiltrate inside is an increasing number of enemies that you must kill in the allotted time while inside time is stopped and when the timer hits zero the camera pans back and we see the time on freeze and Chaos ensue the ever increasing challenge was a ton of fun and an even better challenge was when there were two separate rooms you had to run between so you'd set up a trap in one room maybe throw a grenade or two then move to another room or where you fire a few bullets and get more Hands-On this challenge highlights the inefficiency of stabbing your victims as it isn't a very quick means of clearing a room grenades whale oil tanks and traps on the other hand can clear over 10 guards in but a few seconds the open-ended nature of this challenge meant that I had the freedom to try different strategies and it was consistently the one I came back to and the peak of this content pack I was curious about how this challenge would in any way be a puzzle and I thought it would be turning some valves or something but I was pleasantly surprised these challenges are a perfect Testament to the idea that stealth games are their own genre of puzzle each challenge also has a hidden doll to find and the first time you find these will be really creepy as the world can tort surround your vision to trap you in a room with the shrine they don't do much aside from being neat Easter eggs I've seen a few people say that they didn't bother getting this pack because it has no story content and that sentiment confuses me I understand the Dishonored story in world is exceptional but this pack is really worth the price of admission and if you chose to skip this upon its initial release it's worth grabbing it has a few Duds for sure but within each category there's at least one challenge that will scratch whatever it you have if that itch does happen to be sorry then you'll be more than happy with the knife of Dunwall and the brigmore witches I'll be talking about these two packs in tandem because they share the same story both star and unlikely character Dowd and run alongside the events of the main campaign Dow during the main story was a character that intrigued me but wasn't given the proper screen time to be fully realized here his actions seem far more relevant to the game and he ended up being my favorite character the fact he has actual dialogue lines means he's instantly more tangible than corvo and we influence his personality with our high and low chaos playthroughs let's begin by taking a look at the story here beginning with the opening of the main game at Dunwall Tower we see a doubt that is as hardened as ever until killing Jessamine it's here that something changes within doubt he's pulled into the void where he talks to The Outsider who reveals a Doubt's story will be coming to an end very soon and The Outsider gives him one final gift the name Delilah months go by and Dowd receives word of a vessel named the Delilah which we find out was previously owned by a man infatuated with a woman named Delilah as well naming the ship after her with the story hinting at this Delilah being something more than human after receiving some clues of The elusive Delilah we returned to our home base and get word from Billy who has been accompanying us on our adventures that there's an attack from some overseers on the base we run through and save our fellow assassins to then be confronted by Billy and Delilah who revealed that Billy has betrayed us to Delilah because she believes that we were weak and needed to be usurped it's here that the story is most influenced by your chaos which if on low will see Billy regretting her betrayal and offering her life to which we can kill or spare her if on high chaos she will stay determined to see you overthrown and will challenge you to a duel and eventually she loses the DLC ends with Delilah warning you to stop pursuing her leading into the next DLC The brigmore Witches this DLC sees you continuing to have regrets over the assassination of Jessamine even dreaming of a duel with corvo that you either win or lose your Chaos level carries over between DLCs so the story is immediately changing with low chaos seeing doubt waking up gasping and high chaos seeing his sword that is otherwise in his chest below being at his bedside waking and attacking one of his assassins doubt has Tracked Down Delilah to the brigmore manor but to get there he needs a boat to take him up River and needs one Lizzy stride to do it she's stuck though in coldridge prison which is now heavily fortified after corvo's Escape after getting her out she reveals her boat and crew have been taken over by her second in command Edgar Wakefield we deal with him and head up to the manor discovering Delilah's true plans she intends to perform a ritual where upon creating a one-to-one painting of someone or something the subject can be possessed Delilah intends to perform this ritual on Emily caldwin as she is aware of the loyalist plans to return her to the throne this will not only give her control of the whole empire but it'll keep Emily in a stasis forcing her to watch as Delilah makes her every move Dowd moves through the many traps and fails he's set up by Delilah to make sure that her ritual is not botched or interrupted and this lady thought of everything I just want to make that clear she thought of so much breaking off lever that leads to a secret Crypt boarding up all the windows and leaving