Dishonored

 So here's that game everyone loves and praises. It shouldn't be a surprise to you that I will tell you Dishonored is a damn good game. In fact, I struggle to point out a single flaw in this game. You will find plenty of bloody action, endless opportunities to utilize stealth or brutal force, and to top it off a brilliantly polished engine with that trademark that just makes it so Bethesda.

Lord Pendleton and Admiral Havelock, your wonderful co-conspirators.

I must say after the first couple of hours playing this game, I could not stop. I rarely find myself with that unstoppable urge to carry on playing a game, sometimes I'll be enjoying a playthrough and still just quit. Either that, or I'll lose interest halfway through. With Dishonored I just continued to play, no thought of stopping. I got to the end and now I want a sequel. I really want a sequel. The rich steampunk universe and elegance of stealth tactics have so much potential for more.

Believe it or not, I didn't quite intend things to turn out this way.

The story is very generic, you're Corvo Attano, a bodyguard to the empress. He is framed for an assassination and you gotta take control and murder some bastard for it. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of bastards stand in your way to get to the other bastard, so you got to get some shit done before you can get him. Oh, and save the endearing Emily, a rather impressionable child kidnapped during the assassination. Despite this dull plot and lack of imagination, you wouldn't believe how easy it is to get captured by the story. It is gripping, enjoyable, and you want to help out our handsome protagonist in heaps of trouble. You can play the game without killing a single person, but with the grievous injustices dealt to your character, it can be a struggle to let them live.

Yeah, it's a heart.

Combat is very basic, and if you run through each level slashing left and right you won't enjoy Dishonored. You will only find that an effective strategy on normal difficulty. No, the appreciation for this game is in the preparation for battle. Instead of jumping into the fray with ten guards who will most likely force you to spam health potions, you sneak around the outskirts, picking off a couple of enemies who are near to alarms or blocking a good escape route. Then you place a few shrapnel bombs to lure enemies into. Finally, you start picking off targets. Eventually you'll find yourself in a position to fight it out if you get spotted.

This is before your life gets flipped upside down.

To complement Corvo and his hardened skill in battle, he also happens to attain powers of the plague. You learn this ability from a man who can be called nothing other than ratman, and hence I call them rat powers. Your rat powers add an RPG element to the game, by finding runes and bone charms you can complement your skillset with numerous upgrades. Some of them are really cool, summoning rats to distract and thin out the pack of enemies, or a blast to kill opponents and blow down doors. Others are just plain useful, such as sight to see through walls or a teleport to get around the urban areas.

The scope is pretty useful sometimes, just for really long ranged shots.

Dishonored is one of those games that prides itself in giving you every chance to play it your own way. You can blast your way through every enemy, causing a ruckus and leaving bloody body parts behind you. Or you can sweep through each area a whisper, sneaking past the guards and occasionally knocking one out if you have no other option. Most people choose a mix of both. Once an unlucky guard notices you crouching behind a barrel twiddling your thumbs, it's unbelievably hard to restrain yourself and not plant a sword in his face and every other sucker nearby.

I would strongly recommend anyone and everyone purchase this game at their earliest convenience. It is a brilliant production by Bethesda, and I am incredibly disappointed that in my local game store this game is second in the charts to football manager. If Dishonored achieves a sequel, it has the potential to be a benchmark game, akin to that of legends like Half life or Warcraft.