Dishonored

Set in the fictional plague-ridden, industrial city of Dunwall (London), you play as the Empresses bodyguard who is accused of her murder. 3. 5 / 5

Head-on sword to sword combat or stealthy strangulation, the choice is yours as you seek the murderer of the empress. But all choices have consequences.

Dishonored, has a thrilling visual feel, accompanied by great game mechanics, Alternative endings, and multiple different ways to approach your target.

There are a few downsides unfortunately, the storyline is abit short, completion can be done within 8 hours and no on-line or co-op gameplay making this game feel out-dated.

On the upside this game has alot of fun feature's such as summoning swarms of rats to distract, kill, and even eat corpse's to hide the evidence. Not to mention pushing guards off buildings, possesing people and animals, stoping time and placing a grenade by the feet.

Overall dishonoured offers a varied gameplay with re-playthroughs always differing.

this is an absolutely awesome game with loads of redeeming features-the setting,the powers/abilities at your disposal,the many different ways you can approach each mission. As a new IP in a market flooded with sequels this is a gem and i urge anyone to at least rent this game as i truly feel it has game of the year potential!!

Overall a good game. The graphics are fairly impressive andthe voice acting good. My main problem with it is that its fairly short. It seems to finish before ts really begun. Its a good concept and enjoyable but nowhere near as good as the hype. Definatley worth a rent though!

The world which the developers have made, Dunwall, is fantastic. To describe it as being like Industrial Victorian London simply doesn't do it enough credit, there are far more elements involved. Modern electrical machinery can be found in this seemingly historic setting along with European architectural hints and a 17th century esque bubonic plague. Dunwall truly is one of the more memorable game locations in recent memory and its ability to immerse the player lies somewhat akin to that of Bioshock's Rapture. Alongside the excellent setting, Dishonored provides a very strong main protagonist. Throughout the game you'll control Corvo Attano, Lord Protector of the Empress of Dunwall. You'll soon realise that Corvo is a very formidable character. Armed with a pistol, a sword, a crossbow, grenades, floor traps and a whole host of mysterious powers, he more than lives up to his job title. He is incredibly fun to play with, dispatching foes with consummate ease. That is of course if you want to go in all guns blazing. Corvo is equally adept at stealthily manoeuvring his way through any environment and picking off unsuspecting guards in a whole variety of ways is very satisfying. Helped by the 'blink' ability which lets you instantly teleport across a given space, Corvo can reach high areas of the environment which he can use to hide or plunge down behind someone for the kill. The game then, allows you to chose how to play as Corvo. But this goes even further than simple stealth or brute force. In the game there are different upgrades which you can acquire, providing you with even more options to help you're chosen play style. The options are varied and the environments in Dunwall allow different means of advancement though the levels. It's an excellent system like the one implemented in Deus Ex and one which is very effective at providing a personal feel to each person's play through. While one person may have entered a building by using their jump ability to reach a high ledge, another may possess a human to disengage a security device at the main gate. Now, one of the most important elements of Dishonored comes in the form of 'choice'. Dishonored I feel is trying to move away from the traditional choice system of good/evil into a new era of decision making in games. They are effectively trying turn morality into shades of grey. In some ways they have succeeded, in others, they have failed rather badly. The first choice you'll encounter is whether or not you'll kill the guards you come across. It sounds like an easy choice but once you start playing you'll begin to consider what it is you're doing. Will your Corvo be an extremely skilful shadow, one who can move through entire areas, neutralizing every guard without committing a single casualty? Or will the urgency and importance of his task mean that he'll be a master assassin, killing everything that blocks his path to the objective? Do the guards deserve it? Or is it the people at the top of the chain of command who deserve it? These are important questions which you'll have to consider. The story will undoubtedly be affected by your decisions as will the city of Dunwall itself, as rats begin to appear in number, visually representing the blood on your hands. Whilst the choice system in the game works to some degree and tries to take a step in a new direction, I am still not fully convinced that it has been implemented faultlessly. You either chose to kill or you don't. The characters in the game will respond to your chosen action in a set way. Personally, I saw the importance of my mission take precedence over the lives of the guards opposing me. It's a rational choice and one that I feel has a sense of grim reality to it. I may be killing, but I'm killing for a good reason, out of necessity. To chose to not kill would be extremely naive in my book, given what's at stake. Yet I can't help but feel that the game is looking down upon my character and his decisions, silently looking over my shoulder, disapproving of them and tut tutting at the same time. Killing results in a state of chaos throughout the city, more rats appear, infection spreads and characters treat me with a hurtful sense of contempt and disgust regardless of the sound rational basis upon which I based my intentions. The sense of injustice can feel a little jarring at times. Why am I being punished with these arbitrary representations of chaos? Just because I have killed guards, does that mean that I am morally reprehensible? But the situation justified extreme measures, did it not? I think the answer lies in a shade of grey, yet Dishonored treats me as though I have performed a renegade action outright. Along side the artistic representation of my killing, some of the characters will directly attack your decisions, one such instance, being undoubtedly the worst part of the entire game. In the context in which they were given, their insinuations were both extremely polarized and naive. There I was saving the day, alone of course, no one else had the courage to help and yet I am being chastised as though I were some form of sick, psychopathic, bloodthirsty warmonger. The circumstances and the context which informed my decisions weren't relevant in the slightest. I think the choice system they have implemented is a good idea, but it needs to be supported by a wider, more intelligent and more accurate set of reactions. Instead of lumping killing into one morally reprehensible group, judge the overall choices of the character with a more informed style of justice. If for instance rats did not arbitrarily appear in greater numbers and the characters of the game did not automatically attack my judgement with a distinct lack of informed reasoning, then I would have felt satisfied with my choice. A big part of the problem of choice in Dishonored is that the world judges your decisions, but you are distinctly unable to defend said decisions. For instance, in Mass Effect, you may be presented with a choice to exterminate an entire species. this may seem morally reprehensible. But if it ensures the survival of the entire galaxy and it is the only way, are you not justified in doing it? Though the dialogue options are set in script, you are still given a choice and normally there is a choice that sufficiently sums up your thought processes when you made the decision. in other words, you are able to defend you decision and you feel satisfied afterwards. In Dishonored, as Corvo, you can't defend you're decisons and that is because Corvo is a silent protagonist. I used to applaud the silent protagonist, citing Gordon Freeman as being an excellent template upon which every player projects their own personality. But now, I finally feel like gaming has outgrown this antiquated idea. Half Life is after all a very old game. Dishonored has opted for a silent character but it has greatly hurt its choice system. You are effectively projecting yourself onto Corvo, only for the game to pass judgement on you. The only problem is, you and the npcs of the game will very likely disagree with who Corvo actually is. Furthermore, the whole idea of a silent protagonist feels rather dull and unnatural nowadays. To hear characters talk to themselves only to be met with a wall of silence, prohibits any sense of dialogue immersion within the game. In an age when games are being made with excellent voice actors and scripts, I feel it is time to bin the silent protagonist. Adam Jensen spoke, so why can't Corvo?

Okay so Its an 'okay' game. Graphics reasonable, It's okay to play for a couple of hours but gameplay does get quite repetitive.

on the first 2 hours playing this game I found a glitch that you can't get out of on Slackjaw side-quest so it seems you cannot complete the whole game 100% Only way to get out of the glitch is to restart the mission and forget about all side-quests all together also

the auto-save is quite broken make sure you save the game alot!

I played a further couple of hours and got bored of it and now I'm sending it back