demon dogs around the estate including a small army of witches just keep that in mind doubt finds what he needs to enter the void with Delilah and confronts her either killing her or trapping her in another painting of the Void one where she cannot Escape it's here that Delilah's story ends but Dowd has one last trick up his sleeve we Flash Forward to doubt at the end of corvo's Blade and he pleased for his life if on high chaos corvo will kill you and if on low you're spared the story across both DLCs was more interesting to me than the main game but I found that I had more that I didn't like about it I appreciated that dowd's voice actor killed the role and really made me believe that this once hardened assassin had something break inside of him after killing Jasmine his tone just reeks of regret and even in his final moments when he's thrown off his Empire of ruins he reaches his hands out to the Statue of Jasmine even in his final moments wanting to take the decision back his nightmares were good for building character too and it made what was otherwise a menial side character into my favorite character thus far Delilah was an interesting antagonist that felt as though she had a greater means of destroying us unlike Havelock the Betrayal from Billy was good enough though in the grand scheme of things it was a minor Pit Stop which is where the knife of dunwall's biggest flaw lies as an individual piece of DLC it does little to satisfies the ending is more or less A to B continued screen it also wasn't a shock to see that the band of Assassins who have questionable morals as is would have some internal backstabbing from a pacing side though I enjoyed the knife of Dunwall more than the brigmore witches things moved at a good Pace in the knife of Dunwall you investigate the owner of a boat then the previous owner and raid as you discover who Delilah is you get ambushed and it didn't feel like there was much downtime in the brigmore which is half of the story feels like Meandering specifically the second mission which is conveniently the longest in the DLC breaking Lizzie out of prison makes sense and seeing the aftermath of corvo's Escape like the added security and the guards on execution for letting him Escape is great but getting Lizzy's crew back afterwards should have been all we did traveling to the Hatter's Hideout to grab an engine core felt like it was added as a means of padding once in the manner though we reached the peak of these two DLCs everything is immaculately crafted and the atmosphere is amazing the readings here state that Delilah knows doubt is coming and has thought of everything to stop him from getting into the void even placing the lantern that acts as a key across the Mansion her notes also state that it is important to not have any other paintings nearby when performing her ritual as you can accidentally trap yourself somewhere unintended my problem then comes from the major oversight of Delilah who for some reason felt it was a good idea to have a perfect painting one ripe for possession in the same area as the painting of Emily I couldn't find any good reasons as to why she did this I am assuming that there's just something I'm missing here because Dishonored up to this point has not been very contrived but even further once Delilah is performing the ritual she keeps her back turned to the painting the entire time again she is aware that botching this spell means an eternity trapped in an unwanted place so why is she not doing everything to make sure the plan doesn't fail she seems to have thought of everything when it comes to doubt not getting in I mean the place is rigged to blow at every corner so why isn't the same thought given to the infinitely more important part the DLC follows the main game in terms of ending with the game wrapping up efficiently though it is by virtue of of having the main game as context feels like a satisfying conclusion regardless of brevity I could see someone criticizing the knife of Dunwall for having an anticlimactic ending that simply sets up the brigmore witches but the game makes it clear that these two DLCs are to be bought and played together and offer the same gameplay and level design that made the main game so good so I feel it's a bit of a mute point as far as high and low chaos go I thought the differences were good and were reflected in a lot of the dialogue and actions of those in front of you if on low chaos Billy will spare someone on your way to the beginning of the second mission but on high we'll kill them and ask what's one more dead body I don't intend to go over too many of the differences here in chaos because it's executed in the same way as the main story but what I initially didn't like was that it felt like the world didn't change as much depending on your actions I started liking this decision more when I realized that changing Dunwall isn't dowd's role corvo is the one who has the power to influence Dunwall when the prison UPS their security it's not because of what you do or did it's because of what corvo did instead Dowd influences the people around him Billy will either regret or be reassured in her betrayal characters you save previous obviously will lend their aid again and the end of the game even says that no one will know about what Dowd had to do not even corvo overall the story presented here was decent enough and was exactly what a DLC should be just more of the main