Dishonored

[crazyD]

Really. I thought this game was really good at rewarding you with side quests for exploring.

[Shieldmaiden]

I was impressed with the side quests, especially early on, but at a certain point it became pretty clear that the game had nothing new to offer. Other than one brief encounter with a couple of characters from earlier in the game, it was pretty much all downhill after the party. Playing the game was enjoyable enough in itself so it wasn't a chore, but I didn't feel like I had any awesome upgrades to strive for, or a burning desire to find out what was going to happen.

[crazyD]

Originally Posted by Superman's Dead

The ending changes based on the "chaos level" which is increased by killing people

Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

Right, but a different ending tailored to your playstyle isn't really a punishment, right? It's just different if you kill people or not, not worse. Well, I mean, better or worse is all subjective, and for all I know, the killing people ending will blow up your PC, but I don't consider a different ending punishment for not playing the game a certain way. I see it as a reward recognizing your play style.

[digitalErich]

Originally Posted by Spigot

I thought you could hot-key it... or is that just ammo?

Granted, I've played 3 hours and am just now getting to the pub. I've been reading all of the books, looking in every corner, knocking out every guard... This game is going to take me forever to beat at this rate

You can hotkey the selecting of a power, but not the power itself. Say I want to slow time and then blink across a gap; there's a minimum of four button presses when there when there could/should only be two.

It's a very small complaint in an otherwise solid game to be sure, but I know it would just be a much more smooth and enjoyable gameplay experience with it. Interrupting a cool chase or fight scene to select a new power is realm of RPGs. I want action in my action games, not selection wheels.

[crazyD]

I agree on the selection wheels. I barely touched my abilities outside of Blink, because switching on the fly as the situation demands is tricky. A more PC centric UI would have been nice.

[Shieldmaiden]

Even on the 360, I would have liked the d-pad shortcuts to be assigned to power activation, rather than just power selection, especially for darkvision.

[digitalErich]

Originally Posted by BigJonno

Even on the 360, I would have liked the d-pad shortcuts to be assigned to power activation, rather than just power selection, especially for darkvision.

Wat? You mean to tell me that the PC version got a dumbed-down console UI that is actually dumber than the consoles UI it was dumbed-down to?

[digitalErich]

Originally Posted by crazyD

I agree on the selection wheels. I barely touched my abilities outside of Blink, because switching on the fly as the situation demands is tricky. A more PC centric UI would have been nice.

I got by with hot-keying the three most action-y and just have to reach for possession and the heart. Still, having the hotkey as select and not activate sucks. I have to say that it did partly influence my decision to not buy rat swarm or wind blast.

I'm sure if I looked there're might be a .ini edit to get the controls to work the way I want. It's UE after all.

[Shieldmaiden]

Originally Posted by digitalErich

Wat? You mean to tell me that the PC version got a dumbed-down console UI that is actually dumber than the consoles UI it was dumbed-down to?

The PC version got a dumbed-down console UI that was already dumb on the console.

[Deadend]

All you need is time stop and lots of potions. I really wish there were more non-lethal options than choking a dude out or darts. And blowing people away to a lesser extent.

[GrrSnort]

I like pretending I'm a psychotic version of the Flash when I use time-stop. I'll go through an area, stop time, whip out the crossbow, headshot everyone, and before time resumes I'll stand in the middle of the room uncrouched looking away from the instantly dead folk.

[crazyD]

I did that as well, but with sleep darts, cause I am a better person than you.

[digitalErich]

I do like the little added touch of the Doppler Effect in that fraction of a second post Blink.

[GrrSnort]

Originally Posted by crazyD

I did that as well, but with sleep darts, cause I am a better person than you.

The aforementioned playthrough was the second. I tried to play it as like I would under the same circumstances the first time: Only kill in times of extreme duress and avoid killing to set a good example for Emily, as I knew she looked up to me. I didn't even kill the last person because I knew she was right around the corner from him.

[Joshkdmw]

Finished my high-chaos playthrough. Total body-count: 309. Many of these were hostile, not all however.

Highlight:

In the final courtyard in High-chaos, Martin and Pendleton are fighting with each other. I shot Martin with an incendiary bolt, then shot an explosive bullet into the wall next to pendleton's head. Killed them both dead. Good times.

[DoctorFinger]

Beat it today, and I have to say I'm... a little disappointed. I enjoyed it. I did. But the setting never really grabbed me the way I was expecting it to.

A few things.

- I played it on normal, and thought it was pretty damn easy. I wasn't trying for a no-kill/no-alarm, but even trying my best to be non-lethal I had very few problems. I spent a lot of runes early elevating Blink and Dark Vision, and everything seemed like cake after that. I got into very few actual fights since I was so stealthy. I lost more health to fish and those damn spitter pods than actual human enemies.

- It felt like Arkane fell into the same trap so many sci-fi/fantasy projects do: they spent all this time coming up with what may be a great setting, but they did too little with it.

- There were no real boss battles, unlike almost every other stealth game I can name. I..sort of like that. Games like Metal Gear and Deus Ex HR nudged you to be stealthy as much as possible, then pitted you against some monster at the end of each level where stealth counted for shit. Dishonored let you be stealthy all the time. I like that.

Like, is the Plague ever totally explained? I know the Regent started it as part of a greater scheme, but since I had a low chaos playthrough, it was just over? I wanted a little more on that aspect.

It had the potential to be the next Bioshock, but never quite reached those heights. I'd still love to see a sequel, though.

[Joshkdmw]

I played on Very Hard and found the difficulty to be satisfying. Getting a few guys on you at once was either run or die early game. Made the onus to sneak that much higher.

[Shieldmaiden]

Originally Posted by DoctorFinger

I played it on normal, and thought it was pretty damn easy. I wasn't trying for a no-kill/no-alarm, but even trying my best to be non-lethal I had very few problems. I spent a lot of runes early elevating Blink and Dark Vision, and everything seemed like cake after that. I got into very few actual fights since I was so stealthy. I lost more health to fish and those damn spitter pods than actual human enemies.

Like, is the Plague ever totally explained? I know the Regent started it as part of a greater scheme, but since I had a low chaos playthrough, it was just over? I wanted a little more on that aspect.

My brother and I were discussing the difficulty options and how that actually pertains to stealth games. The majority of the listed changes revolve around combat, which doesn't really make a game you're playing as pure stealth harder.

As for the spoilered bit

that was my main issue with the plot of the game. They build up the world really well and some of the side stuff is great, Granny Rags especially, but all the plot elements: the plague, the Outsider, the whales, are just there, there's no development. The plague just runs its course. You work your way through various targets, rescue the princess, kill the big bad, sudden but inevitable betrayal, take out the betrayers and rescue the princess again. That's not a story, that's a synopsis.

[Purple Santa]

I'm trying stealth with no upgrades, no kill, no alarm and guards not noticing/seeing me. I've had to kill some weepers otherwise i'd never finish the game. Otherwise with no upgrades etc i've found a nice challenge. Granted my skills at stealth games is awful but i'm still plodding along enjoying the challenge.

[digitalErich]

Finished this last night...

The ending "scene" was massively anti-climactic. Havelock was just standing there giving confession to himself as he'd poisoned the other two conspirators some time earlier. I reloaded several past saves to see if there was a scene I missed where the other two were poisoned, but nope...my ending was just a bad guy whining in front of a fireplace. I'd like to know how that last scenario could play out and what determines it.

The gameplay was great, the setting was neat, and the voice cast was amazing, but there was nothing to tie those three things together. Here's to hoping this franchise is another Assassin's Creed where the flawed formula really gels in the sequel.