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[krishian]

Spoiler

Yup. I was like "WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING?" She will suffer a fate worse than death haha! Dude is going to hand out some unwanted sexual advances for sure when he gets her back to his joint.

Spoiler

That mask of his creeped the hell out of me, as did his dialogue. She'd probably be better of with a bolt in her face.
Funny how the regent, who caused most of the shit, seems to get the mildest punishment...well, I guess he turns into a weeper later, but still

 

[Mister0079]

In the Flooded District mission,

Spoiler

I stopped time to get behind Daud and kill him BUT he didn't get affected by the Bend Time ability, saying something along the lines of "Nice try Corvo" since he ALSO has that ability. A fantastic duel ensued.

I love this game.

 

[Riposte]

In the Flooded District mission,

Spoiler

I stopped time to get behind Daud and kill him BUT he didn't get affected by the Bend Time ability, saying something along the lines of "Nice try Corvo" since he ALSO has that ability. A fantastic duel ensued.

I love this game.

Try Possession.

 

[Wuthering_Heights]

The heart has to be one of the best things ever in gaming. Just walking around listening to it talk about people, so good.

 

[Blue Ninja]

Hostiled killed: 1? I didn't fucking kill anyone. God dammit.

 

[commissar]

I was in (mission 4? spoilers):

Spoiler

Sokolov's house

when I turned a corner and was surprised by a guard.
He was also quite startled by my presence and subsequently dropped the whale oil he was carrying.

He did not survive

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

The heart has to be one of the best things ever in gaming. Just walking around listening to it talk about people, so good.

It really is awesome. It completely influences if the dude gets a dirt nap with a blade in the neck or a dirt nap in the dumpster he can wake up from.

 

[CambriaRising]

Maybe you knew this already, but that little bit is a nod to Thief 1's tutorial mission.

I did not know that, I never played any Thief games.

 

[DocSeuss]

Thanks to this game, I'm going to start to call everyone a 'choffer'.

pfft.

Taffer.

 

[Thrakier]

So...as someone who enjoys stealth gameplay only in theory and thought Bioshock was a fluke...would I like this game?

Stealth games I liked:

- Metal Gear
- early Splinter Cell
- Tenchu (probably the most)

 

[Riposte]

It really is awesome. It completely influences if the dude gets a dirt nap with a blade in the neck or a dirt nap in the dumpster he can wake up from.

Everyone of the same "class" of NPC has the same messages. Every male citizen cheats his partner out of money, every female citizen washes her hands really hard.

 

[CambriaRising]

So...as someone who enjoys stealth gameplay only in theory and thought Bioshock was a fluke...would I like this game?

Stealth games I liked:

- Metal Gear
- early Splinter Cell
- Tenchu (probably the most)

Yes

 

[MidnightCowboy]

This game makes me so hyped for Hitman, not that I wasn't beforehand. This game preaches choice, and I think for the most part it fulfills that, but it's still hampered (slightly) by linear design. Blood Money was so open and I hope Absolution continues with that.

 

[ctrayne]

Everyone of the same "class" of NPC has the same messages. Every male citizen cheats his partner out of money, every female citizen washes her hands really hard.

He was probably referring to unique individuals, not random NPCs. What do you want them to do, write and record Heart dialogue for every single NPC in the game?

 

[SJRB]

So...as someone who enjoys stealth gameplay only in theory and thought Bioshock was a fluke...would I like this game?

Stealth games I liked:

- Metal Gear
- early Splinter Cell
- Tenchu (probably the most)

Hell yes you would, go get it!

 

[schwabdizzle]

I am on my first "real mission" and I am going to attempt to beat the game without killing anyone. Is this possible?

 

[Hawkian]

He was probably referring to unique individuals, not random NPCs. What do you want them to do, write and record Heart dialogue for every single NPC in the game?

Regardless, when I'm feeling a little bloodlust, I just take the first thing the heart says about a random.. ahem, to heart.

I am on my first "real mission" and I am going to attempt to beat the game without killing anyone. Is this possible?

Completely possible including your assassination targets.

 

[Riposte]

He was probably referring to unique individuals, not random NPCs. What do you want them to do, write and record dialogue for every single NPC in the game?

Hmm, then I suppose he is only talking about one important side NPC in particular since you don't generally dispose of important NPCs via dumpster. The choice is typically between death or a very terrible life.

They would have been better off giving every NPC one message out of the pool instead of letting you cycle through them all on one guy. They totally killed the illusion of this thing mattering. If they stuck to that rule they could have expanded the pool for non-important NPCs and gave fewer messages to the unique NPCs. Ultimately it is a poor, shallow execution on a very ambitious concept.

