gardensinheaven
Bio
I do game reviews.
1 star: absolutely horrid
1.5 stars: pretty bad
2 stars: bleh
2.5 stars: could be better, kinda average
3 stars: not bad, wait for sale
3.5 stars: pretty good, wait for sale
4 stars: great, buy if at a reasonable price
4.5 stars: fantastic
5 stars: absolutely phenomenal
I do game reviews.
1 star: absolutely horrid
1.5 stars: pretty bad
2 stars: bleh
2.5 stars: could be better, kinda average
3 stars: not bad, wait for sale
3.5 stars: pretty good, wait for sale
4 stars: great, buy if at a reasonable price
4.5 stars: fantastic
5 stars: absolutely phenomenal
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This review contains spoilers
Hello everybody, today we’ll be discussing the game Dishonored. Keep in mind, I’ll be discussing the base game instead of the dlc expansions. But for now. Let’s talk about the game.
Visuals:
This game’s visuals have not aged at all, this game looks great even years later. The visual style resembles that of oil paintings and every frame of this game looks exactly like one, it is amazing. The character designs also look fantastic, the characters go from pristine such as those in the royal family to just bathing in filth and sickness within the lower class. The best example of this would be Emily Kaldwin and Granny Rags, the world design is also well done, given the state of the world. Dunwall has buildings that are pristine and beautiful, filled with extravagant nobles, foods, and even grand gardens. While the slums are filthy, populated by the diseased and rats, filled with condemned buildings. It is a gloomy and miserable experience but in the greatest way imaginable.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is like going back and playing the original Thief games, the stealth is phenomenal to play and aged remarkably well, the combat also isn’t godawful which is neat for a stealth game, the level design is absolutely great, I cannot name one level where it was poorly constructed, every single one of them is fun to explore and go back to and there’s a lot of detail within each one. This is also a game where your choices and action do genuinely have consequences for not only the narrative but also the state of the world. If you choose to be lethal, the world around you gets worse, the plague grows stronger, characters become more paranoid, weepers are more prevalent through the streets. If you choose to be stealthy and non-lethal, then the characters get less stressed, the plague remains but never advances into a worse state, weepers are a thing still but actually are less and less prevalent throughout the game. Both paths also lead to different endings which is also neat. There’s also the Powers system and this is kind of mixed for me, on one hand this is an incredibly fun system that you can experiment around in many ways, on the other hand this absolutely breaks the game and makes it absurdly easy. Upgrade Dark Vision and Blink and the game becomes an absolute cakewalk, it even got to the point where a non-lethal run became much easier than probably intended. Overall, the gameplay is amazing.
Characters:
This is kind of where Dishonored slips up, not in terms of voice acting because it is quite competent given the stellar cast. But more because a lot of the cast is kind of forgettable, interesting? Absolutely. But still a little forgettable. While Corvo is a memorable protagonist with a good design, characters like Sokolov and Daud are the true standouts of the game. Everybody else kind of pales in comparison. Even the antagonists that aren’t Daud are kind of boring.
Soundtrack:
The music for this game doesn’t truly get the praise it deserves, the tracks for the game are atmospheric, they’re grim, they are perfect for the tone and world of the game. Tracks like Wrenhaven River as you see the disease infested town as you pull up to the docks of Dunwall for a mission, as the strings intensify and paint a picture of misery. Alongside a track like The Drunken Whaler, where the eery vocals, the drums, and the rising music creates a haunting track that is like a lullaby created during the times of an incredibly deadly plague. The soundtrack is wonderful.
The Narrative and Writing:
The plot is nothing original or special, it’s mainly a revenge plot. Nothing hard hitting or entirely original. It is simple and minimalistic, but it’s not a bad thing. Dishonored was never known for walls of text, usually it employs environmental storytelling as well as using NPC dialogue to create a more detailed picture of the world. The writing is serviceable as well, nothing great, nothing terrible. It is serviceable.
