Dishonored

The mark of a good game? Simple - shutting down the computer at five in the morning. I like Dishonored very much, and there are only minor quibbles. You should try it. Spoilers abound.

The Dickensian aspect

You play Corvo, a supernatural assassin, in this first person stealth game/ shooter. Your playground is the city of Dunwall: Imagine two-thirds Victorian London and one third Blitz era London, add a large spoon of leper colony and garnish with steampunk walkers. Corvo is in service of a conspiracy hunting the conspirators who killed the Empress, so that they can be brought to justice or crown the Empress' daughter, as the case may be. There is also a plague, the whale oil powering the trains and walkers is running out, and premonitions of capital-D-doom are everywhere.  If you think this will end well, you are as naive as Corvo, a professional assassin who will suck down any drink handed to him.

The city of Dunwall is a delight to explore. While this is not a sandbox game, the single missions take place in sprawling levels which make the most of Corvo's ability to jump nearly everywhere, and every bit of location oozes atmosphere. The missions function as a kind of Gin Lane for single aspects of an imperial metropolis in final decay. So one of the first missions leads you into a large, bureaucratic institution, a nice mix between the Vatican and the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. The artwork is spot on, as in all levels, creating a strong quasi-Victorian flair, with lots of brilliant details bringing the world to life, although every household seems to have the same two-by-four meter oil painting of the regent. As this is a stealth game, you get to eavesdrop and watch little scenes playing out between religious fanatics, and after you ganked them, you get to read their correspondence. Leaving the level, you have been the witness to some splendid world building, and each of the "topic" levels enforces this effect - at the end, I really thought I "knew" the society of Dunwall. There are lots of tantalizing hints about why Dunwall is in dire straits, although these are not expressly explored, and their moral (The Empire kills magic whales to power their war machines) is quite heavy handed. Regrettably, the grand finale of the game does not use this foundation, leaving you in an impressive location that, regrettably, seems quite divorced from Dunwall.

I think this is the greatest strength of Dishonored - Dunwall sure leaves an impression, on par with Rapture, and that is saying something.

The story itself is not that strong, with a big honking twist visible even behind the horizon.

Now you see me, now you don't

Dishonored is a stealth game, and normally I am not great fan of those, especially if you instafail a mission if a single guard notices you. If a stealth game is unforgiving, I unforgive right back. The stealth-aspect is very strong here, but there are always many different approaches available to you. This is not only true for the possible ways to reach a target, but also for the level of violence you want to employ. The levels are riddled with rooftops, canals and secret approaches: The careful examination a plaza from a rooftop may uncover surprising ways to get into the arch overseer's office, and all the while you get to listen to small dialogues, and the insidious artwork drips into you brain...And even if you fail the stealth, you can mostly fight your way free. A mission might become more challenging after an alarm, but if you really hate nosy guards, there is nothing here to keep you from slaughtering them all.

And there are many many ways of slaughter. Dishonored is basically like Bioshock, in that you have various weapons and powers, but here truly all powers have their uses in that you can build your style of play around them. If you liked the mechanics of Bioshock, you will feel right at home. You even heal by gulping down food, like potted whale meat  The weapons and magic powers (not gained from gene-tonics, but awarded by the benevolent Prince of Darkness, who has taken a liking to Corvo) are steeped black magic or steampunk, and although I have a bit of a dislike for this genre, playing around with the various tools handed to you is great fun.

Consequences, schmonsequences

And there is a moral choice system. There are two endings based on how much of the Dunwall police force you cut to ribbons. One is all sweetness and light (hard to believe in a city that just lost a third of its population to the plague), the other is rather dark, and, concerning the endings, there is nothing in between. This is a bit weak. But the missions also change a bit with regard to your previous exploits. If you kill with gay abandon, the street with fill with voracious rat swarms, aggressive plague victims (basically zombies) will be everywhere and City Watch will step up security. This not only changes the tone of the game, but also adapts  the missions to your play style. An aggressive player will have that much more enemies to play with, while a stealthy player can go for a playthrough without a single character killed (although this defeats the purpose in my opinion, I mean, you get all these nice toys, and you can stick a razor wire mine to a guy while you stopped time, so that he explodes into bloody chunks when time starts up again and you are twenty feet off on a rooftop, scratching your chin and going hmmm...why would you want to miss out on that?). I like it it that even the weepers, the half-zombified victims of the plague, are integrated into the moral choice system. The game counts them as people, and if you want a happy Dunwall, then you should too.

Too short

this game is.

I really like Bioshock

Yes, I do.

Four and a half tins of Pratchett's Jellied Eels