My problems with Dishonored- a bit of constructive criticism.

[The_Lost_King]

Combat vs Stealth: The game gives you a TON of fun, lethal toys...and every time you even think about using one, it slaps your hand away and makes you sit in the corner with a dunce hat. Even though the game claims to cater to both playstyles (run-'n-gun and ghost), it really doesn't. This is especially apparent in the endings, where there is the 'good' ending for stealth and 'you suck' ending for...not stealth. Sure, you can only kill the few people who really deserve it and still make out with the good ending, but it just doesn't sit right with me. But seriously. You have like twenty weapons/lethal powers...but if you want the good ending, you'll be stuck with only sleeping darts (arrows?) and choking people out. Woo. Fun. Corvo's arsenal makes it seem as though you should be fighting your way through the stages, but the game punishes you for that. No vital information for you! Or more equipment. Or the good ending. Oh, running low on coins because you needed health potions 'cause you weren't sneaking around? Have some more guards! But go stealth? You'll have about ten times more items and money than you'll ever need because you never use anything but Blink, Possession, and Sleep Darts/Arrows. And there are less guards running around, so stealth becomes even easier as you go on.

It is not a worse, "You suck ending." it is a different, Darker ending. While the good ending makes you feel good because of the praise you get for restraining yourself but the dark ending is epic and what you would expect after bathing in enemies blood.

Also I did stealth non-lethal first and I didn't notice there being much more guards, there were definitely more weepers but the only time I noticed more guards it that there were more tall boys outside a certain target's place.

 

[Ix Rebound]

That's why I'm hoping for a sequel that will hopefully expand to an open world.

I don't think they would be able to make a sequel, the endings cut off all loose ends and due to the whole "good" and "bad" conclusions they would have a hard to continue it

Not really, Fallout frequently tells people their ending is wrong and no one seems to care.

good point

 

[Dfskelleton]

While I enjoy the game, my problem is that the game gives you all of these fun, unique ways to kill your targets... and then slaps you and yells "YOU EVIL BASTARD!" if you use any of them. In Thief (a game that comes up a lot when I think of Dishonored), the nonlethal options were always emphasized, partially by the fact that you had nothing but some plain arrows and a gimpy sword to defend yourself with, but mainly by the game itself; you play as a Thief, not a killer. You're not there to kill some high ranking official or political enemy, you're there to take all the goods and money you can pocket and get out undetected.

In Dishonored, you're a highly trained assasin with mystical powers, and despite the fact that it's your freaking job to kill people, you're deducted points for doing it. Hell, the tagline of the game is "Revenge solves everything". It never says "Knocking people unconscious and stuffing them in a dumpster solves everything".
It's like handing someone a delicious carton of chocolate milk and saying "Drink up!", and as soon as they finish drinking it, you yell "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

 

[Smeggs]

My problem was the main gameplay. It was good, but, honestly...

Nonlethal vs. Lethal: It's obvious they favor lethal attacks in this game, which comes at no surprise seeing as how it is based around what is meant to be a master assassin. However, the nonlethal actions leave a lot to be desired, and I mean A LOT.

There are only two nonlethal forms of attack (unless I somehow spent hours upon hours without figuring out some secret method of fighting) which would be Sleep Darts and choking people out. What I wanted to know in the first half hour of the game was why there was no melee attacking for non-lethal? Or a parry for non-lethal? I'm a master assassin, don't I know how to use my bare hands to overcome enemies? It seems completely idiotic that we can't knock someone out by sidestepping them or blocking their attack and slugging them in the jaw. Instead, a parry is instant death all the time, and you have nothing but your sword for melee.

Sleep darts have to be one of the most boring things in the world to use. Sleep Darts just make them swoon and fall over. For nonlethal spells we've got the Freeze Time, Possession, Dark Sight, and Blink abilities. Possession absolutely sucks on humans, the timer is far too short to actually be effective for anything but quickly walking through Walls of Light, and even then there's always an alternative route through the shadows you can take that is usually safer and has less chance of getting you spotted. Also, the fact you die if the thing you possess dies makes it completely useless for attacking. I thought I was being super sneaky sticking a razor trap on a rat, then possessing it and running at the enemy. Nope-Dead.

