(Playing) Dishonored
I’m making a couple simple social media changes for Bombadeer, and one of them is to blend my old ‘What is Bombadeer Playing’ tumblr with my normal news one. Let’s just simplify things and have some fun, eh?
So, I’m one of those folks who likes to wait for games to come on sale before I buy them. It’s not that I always need to, I just don’t mind waiting. Unless Valve or Bethesda made it. Then I’m taking time off on release day!
One of the many grabs I got this past holiday steam sale was Dishonored, and I’m currently on my second playthrough. As Dark Messiah of Might & Magic was one of my all-time favorites, it comes as no surprise that I immediately took to this one and have loved every minute of it.
Preferred playstyle has been sneaky - first playthrough wound up being mostly stealth with only occasional murder, second is focused on excessive murder with occasional stealth, toying with some of the different powers. Given my somewhat neurotic insistence on completely cleaning every level of every living soul, the first run for me was pretty much ‘choking people out and dragging them into closets, the game!’.
The enemies awareness is a little disappointingly simplistic...it’s far too easy to evade their notice, but as most of the game takes place during broad daylight I guess I can’t complain too much. And yes, I have the difficulty set higher, I just would love more comprehensive sneakery, less ‘one shot and you’re dead’. Still, if I find the energy I’d love to run through it one final time to try for the ‘never seen’ and ‘don’t kill anyone’ achievements.
The audio is fantastic. Satisfying, crunchy sound design with well-performed vocals, and I’m a particular fan of all the interesting ways they used what sounds like a beat up piano for audio cues.
I could ramble on about the story (satisfying, though somewhat cliche), or the highly intriguing world-building (it’s not often we get such a unique new universe to play in. So many questions!), but I’ll keep things short for today. Particularly as it’s lunch time and I’ve got more corrupt government officials to tear up.
-Liz