The immersive-sim genre might as well be one of my most favorite video game genres of all time. You place the player in a small sandbox-like area, force them to adapt to their surroundings, forge their own playstyle, and use creative thinking skills to solve problems. These games heavily immerse the player into their worlds and the choices they make will affect the world around them. Hence the genre’s name, immersive-sims. Some of the most iconic PC classics out there were in fact immersive-sims. Not lying. System Shock, Deus Ex, and Thief: The Dark Project. (We’ll talk more about Thief in a bit.) This genre would soon die out in later years as gamers found themselves more immersed in other first person genres like shooters. It wasn’t until the 2007 release of BioShock that the genre was brought back to life, sorta. Bioshock has to be one of the greatest video games of all time. The presentation, setting, story, and atmosphere makes it worth coming back to time and time again. This is coming from me though, someone who thinks BioShock is a classic and will forever stand out to the test of time despite some of the sections near the end being a little rough to today's standards.
BioShock sparked a flame and within that flame came other developers willing to give the immersive-sim genre another shot. Eidos Montreal brought back the Deus Ex series with two new rebooted entries both being well praised, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The first System Shock is getting a remake and currently a System Shock 3 is being developed. This small indie studio named Mundfish is making a soviet dystopian inspired game called Atomic Heart which I am very excited for. And most importantly of all there is Arkane Studios, founded by Raphael Colantonio in 1999. Arkane Studios started off as a small company. Their first game was Arx Fatalis, which didn’t do so well, but was a starting point in their long line of immersive-sims. Arkane went on to help with the development of games like Call of Duty: World at War and even BioShock 2 where their design choices for immersive-sims began to grow.
Eventually, Arkane Studios was bought out by Bethesda Softworks who you may know for the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, and in 2011 they announced they were making a new game named Dishonored. Remember when I brought up Thief: The Dark Project earlier? Well Dishonored was a game heavily inspired by the older Thief games and in some way would serve as a spiritual successor. Not many people were expecting Dishonored to be all that successful, but little did they know Dishonored would take the world by surprise when it finally came out in 2012. Critics praised Dishonored as an instant masterpiece and labeled it one of the greatest games to come out in 2012. It’s setting, tone, gameplay, and story helped create an experience that would be difficult to follow up or take inspiration from. Dishonored helped Arkane Studios boost themselves towards massive success as they later developed a sequel to Dishonored, and a reboot of the 2006 cult classic Prey which served as a spiritual successor to System Shock. They are truly a well respected studio within the industry.
I haven’t played the first Dishonored until now, but what I can tell you is that before I played Prey and Dishonored 2. Both of these games hold a very close place to my heart. Dishonored 2, while most fans agree isn’t as good as the first game, does a pretty damn good job at being a sequel and giving us more of something we love. Prey (2017) is a game that I really love for it’s incredible design and philosophical themes. The world building of Talos 1, complex storytelling, and freedom that immersive sims have always had. Prey is one of my favorite games to come out in 2017 and is probably in my list of top ten games of all time. I finally took the time to try out the first Dishonored since I already played through the sequel and it’s standalone expansion a couple of times. What I got was a game truly worth my time. Dishonored has stood out against the test of time and is a testament to both old school and modern game design. So today we’ll be talking about why I love Dishonored and why it deserves your attention. So load up your crossbow, put on the mask, and sail your way into the streets of Dunwall.
Story
We play as a young man named Corvo Attano, the royal protector of the Empress Jessamine Kaldwin and her young daughter Emily. Jessamine rules over the city of Dunwall, a kingdom quickly revolutionizing thanks to the discovery of whale oil. With whale oil Dunwall was able to forge vehicles, ships, and other types of machinery to keep the kingdom constantly working and protected. Recently a plague has struck the streets of Dunwall. There is no cure for the plague and Jessamine and Corvo are trying to figure out how to prevent the plague from spreading even further. One day Corvo returns to Dunwall bringing great news to the empress, but suddenly they are attacked by a random group of assassins. Jessamine is killed during the attack and Emily is kidnapped by the group as they teleport out of thin air. Corvo is framed for killing the empress and sentenced to jail to be beheaded the next day.