game and the gameplay provided follow suit the level design in both of these content packs are good with the sand outs being the aforementioned bring more Manner and Tim's estate I'm starting to think I have a thing for raiding large homes I appreciate having Billy guide you through these levels too offering tips or interesting dialogue to fill the silence my only complaint is that she appeared so abruptly that I found myself getting unintentionally jump scared when sneaking around the atmosphere of these levels is Top Notch and I wish I could articulate the creepy Wonder of discovering the statue of Delilah for the first time and thinking is that thing breathing I think I had a better time with a knife of Dunwall gameplay wise compared to the brigmore witches because I felt the brigmore witches wasn't as polished my first indicator of this was when blinking there were many times where I would blink and be bounced off of the thing I was attempting to go to which caused so much frustration the other point where I felt this didn't get the same time and Care is the main game and even the first part of this story was when attempting to kill the Geezer you can kill the old man Hatter per his request but he is rigged to fill the mill with gas if he dies so Dowd must make an antidote to the gas so he can safely Escape I didn't have the item needed for this so I improvised the game gives a 10 second countdown before the gas is sprayed but is often sprayed beforehand anyways but it did it so inconsistently that I'm assuming that this is a bug but despite this I took the whale oil tank from the geezers life support stopped time threw it out a window to break the glass jumped out of the window and made it out before the time bending stopped this told me that I failed to kill the Geezer but at the end of the level it said that I successfully killed him I was confused was this a glitch did I actually find a solution to a problem that the developers didn't intend or didn't foresee I find that hard to believe because the first game had seemingly thought of everything I don't mean to make a mountain out of a molehill but when this game's major selling point is its bulletproof illusion of Freedom a small crack in the glass becomes all the more glaring while we're on this mission I'll say that I found it to be the weakest of the game thus far the entire side tangent about getting the engine coil added way too much time to the mission and it felt as though the engine coil was a contrivance to Warrant more gameplay and to pad out the run time I'm not saying every interaction in the game has to further the story or greater narrative but this just felt like a poor excuse for what was some of the weaker gameplay here another nitpick I'd like to talk about is with the boss fights against both Billy and Delilah both boss fights are relatively brutal on higher difficulties since most won't have experience in combat and will play on higher difficulties for stealth purposes having a boss One-Shot use unforgiving enough but both of these boss fights you having to skip through multiple lines of dialogue to get to a fight that for a player that avoids combat as much as possible will end very quickly Billy is properly balanced as she can't be cheesed by normal abilities and I appreciated that but I had no interest in throwing myself at this brick wall because of how long and unavoidable the lead-up was Delilah's fight was fine though I did cheese it through swapping time your powers see some new additions as doubt but I found they didn't change the gameplay too much the first edition is the Assassin summon which acts like the devouring swarm with corvo but you summon an assassin instead that gets his ass kicked so quickly that I opted to do it myself most of the time possession has been removed this time around and while I can understand the frustration with that possession was severely imbalanced so I don't mind I doubt balance was their intention as the time bending is still here so the real reason was likely to make Dowd more distinct from corvo a power that shows up in the brigmore witches is the pull ability allowing you to at first pull an object off of people and eventually pull people all together I found this ability insanely situational and acted as a spectacle more than anything I would have rather seen a stasis ability like the one we saw doubts assassin use in the opening one where we can levitate an enemy to either hold still in combat or to distract while we slip by and stealth the best change is by far in the blink as time now slows down when in the air and not moving before starting a mission you can purchase The Usual Suspects like bolts and elixirs but exclusive to Dowd is his favors doubt can pay for runes to be placed nearby informants to give him tips for his Target and certain environmental changes can be made to make your journey easier the best example of this is during the visit to coldridge prison where we can wear an overseer uniform giving us uninterrupted access to the prison and making the infiltration a breeze a rather funny favorite you can ask is during the final mission The brigmore Manor is heavily guarded and has a fence that surrounds the Mansion but for a small fee you can pay for a hole in the fence to be opened making infiltration easier the funny part is that this is a rather pricey favor and yet when you arrive you'll notice that the fence is barely together on