Dishonored and Dishonored: Knife of Dunwall (post 6)

[Mhaedros]

Dishonored

Dishonored

Gameplay

Dishonored is a first person stealth role-play game with magic powers. What’s most outstanding is probably all the choices you get. You can choose to kill everyone in your way, or try to sneak past everyone, without even having to kill your targets. There are always several options, plus all the side-missions. I’ve played through the game twice now and I know I haven’t seen or done everything there is to see or do yet. The city of Dunwall, or at least the parts you get to see, is filled with mysterious shrines, interesting people and enemy factions who are trying to take your life. I once happened to find an assassin waiting for me while looting an old apartment and that way found two others waiting for me on the rooftops.

Stealth in this game is very well planned compared to other games, like the ridiculous thieving in Skyrim. You don’t actually fight your targets, or bosses, unless you choose to. You don’t have to cut your way through tens of men to get there either. You can choose to kill, anaesthetize or just try to sneak past the guards and thanks to this you can make every playthrough different.

Every one of your actions will change the end of the game. If you decide to kill everything it will result in more rats in the following missions, which might result in that the plague leaves the city as a graveyard filled with rats and dying people. If you on the other hand don’t kill anyone, except maybe your target, the city might be saved. The future of Dunwall is up to you entirely. At the end of each level you will see how much chaos you made. If it’s usually at low it will affect the ending to the better, while if it’s usually at high you can expect something bad. If you let yourself be detected it will often be much harder to kill your target, as he or she might hide in a not so easily accessed safe-room.

If you choose to take the bloody way you will find that combat is actually quite difficult compared to many other games. There are many ways to kill a man, but once you’re detected you will have a hard time getting rid of all the soldiers, especially if there are more than two or three around. Of course you can always blink up to a roof, but you’ve been detected and they will be ready for you.

My preferred way to get past guards is to methodically take them out by putting them to sleep, by either blinking up behind them to choke them (which doesn’t kill them), or use sleep darts. This way I can do my business undisturbed while still being able to get a low chaos at the end of the mission.

The probably most difficult way to play the game is to completely avoid all guards. I haven’t actually tried this myself, but especially on Very Hard I imagine this to be almost impossible.

This is what’s been going on while Corvo sat in prison. Plague victims are getting roasted by guards on weird machines!

Storyline

The city of Dunwall has been infested with plague and in its hour of need, the empress of the city Jessamine Kaldwin is murdered and her daughter, Emily abducted. The Empress’ bodyguard, Corvo Attano is blamed for her murder although he is innocent and Corvo is thirsty for revenge… You awake in a prison-cell the day before your execution and get a chance to escape it all. Unknown “friends” have sent you a key and a chance to get revenge on the people who blamed you and crown the real Empress, Emily Kaldwin, who at the moment is held by the very people who murdered her mother.

You awake in a prison cell on the day before your execution. However, you get another chance. A note from a friend and a key to the door is all you need…You escape from the prison, which personally I think might be one of the hardest missions in the game due to the absence of magic powers, and get to a boat where an old man called Samuel is waiting to take you to the people still loyal to the Kaldwins. Among Le Resistance is an old admiral, a drunken lord, a scientist, an Overseer (you could call these priests with a love for grenades…you’ll get to kill a lot), and a group of lower class people who amazingly have escaped the plague. They have taken refuge in an old bar called the Hound Pits Pub and call themselves the Loyalists.

These are Overseers. They don’t like Corvo very much it seems.

The first thing that happens in the Hound Pits Pub is that a mythical being, called the Outsider visits your head and gives you a mark, which in turn gives you the ability to perform magic. You basically have to search for runes with the Outsiders’ mark on them and use them to “buy” abilities, but you get the most useful one, Blink as soon as you meet him. It gives you the ability to teleport yourself a short distance and will be very useful for avoiding guards.

This is the being called the Outsider. He is an important character, but isn’t very much in the game himself.

In one of the last missions a very foreseeable twist is revealed and you suddenly aren’t done with the revenge rampage after all. I really can’t say it surprised me in any way, but I won’t spoil it to those of you who haven’t played through the game yet.

Graphics & Sound

At first I didn’t really like the graphics of Dishonored, neither the models nor the textures, but at my second playthrough I started seeing the beauty of the models. Someone should make a HD texture pack though, as the textures aren’t as good as they could be. It’s a different style that reflects the new made-up world and the plague-ridden city of Dunwall.

This is the Dunwall Tower, where the Empress was murdered and which now is the home of the Lord Regent…your worst enemy.

The voice acting in Dishonored is very good and the actors have really gotten the feel of the plague ridden nightmare. The mumbling guards can be a bit annoying at times and it’s clear they are there just to warn the player to watch out for the big bad guards. The music is very good as well and fits very well in the scenario of the game. The violin part that plays when coming into a new area is especially nice.



