Dishonored (Consoles and PC)

[Deezay]

Bethesda Softworks seems to think highly of Arkane Studios' assassination game Dishonored. They've scheduled its release date for October, putting it smack-dab in the middle of the competitive holiday season.

Dishonored takes place in a world where steampunk-like technology and magic coexist. Players take on the role of Corvo, a bodyguard framed for the murder of the Empress he swore to protect. With no chance at making a decent living, Corvo becomes an assassin. He'll strike back at the shadowy forces now ruling the city of Dunwall.

The game lets you decide how to kill your targets. You can use weapons, gadgets or supernatural abilities. Players who want to be stealthy and players who would rather run in guns blazing will both be accomodated. Your decisions will affect the outcome of the mission.

Dishonored will make its debut on October 9th in North America. The Australian release is slated for October 11th. Europe is bringing up the rear with an October 12th launch.

The release date announcement comes a day after BioShock Infinite's delay to February. Infinite was originally slated for October 16th. Considering both games are steampunk-inspired shooters with non-linear elements, it's probably good news for Dishonored that 2K delayed Infinite.

Nonetheless, this holiday season is going to be a tough market for a new IP. A lot of high-profile sequels will arrive during those months. Resident Evil 6, Medal of Honor: Warfighter and Assassin's Creed 3 are all scheduled to arrive in the same month as Dishonored. Hopefully Arkane's game will be strong enough to steal the spotlight from some of these established franchises.

 

[yseJ]

yes its the game that has the most of my interest (besides D3 but d3 is mechanically fun storywise its obviously shyt)
this has tons of potential for very good gameplay and a great story/atmosphere

 

[Deezay]

yes its the game that has the most of my interest (besides D3 but d3 is mechanically fun storywise its obviously shyt)
this has tons of potential for very good gameplay and a great story/atmosphere

I hope so, man. It definitely has that greatest potential

 

[Deezay]

[ame=http://youtu.be/9ITq0hXCCB0]Dishonored - E3 2012 Exclusive Gameplay Trailer - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Deezay]

The winner of the best gameplay demo at E3 is easily Dishonored from Arkane Studios. Arkane, a sister studio to Bethesda, counts Deus Ex designer Harvey Smith among its employees. The company developed Arx Fatalis and assisted with BioShock 2. You can see elements of all three games in Dishonored.

In Dishonored, a First Person action-adventure-stealth explosion of wonderful, the empress of Dunwall, a Victorian Steampunk city, is murdered. Her loyal bodyguard Corvo has been accused of the crime. Players take on the role of Corvo as he wreaks vengeance on those responsible for the murder.

Corvo has a number of supernatural powers at his disposal. These abilities include Blink (teleportation), Possession (of animals, or humans when you level up), Rat Swarm (watching enemies get ripped apart by rats is kind of fun, not gonna lie), Slow Time (which is awesome for killing multiple foes at once) and many more. They work very similarly to Bioshock's plasmids and in the same way you need enough EVE to use them in Bioshock, you need to replenish your manna to use your powers in Dishonored, something that got me into trouble a few times during my hands-on time.

The variety of spells, gadgets and weapons at your disposal give you multiple ways to approach a mission. In the demo we saw, the developers played through a level twice to illustrate the non-linear nature of the game. The two playthroughs were so different from one another, you'd think they were entirely different levels. In the first play-through, Corvo possessed a fish and entered the building through the drainage system. Then he possessed the target himself, brought him to the balcony, and shoved him to his death. The second time around, Corvo entered through rooftops with guns blazing and took everyone out with bullets to the head.

The level design just adds to the diversity. Pretty much every building in the game has multiple entrances and exits - eight in the case of the demo - so you have several ways to approach. Furthermore, NPCs are randomly generated, including targets, so no two two times through will ever be the same.

When I got my hands on the game, it naturally wasn't as exciting as watching the pros, but it still brought me back to that Bioshock happy place. My mission was to kidnap a doctor named Solokov. In an attempt to recreate what we saw in the demo, I possessed the first rat I saw in order to enter the building. And got stepped on and killed by a guard. Oops. Second time around, I turned back to human form before anyone could squish me. Success! I then rather naturally figured out how to enter a blocked section of the building by rewiring a few things. I could have entered in at least two other ways, according to my handy Bethesda helper. When I eventually got to the room that obtained Solokov, I peaked through the keyhole, saw he was alone, and immediately took him out with a sleeping dart upon entry. I then grabbed a bunch of his inventions, and took off with his body. Rather than leave the building the way I came in, I opted for a quicker option, blinking from roof to roof until I got to the boat that would be our escape. But I also could have gone down the elevator inside, taken the stairs outside, or any number of other routes. With only one hand available for combative use while carrying a body, I didn't want to take any risks.