Performance:
This is kind of where this version of the game is hit or miss, on one hand the game operated pretty stable for me and I never truly noticed drops in frames. But on the other, I wish they did better with this. It’s capped at 30 fps, which is a bummer seeing as the console I played this on should’ve played it on 60 fps effortlessly. It’s not bad at all but they definitely should’ve done more. However, there were numerous times where the loading took too long for what was meant to be a remaster of a game that released on inferior hardware, so the optimization could’ve been better.
Overall, this game is like a 4.5/5. I heavily enjoyed the numerous playthroughs of this game that I’ve had.
Visuals:
This game’s visuals have not aged at all, this game looks great even years later. The visual style resembles that of oil paintings and every frame of this game looks exactly like one, it is amazing. The character designs also look fantastic, the characters go from pristine such as those in the royal family to just bathing in filth and sickness within the lower class. The best example of this would be Emily Kaldwin and Granny Rags, the world design is also well done, given the state of the world. Dunwall has buildings that are pristine and beautiful, filled with extravagant nobles, foods, and even grand gardens. While the slums are filthy, populated by the diseased and rats, filled with condemned buildings. It is a gloomy and miserable experience but in the greatest way imaginable.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is like going back and playing the original Thief games, the stealth is phenomenal to play and aged remarkably well, the combat also isn’t godawful which is neat for a stealth game, the level design is absolutely great, I cannot name one level where it was poorly constructed, every single one of them is fun to explore and go back to and there’s a lot of detail within each one. This is also a game where your choices and action do genuinely have consequences for not only the narrative but also the state of the world. If you choose to be lethal, the world around you gets worse, the plague grows stronger, characters become more paranoid, weepers are more prevalent through the streets. If you choose to be stealthy and non-lethal, then the characters get less stressed, the plague remains but never advances into a worse state, weepers are a thing still but actually are less and less prevalent throughout the game. Both paths also lead to different endings which is also neat. There’s also the Powers system and this is kind of mixed for me, on one hand this is an incredibly fun system that you can experiment around in many ways, on the other hand this absolutely breaks the game and makes it absurdly easy. Upgrade Dark Vision and Blink and the game becomes an absolute cakewalk, it even got to the point where a non-lethal run became much easier than probably intended. Overall, the gameplay is amazing.
Characters:
This is kind of where Dishonored slips up, not in terms of voice acting because it is quite competent given the stellar cast. But more because a lot of the cast is kind of forgettable, interesting? Absolutely. But still a little forgettable. While Corvo is a memorable protagonist with a good design, characters like Sokolov and Daud are the true standouts of the game. Everybody else kind of pales in comparison. Even the antagonists that aren’t Daud are kind of boring.
Soundtrack:
The music for this game doesn’t truly get the praise it deserves, the tracks for the game are atmospheric, they’re grim, they are perfect for the tone and world of the game. Tracks like Wrenhaven River as you see the disease infested town as you pull up to the docks of Dunwall for a mission, as the strings intensify and paint a picture of misery. Alongside a track like The Drunken Whaler, where the eery vocals, the drums, and the rising music creates a haunting track that is like a lullaby created during the times of an incredibly deadly plague. The soundtrack is wonderful.
The Narrative and Writing:
The plot is nothing original or special, it’s mainly a revenge plot. Nothing hard hitting or entirely original. It is simple and minimalistic, but it’s not a bad thing. Dishonored was never known for walls of text, usually it employs environmental storytelling as well as using NPC dialogue to create a more detailed picture of the world. The writing is serviceable as well, nothing great, nothing terrible. It is serviceable.
Performance:
This is kind of where this version of the game is hit or miss, on one hand the game operated pretty stable for me and I never truly noticed drops in frames. But on the other, I wish they did better with this. It’s capped at 30 fps, which is a bummer seeing as the console I played this on should’ve played it on 60 fps effortlessly. It’s not bad at all but they definitely should’ve done more. However, there were numerous times where the loading took too long for what was meant to be a remaster of a game that released on inferior hardware, so the optimization could’ve been better.
Overall, this game is like a 4.5/5. I heavily enjoyed the numerous playthroughs of this game that I’ve had.
Let me make something clear first, this game is not nearly as bad as people made it out to be when it came out. This is actually a decent action game, are there flaws? Absolutely but this isn’t even the worst game in the series.
