4/5 ★ – eatpotatochip's review of Dishonored.

​​There’s this series of games, the Thief series, that are pretty influential and beloved and, along with other games like System Shock series, popularized the immersive sim genre - a genre of games that paired choice-driven level design and good AI reactivity to immerse the player in a world where they felt like they could do anything. Dishonored is a 2012 video game by Arkane Studios, designed to fit in that genre, taking more from the Thief series than the System Shock series, though it does have an extensive list of level-up options that includes powers and upgrades. More than that, Dishonored has become really popular for taking a morality system that, I assume, is inspired by the 2007 game BioShock (a game that aimed explicitly to be System Shock 2’s spiritual successor) - and, given that Arkane did provide developmental support for BioShock 2, that assumption isn’t too far off - by creating a world that either congratulates you or denounces you based on how good/evil you are. Now, I’ve always liked the Thief series, and System Shock 2 is one of my favourite games ever, so I was hoping to get around to this one sometime. I finally did, and I liked it a lot! Some of the level design towards the end is a little iffy, but I do like how open-ended the game feels, and how satisfying it feels when you manage to skip entire portions of the levels altogether with some quick-thinking, stealth and research. I also aimed for a no-kill playthrough, which I achieved with no issues (save for one buggy encounter at the end, but I ended up solving that too). I also have nothing but praise for the environment design, especially the steampunk nature of the mechanical constructs, and the faded walls and crumbling buildings in the dilapidated slums you traverse. That being said, I don’t particularly love a major part of the framing of the story. Dunwall, the setting of the game, is a city beset by the plague, where the poor districts are starving and dying and the rich districts are walling themselves off and hoarding all the resources and pretending nothing is happening - this is fairly par for the course, but you’re also in charge of maintaining the power structure of the city, protecting a princess for her eventual ascension to the seat of unilateral power. It comes across as being strangely muddled and unfocused, especially when you have entire levels either set in these poor crumbling districts or in decadent mansions and grand brothels - I have to wonder what statement was made by these deliberate choices seemingly at odds with each other. The level design is open-ended and full of replay value, and I could have started a new playthrough focused on a violent kill-all-enemies path. Maybe someday - I don’t feel like coming back to this one quite yet. ​