Dishonored review: Story-driven role-playing
The challenge for a developer creating a role-playing game is to build a bond with the player, the kind of bond where the player as protagonist not only believes in the mission of his alter ego, but cares about the characters in the game on an emotional level. The story is the essence of any good RPG, and the developer must allow the player to feel the character’s anger, frustration, joy or any of the myriad emotions through that story. A great RPG builds a trust with the player and demands that role-playing be the game.And for that reason, Arkane Studios’ Dishonored is a great RPG. My emotions drove my style of game play as the bodyguard Corvo, falsely accused of killing a beloved Empress and my friend. I started with the mindset that clearing my name was secondary to finding those that killed her and kidnapped her daughter, the future monarch that I had watched grow up in my time as their bodyguard. I began play in a non-lethal fashion, fully unaware that what I was about to experience went well beyond the traditional point-and-click RPGs.DishonoredMany RPGs rely on an arbitrary experience point system to get you skills that are eventually theory-crafted to death to create the best build to take down the big bad boss at the end. Dishonored is quite content to let you play without any powers or modified gear. I could have conceivably finished the game using stealth and my wits and be no stronger than when I started. You do not start the game with powers, as the Outsider comes early in the game to bestow the ability to learn them. To gain these supernatural powers, you must find runes, with a certain number of runes required to “buy” a power. Perhaps the most useful is blink, which allows you to teleport a short distance in any direction. Why kill 10 enemies when you can blink up to a ledge and go around them? Bone charms can also be found, which give you minor abilities such as increased mana or health. You can even upgrade your gear at the end of a mission if you find enough money along the way.This is one of Dishonored main strengths. The concept of abilities and game mechanics do not get in the way of the story or experience. Items you find along the way — health potions, crossbow bolts, or even coins — are essentially a bonus that makes any given mission easier to complete. You do not need any of them. What you do need is a creativity and a cleverness to circumvent the obstacles thrown at you and Dishonored gives you numerous ways to do that if you are patient enough to find them. Even listening to the idle banter of guards or the locals can give you clues to accomplishing tasks.Make no mistake, though: Dishonored is an unforgiving game, and you need to save often. The AI is incredibly intelligent. Leaving a body in plain sight will alert other guards. Noises or even your footsteps can put guards in a greater state of awareness, forcing you to hide for a while until things settle down. Distraction and misdirection are your friend here and the sooner you get into that mentality, the easier a mission can be. The intelligence of the guards and the general populace makes for a much more believable RPG.A beautiful setting, with an ugly underside that needed cleansing.All of this ties back into the experience. At every turn, I found myself trying to elude discovery. At times I wasn’t successful, forcing myself to kill the city guard. I actually felt remorse in the beginning, because my goal was non-lethal. But as the story evolved, and the key pieces of the depth of Dunwall’s corruption became clearer, I could feel my anger rise. The non-lethal approach wasn’t as important anymore, and I was creating chaos wherever I went. I wanted my enemies to be afraid of me, and Dishonored plans for that. The more chaos I created, the more guards there were, and the more obstacles I had to overcome. About half-way through the story, I was leaving bodies everywhere, and I knew I was making things more difficult for myself, but I didn’t care. The story that Arkane has crafted
