Dishonored - Xbox 360

General impressions: I had a lot of fun with this game. I tend to lean toward action games be it FPS or third person cover shooters, action RPG (diablo) or some RTS. Playing this was a pleasant surprise and breath of fresh air. It can be as much action as you want or straight up stealth. To me it felt like Bioshock with more open environments and objectives. I really enjoyed the multi-approaches to all the different objectives in the game and how there is no wrong way to play. You can be as deadly as you want or be completely non-lethal. My first play-through was stealth based and mostly non-lethal with only occasional lethal force. I plan to do a kill everyone play-through and kill no one play-through in the future. Now on to the meat of the review.Graphics: 4.5 starsFirst is the graphics. I will be the first to admit that the game is maybe not on the bleeding edge of graphics but there is a reason for that which I will get to. On a technical level the graphics serve their purpose and on the xbox 360 minor to no slow down is observed during the action. There are lots of partials and interactive things on screen at a time and effects look good. The artistic side of the graphics is really were this game shines. As I said earlier the game is not really pushing the ultra realistic look. Textures are soft and the overall look to the game is more "oil painting" like. It serves the setting of the game very will and I don't think this game would be the same with a more realistic approach. Characters have expressive faces and good use of body language that is easy to see with the smooth animation. All in all very good.Gameplay: 4.5 starsGameplay is very smooth and robust. Corvo, the character you play as, is easy to control and actions are logically mapped to buttons on the controller. This is not a FPS and gun play is not a primary focus of the game. Your main weapon is your sword and you use powers or guns/crossbow in your off hand. Sword play in first person is never an easy thing to pull off in games but Dishonored does a good job with it. Blocking is easy and your swings have some weight to them (unlike Oblivion which weapon blows feel like you are swinging a feather). That said once you get more than one or two bad guys around you fighting with your sword gets difficult. The game does this kind of on purpose to encourage a more stealth approach but you are not hindered significantly to the point of making this type of situation hopeless. Were the gameplay really shines is when you use your powers and combat skills in together. There is a lot of experimentation to be had mixing your powers and other skills to either engage in combat or get around the map by avoiding bad guys. An example of this is that you can summon a rat swarm, place a razer trap on a rat, then posses the rat which you move towards a group of bad guys. This springs the trap killing the bad guys while you remain unseen (very cool). Visual cues are clear and really help you know what your actions are going to do. This allows you to really open up your playbook to try several approaches to a situation. Plus with the ability to save anytime you can try out things and always reload your save if the outcome is not what you wanted.Story: 3 starsThe story is ok. Nothing to write home about. It is the same kind of revenge story told several times in the past with typical twists and turns but it is entertaining and does not hinder the game any. Plus the voice acting is very well done with some high talent actors giving good performances. There are two endings and the one I have seen is ok but does not really satisfy me. I will say that you don't really play this game for the story. It is only there to put reason to your actions.Replay Values: 5 starsAs I already mentioned I have plans to play through this several more times with different goals in mind. Do to the flexibility of your situations you can really attack your in game goals from several angles and if your like me, you will want to try to do that. There are collectibles in the game but the need to play the game again and again to get them is not there. You want to play this again to see what happens if you do things differently how things will play out.Overall: 5 starsI really enjoyed this game. It is not a run and gun type of game which to me is a nice change of pace. This game take patience and planing. It then rewards this by allowing quite a bit of flexibility in the gameplay. I would highly recommend this game. It is really one of the best games of 2012.

I have been waiting years for a game of this quality and type. Dishonored is the love child of Thief, Half Life 2, and Bioshock.The city you run around in is a dystopian police state paradise, plague having ravaged most of the inhabitants. The style is similair to Bioshock and maybe even Borderlands in art direction, and at first the sights seem muddy and drab, but after an hour or two, the city starts to breathe and come alive in a truly disturbing way. As you come into the powers of Corvo, a master assassin returned home early (nothing good can ever come from such things!), stretching your "legs" as it were, you reach places you didn't think accessable, and trust me, after playing this game, other open worldish type games will be a drag after the pure ease of mobility that Dishonored brings to the table.While stealth is aways an option, doing people in is such a pleasing action, it's a shame the game doesn't reward you with the more violent path. And speaking of stealth, it's kind of bare bones. There are really only two choices for non-lethal: choke em, or hit em with sleep darts. No poison gas bomb? No club to the back of the head for a faster take down? No noise-maker distraction type tools? More options would have been nice in that regards.While Thief may have done a better job with the stealth options, Dishonored shines in confrontation. Blink (the first magic you learn in the game, a teleport move basically) gets you close up with the quickness, allowing you to make the killing stroke with your dagger, and after you upgrade Corvo a bit, with silent footsteps and a power that turns enemies to ash before they hit the ground, you truly feel bad-ass, but watch out! Get surrounded and you'll go down pretty fast. Time your blocks well, and you can send the enemy into a stumble of sorts, allowing you to either blink, or run up to em (man Corvo is fast!) and shove the blade in their throat. Man it feels good to be a Gangsta!Dishonored is very steampunk in design, and guns are especially lethal, as they should be. Nothing withstands more than 2 shots from your pistol, and that goes for you as well. Thank goodness, only officers of the Watch (city guard, most common foe) carry guns. Also, they're one shooters, so you'll rely mostly on your sword skills to do the thrust of the dirty work. The biggest, baddest enemy, a Tallboy I think they're called, is straight outta Half Life. Remember those tall skinny robots with the authoritarian glowing red eye in City 17 that constantly stalk the streets? Yeah, they're here too, but get this, if you can get above them, with good timing you can one-hit assassinate them. Sweet.As games have evolved, I, like many gamers, do little tests to check how the state of things has progressed. Individual grass blades, the brick pattern on a wall isn't a 4x4 pattern repeated endlessly, good facial animations, realistic water, etc. One that I now want added onto FPS style games from here on out is the auto ledge grab in games that is to great effect put on display in Dishonored. You feel like a monkey on a mission, almost the whole of the environment is something to be placed under your boots, and with a Metroid Prime style double jump, traveling is a breeze, only once was I ever stopped by a little ledge. It's like if Assassins Creed was translated into FPS sorta.The game is fairly short, though. Like if you were to stretch it out by taking the time to collect everything, it might take you 10 hours, probably more like 8, but, Dishonored does what it does so well, it leaves you with an urge to revisit Dunwall atleast once more, your previous stay just wasn't long enough. I paid $25 for this, and feel I got my moneys worth. I wish they had added just a couple more missions, but from what I hear, DLC coming out shortly will be adding more to the main tale, as well as an obsticle course style portion.Dishonored is a well crafted story of revenge, definetly a shoe-in for GOTY, a sleeper hit that will probably be passed up by most gamers, I hope I'm wrong on that last point.Bottom Line: Dishonored needs you, and you need Dishonored.