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.