Once locked behind bars he is sent a hidden letter by a group known as The Loyalists who promise to help him escape. Corvo breaks out of Dunwall’s prison and makes his way to a barge piloted by a man named Samuel. He carries Corvo all the way to The Hound Pits which is an abandoned bar located at the edge of Dunwall. There he meets the leader of The Loyalists, Admiral Farley Havelock, who knows that Corvo didn’t kill the empress and that the political figures who locked him behind bars planned to frame him this entire time and become the next rulers of Dunwall. They plan to corrupt the city with their political views leading to chaos throughout the streets. Havelock states that Corvo must take all of these political figures down before it’s too late and he must find out the whereabouts of poor young Emily so she can explain what actually happened during the assasination. Corvo goes to sleep trying to prepare for whatever tasks may lie in front of him the next day, but in the middle of the night he wakes up to find himself in a strange mystical abyss known as The Void.
There he meets The Outsider, a paranormal being that some of the citizens of Dunwall worship as a god due to his history and the strange anomalies that have happened around Dunwall which relate to the powers he holds. The Outsider notices that the world is falling apart from corruption and that Corvo actually wants to make things right, so he gives him his mark. The mark allows Corvo to use the mystical powers of The Outsider and with it he ventures into Dunwall hidden beneath a steel mask hoping to find Emily and reclaim the kingdom that once belonged to his beloved Jessamine. Will Corvo use his newly earned powers for good or to cause more damage than the individuals he is trying to take down? Balance lies in your hands.
Gameplay
The gameplay department is where Dishonored shines best, as it combines stealth elements of Thief with exciting traversal mechanics, open ended level design, first person close ranged combat with a little bit of shooting, and lots and lots of choice. You begin each mission getting dropped off at the entrance of a level and you have to navigate your way towards your set goal. However you can’t just simply walk there in a linear path as enemies will be patrolling the open streets and if they spot you they’ll try to kill you immediately. You can either kill them using your sword and set of gadgets, or sneak past them avoiding combat entirely. Sneaking past them may be the most useful strategy, because you have a limited amount of supplies and you might want to try causing the least amount of attention as possible. If you take the time to explore your surroundings or talk to NPCs you may even find different ways to get towards your goal. Maybe instead of running through the streets you can traverse across the rooftops. If you help NPCs they may offer you shortcuts that allow you skip areas filled with guards.
What makes Dishonored so special are the powers you have at your disposal. You start off simply with the Blink ability, which allows you to teleport across long distances quickly. You can even use it to reach higher ground or easily escape from frenetic fights. You can find Runes throughout each level that allow you to upgrade your powers and unlock new abilities. These range from possessing rats to fit through vents and reach inaccessible areas, summoning a storm of rats that will devour groups of enemies within seconds, to slowing down time to make combat or escapes easier. You also have coins which can be used to purchase items and unlock upgrades for your gear. You have a gun which deals a huge amount of damage but is loud and alert enemies easily. A Crossbow that is quiet but deals less damage. Grenades that can blow up groups of enemies and break open certain surfaces. And there are traps that can be laid along the ground or on the walls for enemies to walk into. Any playstye works in Dishonored as long it allows you to reach your goal. That good old immersive-sim design.
If you are thrown into combat you have a sword to fight off enemies. You can slash away, perform a charged thrust, and deflect at the right time to lower an enemy's guard for at least a few second. A major factor in Dishonored which is hidden to most player's until the level's end screen is the Chaos system. The more enemies you kill in a level the higher the Chaos meter gets. More guards will begin to patrol the stress, more infected individuals will appear due to the amount of bodies piling up, and NPCs will be more judgmental towards you. The lower your chaos is the less of a chance for these events to happen. Do you want to be the assassin that slits everybody’s throats, or do you want to be stealthy and try to spare as many souls as you can? The choice is yours. Hopefully you’ll be able to protect Emily and one day save Dunwall from the plague.
