Support NeoGAF

[-tetsuo-]

Stacking random junk because you think it might help you get to a higher area, and then it actually works, is one of gaming's greatest joys. Though in this game it's kind of negated by Blink.

That is true, but yes you can get anywhere you want in this game basically.

 

[1stStrike]

I use possession to get guards away from open areas/groups and then when they start puking all over the place after it comes to an end just choke them out. It's good for smaller areas where you want to clear a hallway or something but can't always safely get one guard alone.

 

[Hawkian]

Hard or Very Hard? My gut instinct tells me Very Hard.

I know you, friend. Nothing but Very Hard will satisfy you.

 

[Salsa]

welp found my first invisible wall on what seemed to be a totally plausible course towards the goal

not cool harvey

 

[Auto_aim1]

Without Blink the game's pacing would have slowed down a lot (dunno if that's a bad thing). It has also sort of spoiled me. I wish it didn't exist.

 

[RedSwirl]

Wait, so each mission area is actually a whole district of the town that you can just walk around and explore? I thought it was just gonna be some relatively open-ended sneaking area. Shit man.

 

[Parakeetman]

Without Blink the game's pacing would have slowed down a lot (dunno if that's a bad thing). It has also sort of spoiled me. I wish it didn't exist.

Also would have made a lot of areas inaccessible.

 

[Hawkian]

Without Blink the game's pacing would have slowed down a lot (dunno if that's a bad thing). It has also sort of spoiled me. I wish it didn't exist.

Can't just not use it?

 

[DocSeuss]

Actually, how is Thief compared to all those other games?

Thief is the best stealth game series to have ever existed. Dishonored comes frighteningly close at times, but Thief let you interact with light and shadow a lot more, and had no special stealth abilities. Thief also puts a great emphasis on sound, something that most games don't even consider.

There's a soundscape in Thief--at some point, just shut the monitor off and listen to the game for a while. People cough. People talk. People snore. Burricks make Burrick sounds. Things happen.

It's an incredible game, and Dishonored makes some improvements on it... and makes some mistakes. I really want water and rope arrows, dammit.

I went with very hard and the difficulty feels just right.

I feel like 'hard' might have been a mistake for me.

I understand this game isn't about role playing, but why even put a chair there if it functions as a giant rock? It is just unnecessary. I had a similar problem with Deus Ex HR, where it seems the levels had an immense level of object detail and variety (especially the offices), but all of it was baked. The illusion was shattered the moment you accidentally bump into something or an explosion goes off.. and nothing happens to the stack of papers that were in the middle of the blast radius.

This is a stealth game? So take your pretty lighting system down a notch and introduce dynamic lights. Let me turn off generators to certain buildings so I can use darkness as a cover. Let me shoot out lights.

Why shouldn't I have expected any evolution from the Deus Ex 1 formula? Its not that I feel entitled, but this mixture of visuals and gameplay just isn't doing it for me anymore.. and I can't be the only one can I?
Minecraft is so immersive to me because it's game world is consistent in its rules. Even a text-adventure game is more immersive because it only communicates to me what I need to know and what is important to me. When game worlds become so visually dense and the game-design doesn't evolve along with the visuals it becomes more and more obvious to me as a player that I am simply being fooled by smoke and mirrors and walking through a pretty maze with some A,B,C choices.

If that chair was not there I wouldn't have been taken out of the experience. If I could have interacted with it I wouldn't have thought anything of it. Deus Ex 1 allowed me to pick up chairs, why couldn't Dishonored take it to the next level and use the chair as a way to distract or attack the guards?

If I could've closed my cell door after opening it I wouldn't have been left wondering 'why can't I close this?' (my in-game reasoning was that if I left it open it would attract the guards' attention, which doesn't seem too far fetched.)

Dishonored is technically an extremely well executed game, but I think the gameplay design is holding it back from its peers. As a stealth game it isn't anything new or daring, and as a FPS game with RPG elements it is severely handicapped and too streamlined.

Why do guards 'sleep' eternally? Why can I, after putting someone to sleep, pick up their body and toss them around infinitely with no fear of them waking up from my behaviour?These are all things that could have made the experience so much deeper.

I disagree with you.

I mean, I get what you're going for, but you keep comparing this to Deus Ex, and it's NOT Deus Ex. Is it in the same vein of game? Yes. But it's Thief. You couldn't pick up chairs to distract or attack guards in Thief, for instance.