all sides overall both the knife of Dunwall and the brigmore witches were a good time and a great extension of the main game that not only adds character and context to the main plot but stands on its own as a great story worth playing through it has a similar level of replayability as the main game and has different enough powers and locations to feel new while not straying away from the charm of the main game the Dunwall City Trials while not having the same highs of the Dowd Center DLC should still be purchased as it has its own unique gameplay quirks that warrant to purchase this entire season pass is worth the money and time and in my eyes is DLC done right I a lovely cherry on top of a beautifully Rich product [Music] I feel foolish for not having played until now it's truly a testament to player freedom and how to make a world that genuinely reacts to you and the way you play so many games Market themselves on playing your way but never deliver on it when I hear the words I think great I get to play in stealth or guns blazing whoopty [ __ ] but Dishonored takes that sentiment literally yes I'm aware that there are still binary decisions like killing or not killing stealth or loud approaches but all the little details in between are accounted for and have the proper consequences to make you think and care about your actions Dishonored crafted a world that had history and an uncertain future that you could craft and mold it had enough story on the surface to keep players engaged but also had enough mystery to keep fans guessing and theorizing pacing issues and a lack of depth for some characters aside what we have from a at the time small team is astounding to say the least and the content packs following this game release make it clear that it was no fluke it's no surprise then that we eventually received Dishonored 2. that from what I hear is quite polarizing some say it built on the ideas presented here beautifully While others claim that it does more to tarnish the original's impact than expand regardless nothing can take away from how special Dishonored is and how it stands out as one of my favorite stealth games of all time sure it may not be better than the likes of thief or Deus Ex but what it lacks in mechanical polish it more than makes up for in originality but maybe this polarizing release of Dishonored 2 is more of a testament to the first game's themes Arcane made the decision to set expectations High create a world that tops so many others and put themselves in a corner by giving themselves a sassy and task of topping such a well-made game perhaps Dishonored 2 is just the consequences of their actions [Music] hello everyone thank you for watching this video I worked very hard on it and I don't normally say this but if you want to buy Dishonored you can do so using my Gog Link in the description they have like DRM free games you know some games like Dying Light 2 played great uh before release and then when the Nouveau got added onto it um it just [ __ ] sucks now so I like DRM free I apologize I know my voiceover wasn't the best in this video and I don't know what it is it's just my I can't do the [ __ ] YouTuber voice anymore I don't know what's happening to me so I apologize for that I tried to just sort of like lean into it in this video instead of trying to force it out if you want you can follow me on Twitter I'm a little more active on there than I used to be and I want to thank you guys so much for your support and the support of Sean who edited this video and really saved me a lot of time honestly if it wasn't for Sean you guys wouldn't be seeing this video for another two three weeks honestly because while I was doing finals and my final papers Sean was putting together the video so I greatly appreciate it and I greatly appreciate you guys for supporting me enough that I can pay Sean uh adequately and of course one way you guys do support me is by buying through my Gog affiliate link and by supporting me on patreon and YouTube members and I'd like to give a shout out to those people now Logan Casey Aidan spark77 it's srtw boy Aqua fan for president a beat Ben Conway Boston chiefy clueless or might be cool Louis I don't know I'm sorry Edgar Sunday Gonzo Gonzalez Mark short Noah peanut butter I like that name peanut butter pyrite Ryan Hutcherson Sean Bailey and the game elorian thank you so much for your support it means the world to me and thank you for watching if you did enjoy leave a like subscribe I don't know all that [ __ ] and uh hopefully I'll be seeing you sooner than later the next video will either be Uncharted 4 or something else that I'm gonna be throwing out there is like a passion project so we'll see how that goes I love you guys stay safe stay healthy and take care foreign [Music]

Channel: That Boy Aqua

Views: 679,117

Keywords: Dishonored 10 Years Later, Dishonored Critique, Dishonored Analysis, Dishonored Retrospective, Dishonored Review, Dishonored DLC Review, The Knife of Dunwall Review, The Brigmore Witches Review, Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Dishonored in 2022, Dishonored 2 Review, Dishonored VS Dishonored 2, DIshonored series retrospective, dishonored death of the outsider, dishonored ending, dishonored video essay, dishonored explained, new dishonored game, that boy aqua, best stealth game

Id: xfJegMhKPh8

Length: 67min 9sec (4029 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 13 2022