Dishonored, what r u doin? Dishonoured, STAHP!

All the hyperbole surrounding the release of Dishonoured make me come to it with high expectations, I really expected to enjoy it. Unfortunately it failed to entertain me in the slightest. A great premise was held back by dated gameplay and a world devoid of, well anything of note.




Dishonoured almost instantly made a great impression on me. The premise was great, the world seemed fully realised and the story compelling. Unfortunately I quickly began to sour on Dishonoured as soon as it began to give me any autonomy. The combat seemed great, the powers were all full of promise, maybe promise that could have been fulfilled if the game didn't seem to hate you for trying to enjoy it.

The game looks fantastic and the storytelling
is spot on 

Design decisions were constantly made to make the game more[...] challenging? grounded? gritty? I'm not sure what the aim was but it lead to me saying "I've had enough of this garbage I will blast through your stupid game on the lowest difficulty to see where the story goes and get the worst possible ending if it means I don't have to endure your tripe".

I suppose they wanted me to care about their world, characters and their pathos by making my actions have an impact on it somehow ground me in their story. To this end, they added a bunch of, frankly stupid, limits to every aspect of the game. Instead of filling the world with compelling content they forced me to explore it to collect runes and charms which are vital to you being able to enjoy the game but are totally arbitrary and dull with no connection to anything in the game. Instead of giving me access to my powers they forced me to go exploring around the world for mana potions constantly. This artificial padding just left me with a sour taste in my mouth and made me tire of playing the game.

The game's world is really well designed,
unfortunately there isn't a good reason to explore it

The design of the game is aimed at making sure that all the fun stuff that you could do has a negative impact on the world. This is not in itself a bad idea, Hideo Kojima has been trying to sell me on it for ten years. It was so shoddily executed, and in combination with barriers that the team at Arkane Studios decide to needlessly throw at the player. I hadn't played a game that felt like this since the PS2 era and I wouldn't go near another game by Arkane Studios again because of it.

Want to get through the game, get all your powers AND get a good ending? Well prepare to subject yourself to a miserable experience of slowly crawling around every level, replaying

The powers are really fun when you get to use them

scenarios over and over and checking every nook and cranny like a crazed crack fiend for more mana potions, runes and other mundane items. I simply don't get the concept of gating your access to powers in such an arbitrary way in a modern game. I don't know if the game eventually provides you with a way around it because after the first four hours of crawling though the game only to be told I had already ruined my chance at the perfect ending I decided enough was enough. From then on my tactic was stab guys until none of them are left and ignore all of the total garbage the game is trying to force me to endure.

The swordplay can be fun and challenging

Dishonoured was a huge disappointment to me because I see so much wasted potential behind these archaic design decisions. Scrap maybe one or two of the old fashioned mechanics and I would have still been able to enjoy my time. Unlimited teleporting and tearing stuff up combined with meaningless and dull reasons to try and make you explore an empty world, I'm sold! A well fleshed out world where you have to be careful while exploring but boy if you do is it worth it, sign me up! A game where you are a total badass but can't kill anyone or the game will whine at you - but at least you have something meaningful to do, I'm right there five stars! Dishonoured was simply a bridge too far for me, combining all of the possible negative aspects they could. I couldn't find a single gem of fun in its anachronistic composition.

The variety of weapons is great, not that you're
 supposed to use them

It pains me to be so negative this because I really really wanted to like Dishonoured. The idea of being an assassin with mystical powers is awesome. The alternate and non-lethal ways to dispose of your enemies were often clever or interesting and one of the few redeeming features of the game. The combat system was also great, the swordplay felt challenging and rewarding and the mix of powers and enemy types would have kept me engaged if I hadn't felt that the game was doing its utmost to stop me liking any other part of it.

The art is great, visuals really pop well

Dishonoured really lays out a template for exactly how not to do it. For the same reason I ignored Bioshock Infinite knowing in advance it was mired with the same, frankly bullshit, mana potion offal that just drags the experience down. If you can't make a world that is worth exploring and you try and force me to because otherwise the combat, or any number of other aspects totally suck then you need a serious rethink about what us driving the game and what players enjoy.

I'm sure that Dishonoured may be entertaining for some people, maybe I'm even in a minority of one here I may admit that I am probably being overly harsh because of how affronted I felt and how high my expectations were. For me though, the way the game is put together just felt outdated and offensive  Replete with filler content around every corner that you have to dredge yourself through to be able to enjoy the rest of the game. Dishonoured really made me hate it in a way that few games manage to. I couldn't have felt less good about my time with Dishonoured and I was totally shocked by that fact. For a game containing all the things I love: magic powers, swords, guns, steampunk-y stuff and a great art style I couldn't believe how awful the sum of its components was.