EDIT: What I would want is a mind-reading power that costs mana, but gives you relevant information in addition to the fluff. This game is in desperate need of more powers and in more flavors.

 

[Neuromancer]

Does anyone know on 360 what I need to turn off so that when I hit Y I don't always get the onscreen display of 'push left/right to lean'?

 

[ctrayne]

They would have been better off giving every NPC one message out of the pool instead of letting you cycle through them all on one guy. They totally killed the illusion of this thing mattering. If they stuck to that rule they could have expanded the pool for non-important NPCs and gave fewer messages to the unique NPCs. Ultimately it is a poor, shallow execution on a very ambitious concept.

Fair enough. I don't think it's "poor", since the heart works really well in nearly every other scenario (locations and important characters), but I see your point. I admit I didn't even really think to use the heart on grunts or citizens, just named characters.

 

[DocSeuss]

I'm really not enjoying revisiting

Spoiler

Dunwall Tower

at all; it seems like a complete chore at this point. For some reason, the game's mechanics are slowly beginning to grind my gears.

On paper, the game is amazing and appeals to me on every level, but there's something that I can't quite put my finger on preventing this from being reflected in reality. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I have seen a lot of cool shit - shit that you just can't wait to replicate on your own - and now I'm sitting here somewhat deflated, reloading my save for the 20th time and feeling as if all that cool shit is for show; that I have to go out of my way and parody the very essence of the narrative/feel/whatever-have-you to keep things interesting.

I love being a good assassin in video games, but to me, more often than not, it seems that being a good assassin in Dishonored consists of Blinking interspersed with Blink assassinations; and hey, that's cool and all, but when I could be freezing bullets mid-flight and whooshing rockets back at stilt men, I start to yearn.

Why don't I just do all of that, you ask? Well, it's as if there's a little man inside of me screaming, "HAVE SOME FUCKING FUN!", to which I can't help rebut with, "this is ostensibly a stealth game; there is fun to be had in sneaking about as an assassin".

It's that rebuttal that doesn't always sit right with me, I guess. Do the game's stealth-minded mechanics have enough substance to hold their own in isolation? Is it clever or detrimentally antithetical that Arkane have masterfully crafted systems that allow me to have fun, but only whilst more or less laughing in the face of espionage, planning and tact?

I dunno. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm torn on how to play this game. It's a catch-22. I stealth'd DX:HR and I never ran into this sort of a wall, but then again, I didn't have the options that I have with Dishonored; I didn't have this creative freedom that is simultaneously liberating and crippling.

Alright, alright, alright, so here's the deal:

Stop trying to force the game to be something it might not be. It's the biggest mistake anyone playing an immersive sim makes, and quite a few people do it. They try to play immersive sims like they're games, making things a lot more rules-based than they need to be. One reason I stopped having fun with Deus Ex: Human Revolution was because I was reloading every time I failed, or killed a guy, or whatever. I was basically fighting the experience.

With an immersive sim type game, promise yourself that you'll only reload if you die. Accept whatever happens. Treat it like a real world. You botched an assassination? Cool, now make an exciting escape. Basically, go with the flow, stop resisting the game, and it'll reveal itself for being an absurdly fantastic experience.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't ghost or something at a future date, because you absolutely should--but for a first playthrough, instead of being resistive to what the game throws at you, let it happen.

Once I started acting like I really was Adam Jensen in Human Revolution, I started killing specific guys, and sparing others. I didn't reload. If I accidentally killed a guy, well, okay, I'd have to live with it. The game became fucking amazing.

 

[Hawkian]

Alright, alright, alright, so here's the deal:

Stop trying to force the game to be something it might not be. One reason I stopped having fun with Deus Ex: Human Revolution was because I was reloading every time I failed, or killed a guy, or whatever. I was basically fighting the experience.

With an immersive sim type game, promise yourself that you'll only reload if you die. Accept whatever happens. Treat it like a real world. You botched an assassination? Cool, now make an exciting escape. Basically, go with the flow, stop resisting the game, and it'll reveal itself for being an absurdly fantastic experience.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't ghost or something at a future date, because you absolutely should--but for a first playthrough, instead of being resistive to what the game throws at you, let it happen.

Once I started acting like I really was Adam Jensen in Human Revolution, I started killing specific guys, and sparing others. I didn't reload. If I accidentally killed a guy, well, okay, I'd have to live with it. The game became fucking amazing.

