Dishonored is 5 years old (spoilers)

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,817
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So I just finished playing the original Dishonored for the first time and I really enjoyed it. I played the two DLCs straight after the main game and they integrated well into the story. I used a constant locked 60FPS at 4K with max details on my GTX1070, and the soft “painting” graphics provided very nice immersion.

Dishonored.jpg

I played a stealthy killer against combatants to attain maximum body count. The blink + stab combo never got tiring and worked 95% of the time. For the other rare times I used crossbow sniping headshots or grenades. In Brigmore Manor there was a place where four witches refused to separate so I lobbed a grenade right into them.

I knocked out non-combatants where necessary as it didn’t seem right for a badass void assassin to be killing unarmed kitchen maids. For a future play-through I’ll try a mostly knock-out run to get the low chaos path.

I really liked how the levels had heaps to explore and the game rewarded you for checking every nook & cranny.

I expected a betrayal in the main game as I never trusted Pendelton, but I thought it would happen earlier when he gave me the message to deliver at the Boyle party. The resulting pistol duel is one of the most original unexpected side-quests I’ve seen. I blinked up to the guy and shot him right in the face.

The game clearly drew some inspiration from Half-Life 2 (e.g. quarantine wall barriers) and Jedi Knight 2 (“You ever feel like you’re being watched?”). I also consider Thief 2014 to be a sister game to Dishonored as they’re extremely similar.

I look forward to picking up Dishonored 2 when it’s a cheap Game of the Year edition.
 
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BSim500

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2013
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So I just finished playing the original Dishonored for the first time and I really enjoyed it...

I really liked how the levels had heaps to explore and the game rewarded you for checking every nook & cranny...

The game clearly drew some inspiration from Half-Life 2 (e.g. quarantine wall barriers) and Jedi Knight 2 (“You ever feel like you’re being watched?”). I also consider Thief 2014 to be a sister game to Dishonored as they’re extremely similar.
Dishonored is indeed a great game. It's "Thief" inspiration comes far more though from the developers being huge fans and even designers of the earlier Looking Glass Studio's Thief 1-2 than Thief 2014. After LGS folded, a lot of very talented Thief 1-2 people went on to other studios. Eg, Dishonored designer Harvey Smith worked on System Shock then went on to Deus Ex (as did Warren Spector). Ken Levine (Thief 1) went on to create the Bioshocks, etc. Did you spot the Thief 1 Training Mission Easter Egg in Dishonored? It was there because some of the devs who worked on Dishonored were former LGS, hence the strong "Thief 1-2" feel with stuff like the open-level ability to backtrack most levels almost to the start being very different to Thief 2014's unfortunate "checkpoints of no return" dumbing down, etc.

Overall I'd say Dishonored was a huge success because it was Thief-like without trying too hard to be Thief 4. OTOH, Thief 4 tried too hard to be everything, was drowned in development hell (long delays caused by the split between maintaining old-school hardcore stealth vs dumbed down "Get 4 headshots!" objectives ending in the lead dev quitting). In the end Dishonored was loosely "inspired" by Thief 1-2, but Thief 2014 was just a blatant 99% rip off of Dishonored (The Gloom = The Plague, Gloomers = Weepers, Queen of Beggars = Granny Rags, Madam Xiao-Xiao = Madame Prudence, House of Blossoms = Golden Cat, Baron = Lord Regent, Swoop = Blink, Focus = Dark Vision, etc), with the entire Thief franchise's long-term core lore (Keepers vs Hammers vs Pagans, etc) stripped out and replaced with "Batman" like super-human capabilities which the real Thief games were never about. Hence why a lot of us "old school" Thief 1-2 "Taffers" love Dishonored, but positively hate the "stupefied" feel of the Thief 4 "official sequel".
 

Borealis7

Platinum Member
Oct 19, 2006
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I remember when it came out, it was completely out of the blue for me, since i haven't heard of it before it was released. I thought to myself how unlike Bethesda this game is. it's nothing like Fallout, and it's not Elder Scrolls, so what the hell is going on?
I played it in 2015 and really enjoyed it since it was pretty much laid back, and gave you time to plan and try things. but now i look at Dishonored 2's videos...and i'm a bit apprehensive about playing it. it looks far more complicated than the first one and at my age (33) i'm not sure i'd enjoy this kind of fast paced action anymore.
 

WhiteNoise

Golden Member
Jun 22, 2016
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Dishonored was a fantastic game. I actually finished that one which is saying something. I really want to play Dishonored 2 now that it has been patched up and is running great for many people. I'm just going to wait for a good sale at this point. Not sure if it is still $40 on steam or not. I'd pay $40. i suppose I should check tonight.
 

EXCellR8

Diamond Member
Sep 1, 2010
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Both games were great, though the first took a couple of runs to grow on me.

I was fortunate enough to have very little trouble running the sequel and I thought it was great. Little on the short side but you can easily make it last if you're the completionist type. I am about 70% through my second play through as Corvo. High chaos is undeniably fun but you can definitely go at your own pace and be a pacifist mute.
 

pauldun170

Diamond Member
Sep 26, 2011
9,133
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Dishonored was the first game I replayed in years when I dusted it off just prior to the Dishonored 2 release.
I'm on my 4th play through on Dishonored 2 and have been on the beta since introduced.
First played as Emily (Less murdery), then Corvo (more murdery)
Then they released the patch that allowed you to keep your runes from previous playthroughs on new games.
Replayed Emily with a ton of powers right out the gate (Finally got the good ending after choking out and sneaking past anything that breathes)
My last playthrough now is as Corvo checking out all the powers I neglected.

Great game
 

EXCellR8

Diamond Member
Sep 1, 2010
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I really dug Karnaca as the setting, especially since the first game is set entirely in Dunwall (aside from the final island level).

The lore of the Isles is interesting though and I hope more of it becomes developed in future releases.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,817
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Did you spot the Thief 1 Training Mission Easter Egg in Dishonored? It was there because some of the devs who worked on Dishonored were former LGS, hence the strong "Thief 1-2" feel with stuff like the open-level ability to backtrack most levels almost to the start being very different to Thief 2014's unfortunate "checkpoints of no return" dumbing down, etc.
Yes, it was in Daud's base.

As for Thief 4, it was my second favorite Thief game behind the third game, which was my favorite. That's one of the reasons why I really liked Dishonored.