Visuals:
This game’s artstyle looks great, some of the stages look gorgeous and one of the highlights are the levels where you practice your new gear. Another thing I have to compliment are the enemy designs, they look absolutely good. One design I did end up liking has to be Vergil’s, he looks great in this reboot. While some of the character designs are lacking, the majority of the art is still great.
Audio:
The voice acting in this game is pretty decent, keep in mind Devil May Cry isn’t reputable for its voice acting. As much as I prefer the original va’s in Devil May Cry 3, the newer cast did a decent job. The audio design for the weapons and the enemies is also pretty good, but the standout in this department is the soundtrack. The soundtrack is great, Noisia and Combichrist deserve their props for how absolutely entertaining and headbanging the music is. It is edgy but it is a much-needed level of edgy. I love it.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is incredibly fun but it does have flaws. Let’s start with the positives, the combat is fluid, fast and combos are fun to perform, the grappling hook is a really nice addition and helps with the flow of combat, some of the new weapons are really entertaining and fun to use. However, there’s some flaws. Weapons like Ebony & Ivory got nerfed hard, Devil Trigger went from absolutely OP and fun to an actual hindrance with its floating enemies shtick, another issue are the color coded enemies. For some reason they made it a mechanic where you have to use Angel weapons on Angel enemies and Demon weapons on Demon enemies, I never got why they did it, it just seems like an unnecessary mechanic that kind of ruins the flow of combat.
Narrative & Writing:
Let’s be honest, this series isn’t known for Deus Ex tier writing and the narratives aren’t exactly great. However, the characters in those old games were incredibly memorable and likable. Let’s get this out of the way, Dante actually suffers the most in the writing. What bothers me about this version of Dante isn’t the fact that he looks like a member of a British metalcore band, it’s that his character and his dialogue is absolutely awful. He isn’t a likable character at all, his jokes are really bad, I don’t think one even landed for me. Vergil also suffers, the guy does some really out of character stuff in the plot, including that one scene with Lilith. Vergil in the original was an antagonist but he had motivations, he had honor and integrity. Vergil has none of that in here. Mundus is boring in this one, and the other characters aren’t good either. Except Bob Barbas he’s actually cool. The plot is also kind of weak, granted it’s par for the course of the series but the ending was pretty much one of the worst in the series. Overall it suffers heavily here.
Technical Aspect:
I have absolutely suffered no crashes during playing the game, not only that but performance wise it performed nicely. So on this aspect for me it did pretty well.
3/5. Gameplay is great alongside the music and artstyle, but the writing, characters and narrative suffers.
Visuals:
This game’s artstyle looks great, some of the stages look gorgeous and one of the highlights are the levels where you practice your new gear. Another thing I have to compliment are the enemy designs, they look absolutely good. One design I did end up liking has to be Vergil’s, he looks great in this reboot. While some of the character designs are lacking, the majority of the art is still great.
Audio:
The voice acting in this game is pretty decent, keep in mind Devil May Cry isn’t reputable for its voice acting. As much as I prefer the original va’s in Devil May Cry 3, the newer cast did a decent job. The audio design for the weapons and the enemies is also pretty good, but the standout in this department is the soundtrack. The soundtrack is great, Noisia and Combichrist deserve their props for how absolutely entertaining and headbanging the music is. It is edgy but it is a much-needed level of edgy. I love it.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is incredibly fun but it does have flaws. Let’s start with the positives, the combat is fluid, fast and combos are fun to perform, the grappling hook is a really nice addition and helps with the flow of combat, some of the new weapons are really entertaining and fun to use. However, there’s some flaws. Weapons like Ebony & Ivory got nerfed hard, Devil Trigger went from absolutely OP and fun to an actual hindrance with its floating enemies shtick, another issue are the color coded enemies. For some reason they made it a mechanic where you have to use Angel weapons on Angel enemies and Demon weapons on Demon enemies, I never got why they did it, it just seems like an unnecessary mechanic that kind of ruins the flow of combat.