Meanwhile, over here in lethal land, we have incendiary bolts, crossbow bolts, razor traps, grenades, sword, gun, Devouring Swarm, Wind Blast (Level 2 seems to make it incredibly lethal), thrown Whale Oil Tanks, the Adrenaline skill, and Shadow Kill. They make the lethal route far more amusing and varied.

And unconscious people can die too easily. I had to restart a mission because one guy I was carrying I dropped about four feet to the ground from a ledge; cracked his damn skull open. Left an unconscious guy IN THE ROOM I KNOCKED HIM OUT IN, sweep by there later and discover he's been eaten by damned rats. Had to reload an autosave from nearly twenty minutes prior.

AND YET, this game is obviously meant to be stretched out via stealth. I don't get that, if you're a person who wants to go gung-ho with full lethal, you could easily slaughter your way through this game in a matter of a few hours. I honestly went back and started a new one using lethal just to guage my time; Overseer Campbell was dead in under five minutes, as opposed to my stealthy non-lethal approach which was about twenty minutes, at the least. So, wouldn't you want to make the non-lethal, more difficult to accomplish method a bit more interesting?

 

[Erastes]

Well I'm loving it so far - although what kind of self respecting assassin goes around without a bloody map? I'm NOT 16 years old and I don't have the memory of Sheldon Cooper and frankly a bit of paper with a scrawled route around the place would be very blooming handy.

I haven't noticed the shortness, as I'm still carrying around an unconscious man looking for "somewhere safe to put him" (and failing miserably) but if it is short, then that's a great shame. I only hope they expand the world and the size of the game next time because even though I'm sucking at it, as usual, I would definitely buy the sequel.

 

[Kellogs Fried Chickn]

*bawk!*

We could call this "The Outsider Series". Imagine if the sequel talked about another character in the same universe given powers by The Outsider.

I understand his general role in the story and telling but see him more of a band aid and justifying the blink mechanics, but find him lacking as a binding element. I'd have to support the setting and mechanics to be central to the series, not an element of the story.

I did not manage to start the Golden Cat mission before having to return the game, so if something significant happened with him don't spoil the specifics.

 

[Catfood220]

There are only two nonlethal forms of attack (unless I somehow spent hours upon hours without figuring out some secret method of fighting) which would be Sleep Darts and choking people out. What I wanted to know in the first half hour of the game was why there was no melee attacking for non-lethal? Or a parry for non-lethal? I'm a master assassin, don't I know how to use my bare hands to overcome enemies? It seems completely idiotic that we can't knock someone out by sidestepping them or blocking their attack and slugging them in the jaw. Instead, a parry is instant death all the time, and you have nothing but your sword for melee.

Yeah, I was thinking this last night, I don't mind stealthing it up, in fact thats why I brought the game. But I notice that if I alert the guards. I have 3 options, sleep darts, killing them or reloading the last auto save. It bugs me that I cannot take out an opponent face to face in a nonlethal combat way.

Also, does anyone else think that Arcane were hoping that "...you're such a choffer" would be this years "...arrow to the knee"?

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

I've enjoyed the game so far, but definitely agree with the criticism that lethal and non-lethal gameplay options are wildly unbalanced.

I was also annoyed to find out at the end of the first assassination mission that killing dogs counts against the no-deaths achievement.

 

[kyogen]

Also, does anyone else think that Arcane were hoping that "...you're such a choffer" would be this years "...arrow to the knee"?

Nothing so ambitious. I think it was just a fond reference to the Thief series' "taffer" insult. Dishonored even quotes the tutorial level of Thief: The Dark Project/Thief Gold verbatim at one point, and one of Thief's major developers, Terri Brosius, has a writing credit on Dishonored.