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Also available on PC & PS3 |
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Dishonored is a game about many things. It's about revenge; armed with
deadly weapons and supernatural powers, you seek vengeance upon all of
those who orchestrated your downfall. It's about a city; the
plague-ridden industrial port of Dunwall is lovely to behold, exciting
to explore, and seething with secrets. It's about people; an array of
vibrant characters await you, and as you get to know them, you are drawn
further into their intrigues, hopes, and heartbreaks. But above all,
it's about choice. The incredible variety of ways you can engage or
evade your enemies makes Dishonored impressively flexible and utterly
captivating.
You play as Corvo Attano, former bodyguard to the empress and current
death row inmate. The prologue chronicling Corvo's crime not only
inflames your desire for revenge, but also sparks your affection for a
vulnerable character. These dual fires foreshadow the choice you have to
make each time you encounter an enemy: do you walk the bloody path of
brutal vengeance, or take the nonlethal high road and rise above the
violence that suffuses the city? Your actions have small, yet tangible
consequences throughout your quest, and it's up to you to decide what
kind of retribution you want.
A cadre of conspirators helps you escape imprisonment, and you find out
that they are plotting to bring down the very men who wronged you. These
characters embody familiar archetypes--the dutiful admiral, the
egotistical nobleman, the cheeky servant--but Dishonored is not content
with one-dimensional portrayals. An excellent voice cast (which includes
a number of notable actors) and stylish character design help bring
these people to life. As you listen to them talk (you remain mute
throughout), read their journals, eavesdrop on conversations, and learn
whispered secrets from an arcane, psychic item you acquire, you come to
know the characters and the world they live in. This kind of knowledge
is engaging, so even when the main plot follows some well-trodden paths,
you're always interested and eager to press on.
Exploring Dunwall is another one of Dishonored's great pleasures. The
city prospered from the whaling trade in the recent past, but has fallen
on hard times since the influx of a deadly plague. Brick walls and
wooden beams loom over alleys crawling with rats, while granite facades
and metal barricades block off the cobblestoned plazas of the wealthier
neighborhoods. Dunwall evokes a British city in the grip of the
industrial revolution, but painterly coloring and slightly exaggerated
proportions give the place a unique feel. Though some texture details
can be slow to load in the console versions, the lovely artistic design
is undiminished, making Dunwall an immensely appealing place to inhabit.
Of course, there are tangible benefits to exploration as well. Sewers,
alleys, apartments, and estates all hide items that restore your health,
reinforce your arsenal, teach you secrets, or allow you to gain new
supernatural powers. The large areas you must traverse to get to your
targets are riddled with out-of-the-way places to explore, and finding
them reveals not only hidden goodies, but alternate routes as well.
Figuring out how to move through the environments is an enjoyable
pursuit, and one of the first powers you get allows you to teleport a
short distance. The quick pop and blurry whoosh of this power provides a
nice audiovisual accompaniment to the thrill of defying natural law,
and if you choose to supernaturally augment your jumping ability, your
range of locomotion is drastically increased. Though you'll likely have
some awkward moments as you try to go places that the game won't let
you, Dishonored's level design is consistent enough to make such moments
easy to avoid once you get the hang of things.