When I sat down to start describing Dishonored I had a hard time knowing where to start and so I decided to start right there. Dishonnored is a game that easily escapes the usual classification of games by the way it mixes so many different styles. Maybe it can be defined as a Stealth Game because after all it is undoubtedly the most present factor in the game, we were not a killer in this game. We can also consider it a First Person Action Game (because it is a game with a first-person view and that involves a lot of action) or even an RPG (because we have to evolve our character). The truth is that as I mentioned Dishonored is one of those games that escapes the conventional description. But is the game good?
The mechanics of the game are undoubtedly brilliant, mixing several genres in a very well done way leaving almost totally the choice of the player which style of game to play. In this game there is always more than one way to reach your goals, you can either use stealth to eliminate your opponents one by one, you can attack them face to face as you even go through everything and everyone without ever being seen. And even when you decide which style to use you have several options of how you use them, with stealth you can decide to kill or not your opponents, in combat you can decide if you choose to use black magic or simply use your weapons and if you want to pass without being seen you can from owning a mouse and using the tunnels of rats to reach other zones as you can use tools as simple as throwing bottles to distract the guards even use arrows with poison to fall asleep. To this is added the fact that there is never a single path to your goals and there is always more than one option to get rid of your targets that greatly increase the longevity of the game. But when you choose a method you are not obliged to follow it always, you can decide to pass a certain street the base of the blow and soon in the next street decide that you are tired and you do not want to fight and therefore you find a way to pass through it without being seen.
Unfortunately, opponents have a rather low intelligence level, constantly turning to walls to do what, being unable to investigate alterations to the scene such as open doors that should be closed and locked, having quite mechanical behavior in reaction to our actions. The combat is easy, Crow (who we control in this game) is that supernatural assassin to fight against simple men. I remember once during the game I was caught when I was trying not to be seen and have had 5 or 6 opponents at the same time attacking me (yes I was seen at the worst possible time) and have managed to eliminate all without effortlessly by clicking on a few buttons and without even suffering a scratch. This is also due in large part to the fact that the behavior of the opponents never changes, which does not help anything to the low number of different opponents and to the fact that they are all photocopies of each other. I already know that the police will be shooting the pistol from afar, that the burly of gray clothes will attack me with his sword, always with the same attack, and I already know that the "zombies" will try to grab me ... and out. Each enemy seems to have only one attack available, which together with the fact that most of them can be eliminated with a click of a button makes the combat a little annoying after some time.
In terms of presentation Dishonored presents us the best and the worst that the games have to offer. The atmosphere of the game is very well achieved, leading us to a unique city strongly inspired by London at the end of the XVth century, but deeply decadent due to the plague that afflicts it. A very nice detail to see is the opposites in the city. In the poorer areas the bodies of the plague victims scattered through the streets through rubbish and debris while in the richest parts of the city are all clean and green as if nothing had happened in the city. One detail that helps us to emerge in this world is the excellent use of lights and shadows in this game, managing to create very good moments visually. What does not help however are the pixels, the many pixels highly visible to the naked eye. To make matters worse, almost everything was quite careless, the characters' clothes seem to be their skin, their fingers look like sausages and so far I have not been able to feel threatened by the blades that appear to have no edge. The end result is a uniquely interesting city, with an excellent game of light trying to disguise the pixel war before our eyes.
The sound of the game is also a factor of extremes. Ambient sound is poorly applied and repetitive, for example if you have a "zombie" one floor below you you hear it almost as if it were by your side and you know it is a "zombie" because they all do exactly the same sound. Everything alike makes exactly the same sound, the guards always have the same voice, the doors, the coffers, the water, the "dogs", all make the same sound wherever they are. Several characters in the speech demonstrate an almost total lack of talent of its actors, speak in a mechanical and forced way, not only unnatural but often painful to hear. However many characters are magnificent in terms of voice, were not so many movie stars and television lend their voice. Susan Sarandon (Oscar winner of Thelma & Louise and Dead Man Walking), B (Wormtongue de Lord of the Rings), Carrie Fisher ( Star Wars), John Slattery (The Adjustment Bureau e Mad Men), Michael Madsen("Mr. Blonde" de Reservoir Dogs), Chloë Grace Moretz(Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass) and Lena Headey (300 and Game of Thrones). They are the contracted stars, although some of them make the voice of characters very little significant.
The game's story is boring most of the game. Although it is a story essentially of the political ambition of the human being and how far some can go to obtain power. The story has many rather poorly explained points and fails to motivate the player. This motivation comes from the game system itself, with no emotional connection being created with what you are doing during much of the game. In addition, the story has several moments in which the characters demonstrate the same level of intelligence as the enemies I mentioned above, as for example I did not understand why right at the beginning when I was restraining all the attackers, the princess and the empress just didn’t run away to where the guards were, is that there was no one else to attack them so entertained that they were with me… Not that history doesn’t have its good times, there is undoubtedly at least one or two things that I didn’t I was waiting, but by that time my interest in what was happening was already so numb that it affected me very little. Perhaps the only positive point in history is that your actions and decisions affect the city. The more you kill and destroy the more you negatively influence the world around you, the bodies you leave behind bring more rats that in turn create more infected (AKA "zombies") and the more you bloodily influence other characters in the story. But there remains your real control over history, despite making many decisions about what to do (such as killing the new regent's mistress or handing it over to a man who loves her and who will take her away as his own prisoners) these affect little the world around you, the amount of people you kill what decides how the story unfolds.
In the end Dishonored is a game of extremes, fantastic and lousy at the same time, but above all it is innovative and unique, prompting me to wish that there is a Dishonored 2 already next year. Because it is so versatile the game is recommendable to many people, especially the people who like stealth games (there are only a few recently). But it's not a game that makes most players scream "I have to have this game" although it deserves to be at least tried even for the pleasure of playing something so versatile and unique, despite the many flaws.