It has WONDERFUL roleplay in it. I love the roleplay. You think it's streamlined? Fuck no, it isn't! They've stripped away all those useless numbers and stats and focused on TRUE roleplay--on letting players play how they see fit, and interact with the world in the way they so choose, and, most importantly, making the world react to the decisions you make.

So no, Dishonored isn't systemic, the way you want it to be, but it is excellent, and it utilizes choice to an impressive degree.

Complaining to me that more objects in the game's impressively-detailed world don't have physics interactions strikes me as a silly, almost naive complaint.

Also would have made a lot of areas inaccessible.

I am finding that much of what I can do in the game can be done via other means. There isn't much I can get to with Blink that I couldn't get to some other way. Blink just helps me get there faster, more conveniently, and in a way that makes it hard for guards to spot me.

 

[RedSwirl]

Does the game count whether or not someone died directly by your hand? Like, in this case, friendly fire from another NPC (who was trying to attack me)?

 

[Salsa]

Without Blink the game's pacing would have slowed down a lot (dunno if that's a bad thing). It has also sort of spoiled me. I wish it didn't exist.

IMHO blink is one of the best things that could happen to stealth games. It takes away the necessity for slow paced movement, allowing you to work the game from more of a birds eye view that leaves a lot more to strategy than to execution. Mastering it makes you feel like an effin badass and it gives the game an edge that other stealth games just dont have. I can honestly say that I wouldnt be even near this interested in the game if it was just regular slow-paced stealth. Why make that when you can innovate and try something different?

 

[ii Stryker]

Blink needs to be added to the stealth or one of the magic's trees in Skyrim.

 

[RedSwirl]

Fuck this. I'm wrapping up this GameFly copy and running up to Best Buy or wherever first thing in the morning for a physical PC copy. This'll be the third game I've bought full price this year. And I didn't even get really started on the first "mission". I just unlocked a couple side quests in the general area of the first mission.

Do the store-specific DLC bonuses only count for pre-orders?

 

[Ingueferroque]

I love Blink in combat, it is a great way to position your way behind the enemy and cutting their head off.

 

[steven28]

So is it as good as the reviews say ?

 

[phantomspiker]

So is it as good as the reviews say ?

Yup.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

IMHO blink is one of the best things that could happen to stealth games. It takes away the necessity for slow paced movement, allowing you to work the game from more of a birds eye view that leaves a lot more to strategy than to execution. Mastering it makes you feel like an effin badass and it gives the game an edge that other stealth games just dont have. I can honestly say that I wouldnt be even near this interested in the game if it was just regular slow-paced stealth. Why make that when you can innovate and try something different?

It also means that levels can be less contrived. Vents and overhangs and whatnot can be placed without being bleeding obvious because the game doesn't need to tailor itself as strictly to regular player movement.

 

[RedSwirl]

Oh, and you people have pretty much got me putting my uninstalled copy of Thief at the top of my backlog pile.

 

[BertleTheTurtle]

With the combination of Blink, Double Jump and Dark Vision I'm a beast.

I'm still getting the hand of Blink but a lot of the time (if I'm wanting to go up) double jumping is easier.

I think I'm only on the 2nd mission, I keep getting sidetracked looking for runes and bone charms.

 

[Hawkian]

IMHO blink is one of the best things that could happen to stealth games. It takes away the necessity for slow paced movement, allowing you to work the game from more of a birds eye view that leaves a lot more to strategy than to execution. Mastering it makes you feel like an effin badass and it gives the game an edge that other stealth games just dont have. I can honestly say that I wouldnt be even near this interested in the game if it was just regular slow-paced stealth. Why make that when you can innovate and try something different?

Nailed it, Shark.

This is a stealth game at heart, but Blink eliminates the fact that gameplay is often necessarily plodding. It's not a bad thing in those games, but not all games have to be the same.

In Hitman, you play as a very skilled, very disciplined, enhanced human being that has no supernatural ability. That's awesome too. But this game lets you play as probably the most efficient assassin I've seen in fiction. Which as you might imagine is a little bit of fun.

 

[ii Stryker]

If you all think Blink is badass then you need to use it in conjunction with Stop Time.

Its practically gaming nirvana. ;P

 

[MaritalWheat]

I can't wait to finish my stealthier first play through and do a more direct combat run; sometimes when I fuck up my 'in-the-shadows' playstyle to a point that I'm just going to reload anyways I'll let loose, and those little tastes of balls out combat I've had have been so good. Blinked up level with a tall-boy and assassinated him, felt so badass--it's awesome that things that I think "hey, logically this should work" almost always seem to ACTUALLY work.

