This game has finally received some coverage after a blackout for most of its development cycle. Basically, Dishonored is a stealth game which has its roots in Thief and Deus Ex, but applies their logic to a more fast-paced game focused on assassination.

You play the role of Corvo, an assassin wrongly imprisoned for regicide, but freed by a mysterious organisation to let you take vengeance on the people who betrayed you. The setting is Dunwall, a late Victorian-inspired city under martial law, ravaged by disease and apparently focused on whaling (this is something all preview materials seem to focus on, so again: there be whales!), presented in an art style designed by Viktor Antonov (Half-Life 2). The game is mission-based and focuses on locales which can be approached from multiple directions, using different strategies - you may focus on stealth and the character's short-range teleportation ability; possess rats to sneak through narrow gaps in the walls; or, well, get to work with your small arsenal of deadly weapons.

So far, the most interesting pieces of game have been a rendered trailer, and very recently, two interviews with gameplay footage, and of course there is other coverage, such as this article from Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

I am very interested in this game, since even among the recent number of titles which build on Thief, SS2 and DX, this one has the special pedigree of having on board notable veterans of these games - among them Harvey Smith (who, granted, was partly responsible for the fucked up DX: Invisible War), but more promising to me, Anthony Huso (Purah) and Daniel Todd (Digital Nightfall), who had been among the most prominent members of the Thief fan mission community a decade ago.

Obviously, there are no guarantees the game will live up to its promises, but it seems to strike a good balance between commercial viability and the immersive sim concept, at least a more promising one than Bioshock Infinite. In any case, it is my most (okay, only) anticipated game this year.

Ooh... didn't realise Purah and Digital Nightfall were part of this project. That certainly bodes well, at least for level design, and has just made me more interested than I was.

That's our loss, too. Fortunately, Dishonored is bound to receive a 18+ rating, so you still have five years to reconsider your decision before you can play it.

gameplay sounds a bit bland but the setting is interestiong. Hopefully worthy of the pedigree.

Looks interesting though i bet dumbassed reviewers call it a clone of assassins creed even if it has little in common besides the stealthy stuff.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;546223Looks interesting though i bet dumbassed reviewers call it a clone of assassins creed even if it has little in common besides the stealthy stuff.

Yeah, doesn't look the same at all, to me. It actually looks more like an hybrid with some Bioshock in there, first person, with the left hand use of magic and guns and stuff, right hand for melee, and the action dial too.

Agreed but reviewers are a simpleminded lot and like to find comparisons to other games no matter how vague or tenuous they may prove so it's all but inevitable that some will watch the trailer and claim its a scifi/steampunk assassins creed and this will forever cloud the reviews they give for the game, also expect a few idiotic claims that it needs multiplayer or kinnect features to be any good as both are popular ways to rate a game down without actually doing a proper review lately.

Quote from: Melan;546191presented in an art style designed by Viktor Antonov (Half-Life 2).

Me gusta.

QuoteObviously, there are no guarantees the game will live up to its promises, but it seems to strike a good balance between commercial viability and the immersive sim concept

Hypermediacy will unfortunately never go away.

QuoteIn any case, it is my most (okay, only) anticipated game this year.

Not a Borderlands fan?

Also, how open were the Thief games?  I don't always mind linear-storytelling with a tiny bit of game in-between (Half-Life 2 comes to mind), but I prefer games that give the player more agency within the narrative (Vampire: Bloodlines) or focus on giving the player freedom of motion within the game.

IOW, do you think I should be expecting a better media experience (which is all the rage these days with games like CoD since consoles took over and the focus has been on creating more accessible titles) or a better game?

Quote from: Peregrin;546389Also, how open were the Thief games?  I don't always mind linear-storytelling with a tiny bit of game in-between (Half-Life 2 comes to mind), but I prefer games that give the player more agency within the narrative (Vampire: Bloodlines) or focus on giving the player freedom of motion within the game.