Endorsed, here's my post on the concept.

 

[MidnightCowboy]

I've reloaded like a hundred times and I don't think it's fighting the experience so to speak. It can get a little frustrating yeah, but I think it ultimately leads to a more satisfying result.

 

[Hawkian]

I've reloaded like a hundred times and I don't think it's fighting the experience so to speak. It can get a little frustrating yeah, but I think it ultimately leads to a more satisfying result.

Obviously there's nothing wrong with that either- the key thing is to not fight against your own enjoyment, whatever that means in execution.

 

[Fracas]

Just finished it. Awesome, awesome game. Not quite GOTY, but my favorite new IP in the last couple years.

 

[Zeliard]

Hmm, then I suppose he is only talking about one important side NPC in particular since you don't generally dispose of important NPCs via dumpster. The choice is typically between death or a very terrible life.

They would have been better off giving every NPC one message out of the pool instead of letting you cycle through them all on one guy. They totally killed the illusion of this thing mattering. If they stuck to that rule they could have expanded the pool for non-important NPCs and gave fewer messages to the unique NPCs. Ultimately it is a poor, shallow execution on a very ambitious concept.

EDIT: What I would want is a mind-reading power that costs mana, but gives you relevant information in addition to the fluff. This game is in desperate need of more powers and in more flavors.

I disagree with you. Again. Stop being so disagreeable!

The Heart is great, both in concept and execution. There is naturally going to be a limit on what it has to say about inconsequential, generic NPCs, but I appreciate that it still has things to say even about those characters, regardless of whether or not there's a repetitive structure to it based on the character archetype.

Even in text-based games, which are much easier to create that sort of variation with, you'll often find repetitive dialogue when it comes to generic NPCs (even the mother of all text-heavy games, Planescape: Torment, does this to some extent). It's too much to expect any different especially when you factor in voice acting, and the illusion would suffer a similar effect if it only had a single line to say about random NPC #18 when it has a bunch of things to say about other characters and locations.

There's also no point in having it cost mana. It's a lore tool. It's basically a more interesting and revelatory version of a journal.

 

[Riposte]

It is not at all unique to Dishonored. Quicksaves and quickloads ruins the pace, tension, and challenge of a game, not to mention it takes you out of the game's reality constantly. It is/was a common problem with PC game design. This is a problem Dishonored has. It makes no effort to design autosaves/checkpoints, leaving it up to the player to save on his own. This puts quicksaving front and center, which is rather harmful to the game (it is the most powerful resource the player has, especially in a stealth game).

Since getting caught hardly matters for more than achievements and escaping is very easy (more so on lower difficulties), there isn't a very strong in-game reason to obsess over pure stealth. If you don't mind killing a few dudes, then getting caught just nets you a good excuse to use all those health potions you are hoarding up (not to mention a good chuck of the few powers in the game).

 

[Carbonox]

I agree with letting things happen as they happen, irrelevant of failure. Sure it's frustrating but you learn to appreciate it when do subsequent playthroughs especially.

For example, in the first proper mission of the game I got myself confused with the controls for a split second and ended up letting

Spoiler

Curnow

die because I forgot I had Blink equipped. :lol Ended up zooming down off the building but the drop was still significant enough to damage me and kill him.

I was so pissed off as this happened RIGHT next to the safe spot. But I didn't reload. I continued on and was heartbroken when

Spoiler

his niece told me how he was like a father to her

.

Oh and the Boyle Estate is fucking gorgeous.

 

[Zeliard]

It would have been cool to see Hitman-style save limits as you go up in difficulty.

 

[MidnightCowboy]

I just like not getting caught. Stealth gameplay is a lot of the time the most fun type of gameplay for me simply because I like being elusive. Getting caught instantly turns me off way more than having to save or load frequently. And obviously I'm going to do a brutal run afterward, but if you're going to do stealth you should do it properly is my view.

 

[Mister0079]

It is not at all unique to Dishonored. Quicksaves and quickloads ruins the pace, tension, and challenge of a game, not to mention it takes you out of the game's reality constantly. It is/was a common problem with PC game design. This is a problem Dishonored has. It makes no effort to design autosaves/checkpoints, leaving it up to the player to save on his own. This puts quicksaving front and center, which is rather harmful to the game (it is the most powerful resource the player has, especially in a stealth game).

Since getting caught hardly matters for more than achievements and escaping is very easy (more so on lower difficulties), there isn't a very strong in-game reason to obsess over pure stealth. If you don't mind killing a few dudes, then getting caught just nets you a good excuse to use all those health potions you are hoarding up (not to mention a good chuck of the few powers in the game).