Thoughts
Dishonored is a timeless masterpiece. Almost every aspect of the game was pushed to its fullest potential and Arkane Studios both knew and didn’t know it. The London inspired city of Dunwall is just brimming with history to unravel and fun to explore thanks to all the cool sights to see. Filled with unique characters to encounter and tiny little details that make you feel immersed as the developers intended. And when I say this game is immersive I mean I actually felt like I was Corvo Attano.
The level design is incredible, it’s open enough to give you enough space to work with but not too big so that you end up getting confused about where to go for your current objective. The one aspect I will forever love about immersive-sims are the many ways you can approach a single problem. Games like Dishonored and Prey want you to get creative, because discovering alternative routes may provide an easier solution than choosing the most obvious path. The story is extremely well told and unraveled with interesting twists and turns during the last batch of levels in the game. There is a ton of replay value to this game thanks to it’s open level design, side quests, secrets, customization, different playstyles, branching paths, and two possible endings.
A lot of people judge the chaos system saying the way it was handled was dumb, but personally I think it’s genius with how it works. It tells the player that maybe killing everything isn’t the right choice and that maybe finding the least harmful solutions will make the world a much better place. You have been dishonored after all, I don’t know if the first thing you want to do is pull out a gun and fire the closest guy’s brains out. Playing the non-lethal way also forces the player to play more carefully, to sneak around, to play it like an actual stealth game. Not saying a high chaos playthrough is bad. It’s more fun than a low chaos playthrough, but it certainly does make the player think about how they approach a video game. Personally I recommend playing through the game in low chaos because not only do you get a good ending but it makes the game longer, adds more challenge, and you get more out of the story.
There are only a few small complaints I have with the game, but they don’t drag down the experience whatsoever. If you are me who makes a lot of mistakes while sneaking around you are going to be finding your previous saves a lot or save scumming until you get through the situation, but this problem only depends on your skill level and how well you memorized the environments. Some of the levels are much darker compared to the second game, which has colorful and gorgeous environments which pop out towards the eyes, and some levels are really short if you ask me. There’s only about nine levels and the game can be beaten within ten hours if you know exactly where to go and what to do. Future playthroughs may be even shorter if you know what to avoid and skip, but earlier I mentioned this game has a high amount of replayability. You are meant to played Dishonored over and over to see what choices you could have taken instead. What powers you could have used, pathways, or side encounters. There's the two endings you can aim for and both require you to play differently. One requires more patience and the other more aggressiveness. Dishonored can also be a pretty fun game to speed run as you blink around levels and make your way towards the objective.
The combat may take some time to get used to, because this is a first person game and melee combat mostly works in a third person perspective because you can see about everything that wants to attack you. Meanwhile in a first person view you can only see what's ahead and need a good sense of awareness. However, the combat is still really good and handled better than a lot of other first person games with melee combat. It works well, controls well, and there is a lot of tricks you can do to turn the tides of a fight. Shoot a guy into the leg, stun him, and chop his head off. Throw a bottle into a guy's face, knock him over, and execute him while he lies on the ground. Get the jump on him by jumping off a roof onto them. Summon a swarm of rats and then set this men ablaze using a flaming bolt. The amount of options available is stunning, but you can still have fun using basic parrying and slashing. I will say though combat is not the main highlight for this game despite being really fun. You play Dishonored for the world building, universe, and story. Adding all of this up, Dishonored is a masterpiece in design and creating an intriguing story. The sequel is a perfect follow-up, Prey maintains the creative choice Arkane’s other titles have while sticking to a System Shock core, and I really hope 5 years from now I can look back at these game and realize how much fun I had with them. They are absolute masterpieces. Each and every one!
Currently Arkane Studios is working on Deathloop, another immersive-sim where you play as an assassin, but this time whenever you die you start back at the beginning. You are stuck in a time loop and you have to figure out how to take down all your eight targets in the most efficient way possible. Plus there is another assassin working against the clock. I don’t know if there is going to be a multiplayer aspect and if it will either help out or screw up the main experience, but whatever the case I’m super excited for this ambitious project and I wish Arkane Studios the best of luck. Love you guys! Dishonored is a game I can strongly recommend to anyone who loves the stealth genre, immersive-sims, and video games in general and want to immerse themselves in an incredible setting. In the end I give Dishonored a 10/10 for being incredible.
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