Shitloads. Specifically, the sequence of missions was fixed, but within any single mission you had a great deal of openness. Multiple physical approaches to everywhere, multiple ways of dealing with guards and other obstacles (sneak past, knock out, snipe/backstab/duel, blow up with explosives, etc.), possibilities greatly dependent on equipment loadout (douse torches with water arrows, reach high-up places with rope arrows, lay a silent carpet of moss on loud echoing surfaces).

Then the fan community started to make missions and took it all up to 11.

Cool stuff.  I like the balance in Deus Ex: HR between the needs of the narrative and decision-points/play approaches for the player, so what you're describing sounds good.

QuoteAlso, how open were the Thief games?

More than Chaos Theory, but less than Hitman.

This Dishonored seems cool. I hope its stealth gameplay ends up more on the sim/hardcore side (Thief, Hitman, Chaos Theory) than on the arcade/casual side (Assasins Creed, Metal Gear, etc).

I was the demo at E3; I'd call the art style more like Reformation (early 19th century French), with things perhaps a bit faded.

Dude was a bit of a killing machine in the game, but it did look like fun. I think the part where you psychically take over a fish and move your body next to it was a bit much, but every game is allowed a few odd quirks.

On those demos: a dev has confirmed they gave their E3 character every power for demonstration purposes. Someone who found all the money and hidden stuff in the game would still be only about 60% that powerful.

This is why we can't have nice things.

QuoteOne of the other games that's not Borderlands that has my head spinning is Arkane Studios open-ended stealthy dystopian steampunk adventure, Dishonored. In my own time with the game at Gamescom, I was tremendously impressed at the many, many, many options available to complete just a single mission. In the Lady Boyle mission, I found that that at least one solution was practically handed to you – something that surprised me. Turns out it was for a reason.

In playtesting, Arkane found that people just weren't all that able to go about finishing the mission using their own heads. without at least some sort of clue, people would just wander about aimlessly, hoping for the mission to complete itself.

"People would just walk around. They didn't know what to do. They didn't even go upstairs because a guard told them they couldn't. They'd say 'Okay, I can't go upstairs.' They wouldn't do anything," explained Arkane's Julien Roby to Games.On.net

As a result, you might find a few solutions pretty much handed to you on a silver platter – but fear not, those needn't be the best solution. Often, the least obvious route is the most rewarding, and there will still be numerous angles from which to tackle any given scenario.

"We try not to lead the player by the nose, but at some point we found that if we don't give a little information, people just get lost and don't know what to do. It's just overwhelming," he said. "So we tried to add this element that gave just a hint, to help a little. But we try to do it as little as possible."

As a case in point, while I loved every second I had with Dishonored at Gamescom, a friend from another publication hated it – because he just couldn't figure out what to do.

...

Quote"They didn't even go upstairs because a guard told them they couldn't. They'd say 'Okay, I can't go upstairs.' They wouldn't do anything"

I am so happy games finally cater to functionally brain dead vegetables. First, it is a heart-warming example of social justice. Second, it is more fun that way. Games should not be about frustrating, soul-grinding work, they should be about rewarding, fun gameplay that doesn't put stressful things like choices on gamers' shoulders. No-Sir, we are not all some kind of "nuclear physicists" who can decide it might be a good idea to go up some fucking stairs without some properly designed guidance telling us, "Corvo, that guard is a bad badguy! You can go up the stairs even if he tells you it is not allowed!" and then, stairs time! That is called game design, you outdated fossils - if my character is a supernatural badass assassin , I should be able to do cool shit like slit throats or become lots of rats or teleport around, not spend time figuring out things, like some fucking loser! Third, it proves once and for all that game journalism is even more conscious about social justice than we thought since they will employ people who have trouble making decisions like going up stairs or disobeying authority. Actually, we are also finding that latter feature makes them much more affordable when it comes to being paid (they are being paid in soda, pizza and games), so it's really all for the best.

I understand your desperation and, fortunately, there are many developers that can create different games thanks to platforms like Steam, for example