 

[Salsa]

think im about to finish it, so im gonna quit for today and be done with it (and probably start an unseen-non-lethal-blink-only run) tomorrow..

 

[Hawkian]

If you all think Blink is badass then you need to use it in conjunction with Stop Time.

Its practically gaming nirvana. ;P

Can't afford it yet.

 

[MvmntInGrn]

Finished mission 2 (well 3 according to the game) and apparently alerted someone without noticing it. How disappointing. I can replay it through the mission menu but it starts you without all the collectibles (was hoping it would carry over and I could just do a really quick run through).

Still, probably wouldn't take me too long to redo; or I could just make this a no-kills run and do non-alert later; or just start killing everything!

Decisions.

 

[DigiMish]

Is it possible to assign weapons/gadgets/powers to different hands? For example, I would like the heart in my right hand, and blink in my left.

Or am I always stuck with the sword in the right hand?

 

[ii Stryker]

Can't afford it yet.

If you're murdering everyone slow time will suffice. Stop time is for the pacifist though.

Blinked up level with a tall-boy and assassinated him, felt so badass

Doing this is extremely satisfying. Its how I dispatched every single one of them in the game and it never got boring.

 

[Raitosaito]

I'm cross posting here from buy/sell.
If anyone missed out I have NA Dishonored PC Steam key for $44.

PM me.

Edit: GMG's coupon is still up so their price is close to mine.

 

[MormaPope]

Just beat the first mission/assassination, playing on hard mode, PC version.

Great things:

Blink

Actual options and openness to deal with problems the way you want to

Atmosphere is top notch, up there with city 17 as a believable, beautiful city in shithole conditions

Scripted and random events with NPC's are hilarious and well done, 6 or 7 overwatch soldiers were throwing bottles at granny rags when she was on her fire escape, she was screaming for help, had to reload and that didn't happen the next time

Good things:

Abilities are varied enough that you feel that what the player is doing is unique and tailored to their playstyle
Rat swarms are fucking scary

Bad things:

Basic sword to sword combat is simplistic to the point of boredom, not talking about combining or using powers to be a badass, but the swordplay itself isn't fun.

Dialog and characters are very simple and lacking any sort of grit (which seems odd when plague is going around), people seem way too nice to the main character.

Story is incredibly simple so far, really evil asshole guys are trying to be really evil assholes, be the awesome dude the city needs and that's that

Enemy AI is very gamey and unlike NPC situations, the AI is very predictable.

 

[graywolf323]

I'm cross posting here from buy/sell since I got PM asking if I can match GMG price now that the coupon died.

If anyone missed out I have NA Dishonored PC Steam key for $44.

PM me.

the coupon doesn't die until Friday

 

[Incendiary]

IMHO blink is one of the best things that could happen to stealth games. It takes away the necessity for slow paced movement, allowing you to work the game from more of a birds eye view that leaves a lot more to strategy than to execution. Mastering it makes you feel like an effin badass and it gives the game an edge that other stealth games just dont have. I can honestly say that I wouldnt be even near this interested in the game if it was just regular slow-paced stealth. Why make that when you can innovate and try something different?

I was actually describing Dishonored to my friend and saying how great a game it was, and she was going on and on about how much she hated stealth games, so then I went into an explanation of Blink and said because of Blink, Dishonored is less "wait 10 minutes until you get your opening" stealth and more "zipping through the darkness across rooftops like Batman unbeknownst to all the bad guys" stealth. And she was like oh, maybe I'll buy it then.

Blink ups the fun of being stealthy by a ton all by itself, and when you add in Stop Time and Possession it's just...ugh, so good.

 

[Auto_aim1]

IMHO blink is one of the best things that could happen to stealth games. It takes away the necessity for slow paced movement, allowing you to work the game from more of a birds eye view that leaves a lot more to strategy than to execution. Mastering it makes you feel like an effin badass and it gives the game an edge that other stealth games just dont have. I can honestly say that I wouldnt be even near this interested in the game if it was just regular slow-paced stealth. Why make that when you can innovate and try something different?

Well put. And yeah, that's one of the reasons why I use it so much.

 

[Chris_C]

If you throttle a guard till he's unconscious, then accidentally throw him over a ledge to his death... does it count as a kill against you? I'm trying a non-lethal playthough...