Yeah that is one point I can agree with, I had to limit myself using quicksave/quickload and the game became a lot more fun. Quicksaving opens up a game for experimentation but it can also completely ruin challenge.

It's one of the main factors which added so much tension to Dark Souls, with savescumming DS would be ruined. I think Hitman did a great job of limiting your saves on higher difficulties, it made you think really carefully about when to save.

 

[subversus]

I agree about quicksaving. I started enjoying the game much more after I ditched it. I saved a few times per level. If I fucked up I tried some other tactic and it opened the game a lot for me.

 

[ctrayne]

It would have been cool to see Hitman-style save limits as you go up in difficulty.

I think this would have been a nice addition. Still, going with the flow like the last few posts have mentioned is a lot of fun and helps lessen the sting. It's up to the player not to abuse save states, but I say better to give the player agency to do so rather than to force checkpoints on them.

 

[Derrick01]

You should really only be saving if you're going for a ghost run. If not then save when the level starts and don't manually save again at all.

 

[antikythera]

I agree quicksave sucks, but did you guys not notice it has autosave? In fact they're a little too frequent. I never quicksaved the whole game.

 

[DocSeuss]

Hawkian, holy shit. That's fantastic. I know what I'm doing on my second playthrough. I mean, some of this, I was doing but didn't know how to put into words, and some things, like limiting your powers, I might do later. I'm actually doing it now, but I fully plan to increase powers for this playthrough. I want to see what I can do with all the tools they've given me before I see what I can do by imposing limits on myself.

It's unfortunate that people assume difficulty = death or being caught. Dishonored's difficulty, I've found, comes more in wondering whether it would be more mercifuly to kill a man or let him live. It comes from trying to figure out how to do a thing the way I'd like to do it. The difficulty isn't in success or failure, it's in making choices, which already puts Dishonored above and beyond nearly every game out there.

It is not at all unique to Dishonored. Quicksaves and quickloads ruins the pace, tension, and challenge of a game, not to mention it takes you out of the game's reality constantly. It is/was a common problem with PC game design. This is a problem Dishonored has. It makes no effort to design autosaves/checkpoints, leaving it up to the player to save on his own. This puts quicksaving front and center, which is rather harmful to the game (it is the most powerful resource the player has, especially in a stealth game).

Since getting caught hardly matters for more than achievements and escaping is very easy (more so on lower difficulties), there isn't a very strong in-game reason to obsess over pure stealth. If you don't mind killing a few dudes, then getting caught just nets you a good excuse to use all those health potions you are hoarding up (not to mention a good chuck of the few powers in the game).

My one issue with this is that quicksaving is absolutely WONDERFUL for some games, particularly STALKER and Half-Life. I wouldn't want to play them any other way. Likewise, Marathon wouldn't be any fun without its optional save terminals. Different save styles work for different sorts of games.

I think Dishonored works beautifully with a quicksave system--but I think quite a few people aren't using that same system properly. It's invaluable for certain runs, like a ghosting run, so I would never say "hey, you shouldn't do quicksaves!"

People just need to rethink the way they're saving the game, and learn that you can't play an immersive game the way that you would play something totally brainless, like Uncharted or Max Payne 3.

I'm getting a big 'what the fuck' feeling at some of these replies. Quicksaving is awesome and the bee's knees! It doesn't ruin tension or anything! It's totally optional and you don't have to use it. The idea is that you should be using it where you see fit in order to make the game more fun. Too many people appear to be using it in some sort of weird-ass min-maxing type style that eliminates all the fun from things. Speaking of min-making, it's a bit like building an optimal build and rushing through a game, rather than toying with the different abilities at your disposal and making an interesting one.

There's nothing wrong with quicksaving. There's everything wrong with quicksaving like a moron.

I just like not getting caught. Stealth gameplay is a lot of the time the most fun type of gameplay for me simply because I like being elusive. Getting caught instantly turns me off way more than having to save or load frequently. And obviously I'm going to do a brutal run afterward, but if you're going to do stealth you should do it properly is my view.

You know what? I like not getting caught to, but I also value the game becoming more difficult once you've been seen. If I reloaded every time I got caught, I'd never have to live with the stakes being raised.

So I save when it makes sense (such as right before I'm about to perform an assassination--which means I can constantly reload that save and try out ALL SORTS OF WAYS to do it), but I'll reload when it makes sense too, and that means that quite often, I just let myself live with the consequences of my action.