It's clear that Arkade Studios has put a lot of time and effort into Dishonored and it's great gameplay, awesome audio and beautiful graphics are definitely worth

9/10

[Vaðarholmr]

Added to ye directory

[Mhaedros]

Thanks

[Asgaroth]

Very nice review and a very nice game.

[VeteranGKH]

nice review

[Mhaedros]

Dishonored: Knife of Dunwall

Dishonored: Knife of Dunwall

The first real DLC for the popular 2012 game Dishonored is called The Knife of Dunwall. This time you are playing Daud, the master assassin and mercenary who killed Empress Jessamine Kaldwin and blamed Corvo Attano for her murder (which was basically the plot for Dishonored). Daud is the fearsome leader of a group of assassins, personally trained by him and with whom he has shared his dark magic powers. Daud got these magic powers from the Outsider, the same god-like creature who is helping Corvo in his quest for revenge.

There are three missions, two in completely new districts in Dunwall, and one in a familiar place. All three offer a variety of choices, side missions and last but not least exploration. Knife of Dunwall offers about 3-5 hours of gameplay, but after playing through it 3 times there are still places I haven't discovered and ways to get into and around in a building I'd never have dreamed of.

The story that is told in The Knife of Dunwall is parallel with the main storyline in Dishonored. As you sneak by the guards of Dunwall you might hear them speaking about the Pendelton twins being murdered, or see a wanted poster for Corvo Attano.

Gameplay

Gameplay has not been changed a lot from the original Dishonored, except for the removal/change of some abilities and the addition of some new weapons and enemies. Daud is one of the Outsider’s chosen, which means he can trade whalebone runes for new abilities and traits. These can vary from abilities like blinking, which transports Daud to a position of his choosing and Summon Assassin, which, and this is a no-brainer, summons an assassin, to a trait which makes your movement faster or one which turns your enemies into dust as they die. Most of these are the same as in the original game, but Daud’s special powers are somewhat more refined and useful that Corvo’s ever were. For example, when Daud is preparing to perform a blink transportation, time stops. This is immensely useful if you want to peer round a corner, jump from a roof to see how many enemies are underneath or just play around with different weapon and power combinations to perform the coolest assassinations you can think of. There is a huge amount of ways to go about finishing quests. In the first mission, I’ve found at least 3 or 4 ways of getting into the main building, and I’m quite sure there are things I have missed.

What would PETA make of this, if they disapprove of whaling in the upcoming AC4?

Daud not only has more powerful abilities than Corvo, but his weapons and gear is also in better shape. Instead of a large clumsy crossbow, Daud wields a wristbow, which works exactly the same, only better hidden. He also has completely new weapons to play around with. Chokedust grenades will cause a non-lethal cloud of smoke, which allows Daud to blink nearby the affected enemy and either kill him undisturbed, or choke him from behind. (Tips: I’ve found that chokedust grenades are the best way to deal with Overseers with music boxes, especially if you’re going for a non-lethal playthrough.) Apart from the grenades Daud also has access to an arc mine, which is like an arc pylon, only really small and plantable wherever you wish. It works exactly like Corvo’s spring razors, you place them either on the enemy or on the floor or a wall where enemies will pass by. When that annoying butcher wearing a huge motorsaw, or the Overseer with a music box triggers it an electric shock will be discharged and the hugely overpowered enemy will be reduced to an ashpile. The arc mine can be upgraded to a non-lethal version, which only knocks the enemy out, allowing you to pick him up and hide him where you see fit.

Storyline

Daud, the fearsome leader of a group of assassins hasn’t been the same after killing Empress Jessamine Kaldwin. Directly after killing her Daud got contacted by the Outsider, who had not been watching him for a long time. He talked with Daud and revealed the name Delilah. But who or what is Delilah? Daud’s best apprentice, a woman named Billie Lurk, finds a whaling ship called Delilah. Daud and Lurk go to the Rothwild Slaughterhouse to talk to the owner of the whaler, Bundry Rothwild. Who was Delilah, after whom the whaling ship was named and why does the Outsider want Daud to find her?

Mr Rothwild in his slaughterhouse. Beautiful to behold, no?

Depending on how you play the game, you have a chance of two different endings. I won’t go further into detail, but with low chaos you will be given a choice you otherwise won’t. I think the ending was rather beautiful, but also very sad. I understand that there will be a follow-up DLC called The Brigmore Witches, which will end the story that begun in The Knife of Dunwall.

I wonder what they were thinking when they named a woman Billie. Also, how come this is the first time we see a black person in Dunwall?


The DLC is a worthy follower of Dishonored and deserves 8.5/10. If you played and liked Dishonored you need this expansion. It's mandatory.