Although the combat mechanics will take some getting used to, I have faith that, like in Bioshock, they will become second nature organically, after I start from the beginning and have time to warm up into the controls. Playing and watching Dishonored is incredibly satisfying, more so than pretty much any other game at E3, and even though Dishonored much in common with games like BioShock and Deus Ex, there are enough original ideas here that Dishonored could be the start of a beloved franchise.

Dishonored comes to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 9th. I will pre-order as soon as physically possible.

 

[inthebushes]

Looking forward to it.

 

[Deezay]

One of the basic facets of most action games is that you kill to complete the level or you kill to survive. In some games like Splinter Cell, the objective is to complete the missions while being as stealthy as possible. In Dishonored, the mantra is that you can kill but you don't have to and the developers think this will give more meaning to the occasions in which you do kill.

Speaking in a lengthy interview with Gamasutra, Raf Colantonio and Harvey Smith the creative directors behind Arkane Studios' Dishonored, talked about a number of interesting design topics behind the upcoming first-person hybrid from Bethesda. In regards to the option to kill or to avoid killing NPCs, Colantonio stated that...

Initially, we just did it because we had passion, and we believe that only a very, very small percentage of players would do that. Then it kind of became bigger than we thought as we started to talk about it and to add to the game: you actually can avoid killing people and can finish the game without killing people. Yes, it's true, and it's part of our values. But also the fact that you could not kill them gives more meaning to the times you do; it was a choice between killing or not. Yes, it is important.

I think that's an interesting way to look at it because in most games, like Call of Duty for example, you're mowing down hundreds of no-faced "bad guys" to get to the end of the level. It's rarely about thinking about consequences, characters or outcomes, it's simply "This faceless baddie is in my way, thus my M4 carbine must teach him a lesson by inseminating 5.56 round into his forehead". In Dishonored, Bethesda has more of IO Interactive's Hitman maxim in mind: the game will progress one way or another depending on if you decide to kill everyone or not. It's interesting and definitely a good way forward for a lot of games.

Raf follows up on this exact sentiment, saying...

[Players] feel in an environment which is simulated. As opposed to "this is what we want you to do," it's more like, "Hey, what are you gonna do?" In this case, when [players] do something like killing, and they knew that they could have avoided to kill, they might regret it a little bit. They might feel emotions that they would never feel otherwise.

In the games which are very directed, it's just like, "The only option is to kill, and then we give you a reward for killing." It might be very satisfying, but there aren't definitely going to be some of the emotions that you want players to feel, such as, "Hmm, maybe I should really try not to kill", or "Maybe there will be consequences later", or "Am I a bad person?" All the things they will definitely feel more in a game where you have the choice not to, than a game that forces you to.

I'll be honest, those sort of things do play with your emotions quite a bit. X-Com, the original from the early 1990s, definitely hit on these emotions because when doing Terror missions you, the player, were responsible for the safety of civilians. Every civilian killed would knock off your rating and potentially affect the morale of your troops. Being responsible for someone's life in a game is a great way to approach the subject matter in a much more mature fashion than simply racking up body counts to complete objectives. That's not to say that the Dooms and Left 4 Deads aren't fun.

Hopefully Bethesda didn't bite off more than they can chew and the whole game evolves into something both noteworthy and memorable. You can look for Dishonored to release for home consoles and PC this October. Feel free to check out the entire interview with the lads from Arkane Studios regarding Dishonored over at Gamasutra.


My most anticipated game of the year...

 

[Kodie]

Very much looking forward to this game.

 

[Deezay]

Very much looking forward to this game.

Looking forward to using this Power

 

[feelosofer]

Rat Swarm for the win. But yea, this may be the surprise hit of 2012. I might have to pre-order.

 

[The Phoenix]

So a guard shoots a gun, then ole buddy stops time, so the bullet is hanging in mid air, then the guy possesses the guard and then walks him around in front of the path of the bullet and then starts time again. The guard kills himself.

I must play this damn game.

 

[Ice Cold]

I think I'd like to play this game without killing anyone but I doubt I'll have the skill

 

[yseJ]

its like bioshock but with more stealth and crazy abilities, plus a live world I like where this is going

 

[Grand Eeezus Maxwell]

Game Of The Year-type shyt right here.

 

[Regular_P]

I think I'd like to play this game without killing anyone but I doubt I'll have the skill

I hear ya. I remember they used to say you could go through levels of the Hitman games without killing anyone. I'd always start out a level trying to sneak through it, but eventually something would go wrong and I'd get found out and I'd leave entire lobbies full of people sprayed.

Hopefully it's not incredibly difficult to go through the game without killing.