In a way, things become meaningless.

 

[ctrayne]

You should really only be saving if you're going for a ghost run. If not then save when the level starts and don't manually save again at all.

This is what I am trying to do now that I have ghosted the game, and it's a lot of fun. I should have done this first and saved the ghost run for later.

I mean, ghosting was still a blast, but I think doing it first was stupid on my part.

 

[Zeliard]

I think this would have been a nice addition. Still, going with the flow like the last few posts have mentioned is a lot of fun and helps lessen the sting. It's up to the player not to abuse save states, but I say better to give the player agency to do so rather than to force checkpoints on them.

I don't think strict checkpoints are a good idea for this game but save limits where you have to pick and choose when and where to save would add to the choice & consequence and limit some of the savescumming that people are tempted into. And at the highest difficulty level, no mission saves!

While some people can control themselves when it comes to quicksaving, many can't resist the temptation. It's the reason you have Ironman modes in games like XCOM. That doesn't give you any choice in the matter.

The fun thing about not savescumming in this game is that you have a variety of ways of getting through a situation if you happen to get into a pickle, and it forces you to think on your feet and improvise, which is a lot of fun.

 

[SJRB]

I just got spotted because my blink went wrong and in a reflex I cut the guy's head off. I cut his head off. His head is now detached from his body.

This game is brutal.

 

[Dennis]

I just got spotted because my blink went wrong and in a reflex I cut the guy's head off. I cut his head off. His head is now detached from his body.

This game is brutal.

Pick up his head and put it in a dumpster. Don't litter.

 

[ctrayne]

save limits where you have to pick and choose when and where to save would add to the choice & consequence and limit some of the savescumming that people are tempted into. And at the highest difficulty level, no mission saves!
It's the reason you have Ironman modes in games like XCOM. That doesn't give you any choice in the matter.
The fun thing about not savescumming in this game is that you have a variety of ways of getting through a situation if you happen to get into a pickle, and it forces you to think on your feet and improvise, which is a lot of fun.

I wonder if we could convince Arkane to patch this in as a new difficulty level.

 

[Riposte]

There's also no point in having it cost mana. It's a lore tool. It's basically a more interesting and revelatory version of a journal.

I would want them to give it a mana cost after they made reading thoughts useful. It fits well with the "magical assassin" theme of Dishonored. "I wonder where so and so is... I'll read this guard captain's mind." Almost just as important, when I don't pick it up then I can at least say "I am NOT a mind-reader, I'm a this or that". Right now I'm everything, the alpha and the omega.

However, there is another component of the heart I dislike that IS very useful. I'm talking about how it reveals all the shiny loot to you the moment you are in the area. This kills a lot of the exploration in the game and it becomes a game of following the waymarker (oh, but feel free to turn off that UI element, so it is slightly more disorienting, but the items are equally inevitably found). Now that could have mana cost, one spell per item. Then I would at least care a little more about finding mana potions (here is another reason exploration is lame: everything are resources you don't have much need for or items that immediately convert to gold when you don't have a dire need of gold after the first two missions. Spending effort to find notes and books is basically what is comes down to. Something about notes though: most of the time they just clues to solutions you didn't need because they the main ones were very obvious (thanks blink). I think I've said it before, the exploration in this game felt like looking at everything that was superfluous).

I recall the most exciting moment of exploration for me. It was when I found a secret room with a secret audiograph (if that's what they are called...). Then I remembered how I got there. I followed the heart into a wall because I saw there was a bone charm or something behind it. I was puzzled on how to get inside, so I used (free) dark vision to reveal how. That taught me, that like Batman Arkham Asylum, I should keep dark vision on more often. That way I can see every single piece of loot (I mean gold, that I don't need). EDIT: I recall audiograph (?) readers glowing in dark vision, but I don't think books do... can't remember.

 

[Crazymoogle]

A good way to (accidentally) rack up some kills you didn't want on your end-level numbers:

At the beginning, in the

Spoiler

prison

dump unconscious characters into the dumpster next to where you

Spoiler

plant the explosive. Even if the lid is closed,

they die and it counts against you...

 

[Zeliard]

I would want them to give it a mana cost after they made reading thoughts useful. It fit well with the "magical assassin" theme of Dishonored. "I wonder where so and so is... I'll read this guard captain's mind." Almost just as important, when I don't pick it up then I can at least say "I am NOT a mind-reader, I'm a this or that". Right now I'm everything, the alpha and the omega.