Narrative & Writing:
Let’s be honest, this series isn’t known for Deus Ex tier writing and the narratives aren’t exactly great. However, the characters in those old games were incredibly memorable and likable. Let’s get this out of the way, Dante actually suffers the most in the writing. What bothers me about this version of Dante isn’t the fact that he looks like a member of a British metalcore band, it’s that his character and his dialogue is absolutely awful. He isn’t a likable character at all, his jokes are really bad, I don’t think one even landed for me. Vergil also suffers, the guy does some really out of character stuff in the plot, including that one scene with Lilith. Vergil in the original was an antagonist but he had motivations, he had honor and integrity. Vergil has none of that in here. Mundus is boring in this one, and the other characters aren’t good either. Except Bob Barbas he’s actually cool. The plot is also kind of weak, granted it’s par for the course of the series but the ending was pretty much one of the worst in the series. Overall it suffers heavily here.
Technical Aspect:
I have absolutely suffered no crashes during playing the game, not only that but performance wise it performed nicely. So on this aspect for me it did pretty well.
3/5. Gameplay is great alongside the music and artstyle, but the writing, characters and narrative suffers.
The Darkness II is basically Venom and Spawn decided to watch Goodfellas or Godfather. It is as emo as it gets with a very edgy looking protagonist. Not as good as its predecessor. But it works well.
Visuals:
The visuals aged well, the visual style has this comic book style that looks good. Even the Demon Arms look great. But it’s kind of a double edged sword. The game looks great but it lacks that enveloping atmosphere the first game had, the first game was gloomy and much darker and it aided the narrative and overall direction much more. This game looks better, but it doesn’t capture how saddening the overall story of The Darkness was.
Audio:
The sound design for the weapons is satisfying and the Demon Arms sound design is also pretty good, the audio mixing ain't bad either. Not only that, but the voice acting is pretty good. Brian Bloom is definitely the best voice actor for Jackie, and Mike Patton does a phenomenal job too, and those are just the standouts. Everyone else does a good job. However I have a personal gripe with the licensed soundtrack. It’s a good soundtrack, but for some reason I think this game fits much better with some edgier music, the licensed soundtrack is pretty good but a lot of it doesn’t fit how emo the game is, Jane’s Addiction, Tone Loc, and Ram Jam are good artists. But to me it doesn’t work or fit as well in a game like this. Great songs however, the original soundtrack for this game is really good. I love the main menu theme a lot and even the track Together Again is well-composed. Honestly a great job was done here.
Gameplay:
The combat for the game is good, it never once got boring and stayed fun. The Demon Arms were really entertaining and a hell of a good time using. There’s even a skill tree and I’m kind of astonished at how much effort and creativity is present within the gameplay, there are faults however. The game does get repetitive, true a lot of FPS games can feel that way. But after playing Quake and Prey. It is odd that this game feels like fighting the same enemy more and more. And that gets worse during the later hours. Overall, very fun but it’s strange how a game this short can get repetitive.
Narrative & Writing:
This game’s narrative and writing is the sequel’s biggest downgrade from the first game, don’t get me wrong the writing isn’t bad. The characters are memorable, the moments with Jenny are sweet and heartwarming. But it is missing the intrigue and how memorable the first game was. The first game had more intimate moments, the premise and the atmosphere was significantly more interesting and tense. It even has one of the best scenes in gaming where you could watch the entirety of To Kill A Mockingbird with your girlfriend. It sounds pretentious true, but it’s an intimate moment that not many games have done. The first game is better because you had actual motives, a more fleshed out narrative, and the characters were written well. It could’ve been a poorly written festival of pretentious writing but it turned out to be a gloomy and depressing game in the right ways. This game while not bad in this department, feels rushed and lacks some of the things that made the first game stand out from its peers. It’s not bad but could’ve been so much more.
Technical Aspects:
This game ran fine enough for me, however I heard this game had a lot of issues on PC. The first game had some annoying glitches and had jank, but it was tolerable. The second game apparently was a hassle for PC users, I’ve seen numerous reports of framerate drops, the game crashing when you boot it up, apparently even the Steam demo has some issues. I’m adding this in because even though the game ran well for me, this game has more issues on PC.
