DISHONORED Review: Welcome To Dunwall

Genre : FPS
Developer : Arkane Studios
Publisher : Bethesda Softworks
Platform : PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Web : www.dishonored.com

Revenge, Whale oil and Magic

Everything is here.. Magic, weapons, a dark atmosphere, plague, robots, assassins, rebels, rats, zombies... If you tried to develop a game which contains all this content, probably it would be a silly game. But Arkane Studios overcome all this situation and they succeed to bring together all these concepts. Actually Dishonored is like a mixture of Half-Life, BioShock and The Thief.

Our hero is Corvo. He is a faithful bodyguard to Empress Jessamine. Everybody loves Corvo. He does his best when he is given a job and he is known as one of the most faithful servants of Dunwall.

But one day when Corvo goes to visit Empress, a few assasins come out and kill the Empress and then they disappear immediately. And yes, people think you are the one who killed the Empress. So Corvo goes to the jail and waits for his execution day. That day comes, Corvo is executed and game ends here. Thanks for reading. See you soon...

No, of course not. This is the point that we are taking control of Corvo. While he is waiting in the jail hopelessly, he finds a note and a key inside his meal. After reading this note, Corvo knows how to escape the jail. His trip to find the writer of this note begins here.

Everything is normal until there. But the next day, he travels to a strange world in his dream and the guy, "Outsider", who brings Corvo to this strange world, gives Corvo his magical powers. So Corvo uses these powers to prove his innocence and to save his honor.

Dunwall is a big city and Samuel will take us to the starting points of missions by his boat.

To kill or not to kill

Dishonored is a game that is divided into parts and every part of the game presents you big areas. In these parts you can travel to another areas and complete side missions.
There are 2 ways to complete missions: Killing or not killing. You can complete Dishonored without killing anybody. The choice is yours. But remember, everything you do will bring some consequences. If you choose killing everybody and complete the game this way, you will see a darker end. But If you kill as little as possible, you will see a better end. It's up to you.

Corvo doesn't have enough powers, weapons and ammo. That's why you have to use your stealth skill at the beginning. If you don't want 5 guards to come and try to kill you, you must avoid of being seen. Just pass them silently and hunt them quietly. In the next levels, your enemies will gain power as well as you do. They will use their pistols besides their swords and there will be robots which have rocket launchers. At this point, you will understand the importance of stealth. So be careful. Don't worry, If you use the heart that Outsider gave you to find the runes and charms around the map, you will be still more powerful than your enemies.

Using grenades is very effective against multiple enemies.

How would you like a revenge?

AI(Artificial Intelligence) is not bad. If an enemy sees you, you will see the lightnings on his head. If you still keep standing on him, lightnings will go red and he will come quickly to find you.

There are some ways to escape from your enemies. One of them is getting lost, but how can you do that? For example you can use your Blink skill and teleport yourself to the roof or somewhere. If you do that successfully they will lose you. Another way is using Possession skill. If there is an animal nearby, use possession skill to enter its body and escape. Or you can use your sleeping darts. But let me remind you, there aren't so much sleeping darts in the game.

Completing missions by killing your enemies is easier and more fun. Corvo carries his sword on his right hand and on the other hand he has his weapons and magical powers. When you push the middle mouse button, a selection screen comes out and you can choose weapons or powers in here. In this point Dishonored really reminds me BioShock. You can use your weapons with one hand and special powers with other hand like we did in BioShock. Using your sword is more effective than weapons. Guarding yourself with sword will be an advantage for you. You can guard yourself against enemy swords and weapons. If your timing is well on guarding, you can kill enemy with just one swing.

Let's talk about weapons. You have pistol and crossbow as weapons and these are very effective to kill your enemies too. Especially a pistol that is fired from a close range can kill an enemy with just a single shot. Also your magical powers can be used to kill enemies. Windblast and Devouring Swarm are very effective to do that. Using special powers together is very important to enjoy the game more. Of course you can just blow your enemy's head off and continue but using different ways to do that is more fun.

If you think stealth is more important, you can use Dark Vision power to locate your enemies. Another way is using Possession power. At high levels of this power, you can take control of an enemy's body. So there are lots of ways to get rid of them.

This is Corvo's power wheel where you can access your powers and weapons.

Outsider's way

Corvo needs to gain powers to survive. But you can't do that by killing your enemies. You have to use the heart that was given to you by Outsider to find hidden charms and runes. You need runes to to improve your skills. Usually you need two or three runes to gain a power.

There are 4 passive powers in Dishonored. Agility, Vitality, Shadow Kill and Blood Thirsty. Agility allows Corvo to jump twice, so he is able to reach high places without using his Blink power. At the second level of Agility power, he runs and walks faster. You can use runes for Vitality power to have more health points and heal faster. Or you can use runes for Shadow Kill to turn the enemies to ashes that you killed. These three powers are ideal for players who use stealth skills. But If you want to be Rambo, Blood Thirsty serves you well. By using this power, Corvo can kill his enemies violently by a single swing.

Bone Charms are also important as your powers and you can find them all around Dunwall. But finding them is not easy. You have to use the heart often to find them. Corvo is able to equip up to six Bone Charms at the same time. These charms give Corvo skills like climbing faster, more mana for your power, getting less damage from Weepers and some more.

Getting ammo from enemies that you killed is not always possible. You can find ammos stored in chests and cabinets. Also you can buy ammo from arm dealers.

Actually ammo is not really important if you use stealth. But If you kill everything that moves like me, you will need ammo. Arm dealers are not only good for purchasing ammo, they also upgrade your weapons. Of course if you pay for it. They can upgrade your weapons' ammo capacity, reloading time and accuracy.

Money that you need to purchase all these upgrades is called "coin" in Dishonored. You need to search everywhere to find coins and valuable things. Gamers who don't search city for coins will have empty pockets, that's for sure.

Windblast power may be good choice to kill enemies.

Different ways, different endings

As I told you before, game has big areas and you can complete missions in different ways. Let's say you have to reach a place called "B" from a place called "A". Maybe you can choose going on ground level and kill everybody. But maybe other gamer choose sewers to move on and face Weepers. Also another gamer may choose moving on the roof by using Blink and Agility powers without being seen. So it's up to you.

When you sneak behind your enemy, there are some options. You can knock him down, steal his loot or kill him. All these options and ways to complete missions are the most important factors that make Dishonored successful. For example you are wanted to eliminate an enemy in a mission. There are 3 ways to do this.

You can put poison to his drink, you can knock him down and take him to the query room or you can kill him. The choice is completely yours. These options prevent you to get bored.

Dishonored uses Unreal Engine 3 and graphics are very successful. Don't expect to see a revolution on graphics but models, lighting effects and details have satisfied me. Graphics are good on consoles too but not as good as PC version.

I think Dishonored is one of the best game of the year. Maybe you won't play it as long as Call of Duty, Battlefield or Borderlands but I'm sure you will want to play it again on another difficulty level after you finish. Don't think and just play this one of the most successful game of the year. You won't regret, I promise.


Positive :

• Quality scenario
• Quality graphics
• Game atmosphere
• Quality game!!

Negative :

• Actually I couldn't find something negative but I think the game is not so original. Nothing seems original in the game.

SCORE : 9,1/10