However, there is another component of the heart I dislike that IS very useful. I'm talking about how it reveals all the shiny loot to you the moment you are in the area. This kills a lot of the exploration in the game and it becomes a game of following the waymarker (oh, but feel free to turn off that UI element, so it is slightly more disorienting, but the items are equally inevitably found). Now that could have mana cost, one spell per item. Then I would at least care a little more about finding mana potions (here is another reason exploration is lame: everything are resources you don't have much need for or items that immediately convert to gold when you don't have a dire need of gold after the first two missions. Spending effort to find notes and books is basically what is comes down to. Something about notes though: most of the time they just clues to solutions you didn't need because they the main ones were very obvious (thanks blink). I think I've said it before, the exploration in this game felt like looking at everything that was superfluous).

I recall the most exciting moment of exploration for me. It was when I found a secret room with a secret audiograph (if that's what they are called...). Then I remembered how I got there. I followed the heart into a wall because I saw there was a bone charm or something behind it. I was puzzled on how to get inside, so I used (free) dark vision to reveal how. That taught me, that like Batman Arkham Asylum, I should keep dark vision on more often. That way I can see every single piece of loot (I mean gold, that I don't need).

I like the master-of-all-trades way this game operates with the abilities, because I just enjoy experimenting with all the different things at your disposal, many of which you can synergize together in neat ways. But I can understand if some people don't dig the lack of any real specialization.

As far as the Heart showing you where runes and such are, I don't think that's too big a deal due to the aforementioned - you're basically expected to find a bunch of runes as it's expected that you'll be leveling a lot of abilities up. The runes and charms are placed around and shown to you similar to the orbs in Crackdown or whatnot. Collectibles, but ones which actually have an in-game use, and they encourage you to venture to different parts of the environment.

 

[Enco]

You should really only be saving if you're going for a ghost run. If not then save when the level starts and don't manually save again at all.

I should do this.

Totally removes all challenge from the game.

Even hard mode is easy.

 

[Hawkian]

I just got spotted because my blink went wrong and in a reflex I cut the guy's head off. I cut his head off. His head is now detached from his body.

This game is brutal.

My first decapitation in mission one came from my single true fuck up inside

Spoiler

the High Overseer's hall. Just got caught, plain and simple, and reacted harshly. I threw the head out the window where it bounced and rolled next to the statue in the center of the square.

Nobody else in the building saw me during that mission, but they'll damn sure know I was there.

edit: Btw guys, regarding all the saving talk... quicksave if it actually enhances your enjoyment, otherwise... the game saves any time you get a rune or bone charm; I believe also whenever you complete a mission objective or enter a new area. *shrug*

This kills a lot of the exploration in the game and it becomes a game of following the waymarker (oh, but feel free to turn off that UI element, so it is slightly more disorienting, but the items are equally inevitably found).

Can't say I understand this bit at all. Either it guides you directly to them or it doesn't. Why would the items be "inevitably" found, even in the case of the markers being there? You still have to go get them, which is not required...

 

[Derrick01]

I should do this.

Totally removes all challenge from the game.

Even hard mode is easy.

Yup the challenge is not getting caught and if you do then try to get away. But if you reload every time you get caught then where is the challenge?

 

[Riposte]

Can't say I understand this bit at all. Either it guides you directly to them or it doesn't. Why would the items be "inevitably" found, even in the case of the markers being there? You still have to go get them, which is not required...

It is the difference between a cleanly readable waypoint marker and a slightly murky one. It mainly comes up with vertical scaling. My point is that turning off the UI doesn't really change what it is, though it at least has some immersive advantages.

 

[Deified Data]

I disagree with you. Again. Stop being so disagreeable!

The Heart is great, both in concept and execution. There is naturally going to be a limit on what it has to say about inconsequential, generic NPCs, but I appreciate that it still has things to say even about those characters, regardless of whether or not there's a repetitive structure to it based on the character archetype.

Even in text-based games, which are much easier to create that sort of variation with, you'll often find repetitive dialogue when it comes to generic NPCs (even the mother of all text-heavy games, Planescape: Torment, does this to some extent). It's too much to expect any different especially when you factor in voice acting, and the illusion would suffer a similar effect if it only had a single line to say about random NPC #18 when it has a bunch of things to say about other characters and locations.

There's also no point in having it cost mana. It's a lore tool. It's basically a more interesting and revelatory version of a journal.

This. The Heart is my favorite piece of "equipment".

 

[SJRB]

Uhm.. what the HELL are those things hanging underneath the bridge in the third mission?