Final Verdict And Another Complaint:
This game is a 3/5. Yes, the gameplay is incredibly fun, the music is good, voice acting is great and the visuals aged well. But the game lacks the charm and intrigue of the first game as well as suffering from taking only four-five hours to complete. And there’s a bit of an issue, this game is overpriced. I tried to find a new copy but in the storefronts I went to. A digital copy is on average thirty dollars and finding a physical copy has been pretty difficult. I get that it’s an older game so finding a physical copy would be difficult, but thirty dollars for a digital copy of a four-five hour game is absurd to me.
If you are looking to play this, wait for a sale. Not a bad game but the price tag for it is absolutely absurd.
Visuals:
The visuals aged well, the visual style has this comic book style that looks good. Even the Demon Arms look great. But it’s kind of a double edged sword. The game looks great but it lacks that enveloping atmosphere the first game had, the first game was gloomy and much darker and it aided the narrative and overall direction much more. This game looks better, but it doesn’t capture how saddening the overall story of The Darkness was.
Audio:
The sound design for the weapons is satisfying and the Demon Arms sound design is also pretty good, the audio mixing ain't bad either. Not only that, but the voice acting is pretty good. Brian Bloom is definitely the best voice actor for Jackie, and Mike Patton does a phenomenal job too, and those are just the standouts. Everyone else does a good job. However I have a personal gripe with the licensed soundtrack. It’s a good soundtrack, but for some reason I think this game fits much better with some edgier music, the licensed soundtrack is pretty good but a lot of it doesn’t fit how emo the game is, Jane’s Addiction, Tone Loc, and Ram Jam are good artists. But to me it doesn’t work or fit as well in a game like this. Great songs however, the original soundtrack for this game is really good. I love the main menu theme a lot and even the track Together Again is well-composed. Honestly a great job was done here.
Gameplay:
The combat for the game is good, it never once got boring and stayed fun. The Demon Arms were really entertaining and a hell of a good time using. There’s even a skill tree and I’m kind of astonished at how much effort and creativity is present within the gameplay, there are faults however. The game does get repetitive, true a lot of FPS games can feel that way. But after playing Quake and Prey. It is odd that this game feels like fighting the same enemy more and more. And that gets worse during the later hours. Overall, very fun but it’s strange how a game this short can get repetitive.
Narrative & Writing:
This game’s narrative and writing is the sequel’s biggest downgrade from the first game, don’t get me wrong the writing isn’t bad. The characters are memorable, the moments with Jenny are sweet and heartwarming. But it is missing the intrigue and how memorable the first game was. The first game had more intimate moments, the premise and the atmosphere was significantly more interesting and tense. It even has one of the best scenes in gaming where you could watch the entirety of To Kill A Mockingbird with your girlfriend. It sounds pretentious true, but it’s an intimate moment that not many games have done. The first game is better because you had actual motives, a more fleshed out narrative, and the characters were written well. It could’ve been a poorly written festival of pretentious writing but it turned out to be a gloomy and depressing game in the right ways. This game while not bad in this department, feels rushed and lacks some of the things that made the first game stand out from its peers. It’s not bad but could’ve been so much more.
Technical Aspects:
This game ran fine enough for me, however I heard this game had a lot of issues on PC. The first game had some annoying glitches and had jank, but it was tolerable. The second game apparently was a hassle for PC users, I’ve seen numerous reports of framerate drops, the game crashing when you boot it up, apparently even the Steam demo has some issues. I’m adding this in because even though the game ran well for me, this game has more issues on PC.
Final Verdict And Another Complaint:
This game is a 3/5. Yes, the gameplay is incredibly fun, the music is good, voice acting is great and the visuals aged well. But the game lacks the charm and intrigue of the first game as well as suffering from taking only four-five hours to complete. And there’s a bit of an issue, this game is overpriced. I tried to find a new copy but in the storefronts I went to. A digital copy is on average thirty dollars and finding a physical copy has been pretty difficult. I get that it’s an older game so finding a physical copy would be difficult, but thirty dollars for a digital copy of a four-five hour game is absurd to me.
If you are looking to play this, wait for a sale. Not a bad game but the price tag for it is absolutely absurd.