 

[zkylon]

If you throttle a guard till he's unconscious, then accidentally throw him over a ledge to his death... does it count as a kill against you? I'm trying a non-lethal playthough...

I think so. I choked a guy and he fell into water and it counted as a kill.

 

[Raitosaito]

the coupon doesn't die until Friday

Ahh, I just saw it got extended on the 8th.

Carry on

 

[Deified Data]

The Heart is my favorite thing about this game.

Nothing better than felling an opponent who you know deserves it.

 

[CambriaRising]

The Heart is my favorite thing about this game.

Nothing better than felling an opponent who you know deserves it.

Discovering that it can talk to you was the best part of this game for me. So far.

 

[Auto_aim1]

If you throttle a guard till he's unconscious, then accidentally throw him over a ledge to his death... does it count as a kill against you? I'm trying a non-lethal playthough...

Yup.

Unconscious characters won’t survive a fall from a great height, or a slip into the water which will also result in a kill towards your character stats.

 

[MormaPope]

I'd say the only jarring thing about Dishonored is how the main character and others receive the ability to do magical things. Without spoiling anything, is magic and how people are chosen to use it ever expanded or will it always be mysterious and unexplained?

 

[Hawkian]

Strong Arms bone charm, ily

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Confused with the reported game length.

Is this about right? 5 hours if you just play it through for the story. 15-20+ if you explore and try to do everything/multiple playthroughs?

 

[ii Stryker]

I'd say the only jarring thing about Dishonored is how the main character and others receive the ability to do magical things. Without spoiling anything, is magic and how people are chosen to use it ever expanded or will it always be mysterious and unexplained?

The ones whom are using the same abilities as you are

Spoiler

other assassins

.
This goes unexplained. I'm assuming/hopeful Arkane is saving that for, perhaps, DLC or a sequel.

Confused with the reported game length.

Is this about right? 5 hours if you just play it through for the story. 15-20+ if you explore and try to do everything/multiple playthroughs?

I just finished tonight normal playthrough murderfest and had about 35+ hrs into it. But I explored just about everything.

 

[vazel]

Confused with the reported game length.

Is this about right? 5 hours if you just play it through for the story. 15-20+ if you explore and try to do everything/multiple playthroughs?

It also depends on wether you're playing it stealth or action. And if you have objective markers enabled.

 

[GorillaJu]

Story is incredibly simple so far, really evil asshole guys are trying to be really evil assholes, be the awesome dude the city needs and that's that

Where did you get the impression that ANY of the NPCs, outside of Emily, are good people? There are like 3 in total, in this game, that aren't complete shit wads. Everyone has blood on their hands.

 

[Eusis]

Confused with the reported game length.

Is this about right? 5 hours if you just play it through for the story. 15-20+ if you explore and try to do everything/multiple playthroughs?

If you're playing through for the story, as in to get all of it, it's going to be on the long side, or at least in the middle. Basically 5 hours is if you're playing on a low difficulty, slaughtering everything, and moving from mission objective to mission objective.

Anyways, (assassination) mission 2 question:

Spoiler

any consequences to opening the safe and stealing from it? I just wanted the rune, but I got both an achievement for it and a note at the end that I stole from the safe, so I guess it's binary and you can't selectively steal stuff.

 

[MormaPope]

Where did you get the impression that ANY of the NPCs, outside of Emily, are good people? There are like 3 in total, in this game, that aren't complete shit wads. Everyone has blood on their hands.

Everyone at the bar seems way too nice and respectful of the main character. Also I'm confused by what you quoted, I wasn't really ragging on the NPC's, the antagonists and villains in the game are cartoonishly evil, that sorta has always been a negative for me personally.

 

[GorillaJu]

Everyone at the bar seems way too nice and respectful of the main character. Also I'm confused by what you quoted, I wasn't really ragging on the NPC's, the antagonists and villains in the game are cartoonishly evil, that sorta has always been a negative for me personally.

I see. The characters in the bar are respectful, but whip out the heart and listen to their histories. They aren't good people. Except Callista and Pierre

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Thanks for the replies.

Seems like a game I'd enjoy. I would take my time and take everything in.

 

[Hawkian]

I see. The characters in the bar are respectful, but whip out the heart and listen to their histories. They aren't good people. Except Callista and Pierre

Oh come on. What did Lydia do to you?

 

[Salsa]

Calista is my waifu