Dishonored, from creators of Deus Ex and Arx Fatalis

Well, that settles it for me. I'll give it a shot on a steam sale someday.

I am quite a bit further along; with most stealth powers maxed out. IMO this is by far the best fast stealth game ever made. You've got a ridiculous amount of mobility, the levels are designed to get you to use your mobility, and if you do run into trouble you have various tools to get out of it. Having a guard stumble right onto me, only to have me immediately hit time stop and immediately stroll around and choke him out is awesomely satisfying. OTOH it does trivialize the game on the normal difficulty level; unless you are going for total ghost runs.

Like I said earlier in the thread - once you can refill mana by just drinking out of a faucet the game just sort of is broken from that point on. A fun broken but still.

Just finished my second playthrough. Chaos style. Killed everyone that got in my way. Weepers got it the worst.

I'm playing with a controller on PC. In the past the thought of playing a first person game (or any PC game) with a controller never would have occurred to me, but then once upon a time my expensive video card died just out of warranty and I decided to switch to 360 for the games I would have played on PC. Years later I finally upgraded to a new PC (Dishonored is actually the first new PC game I've bought in years that isn't a point'n'click adventure or doesn't have "The Sims" in the title) but I now prefer to play everything with a controller.

I love stealth games and I guess I've always preferred the first person perspective, with Thief 2 still being what I consider my all time fav. As a fan of the Metal Gear Solid, Hitman, and Splinter Cell series, I don't have the irrational whiny hatred of third person that so many in the Thief and Deus Ex communities* have, and in recent years found myself preferring third person. Then Dishonored came along and despite being skeptical of it pre-release, I haven't felt this way about a game since Thief 2. I'm an old kid who just found that candy store he used to love

Also:

*Who knew that folks who hold themselves up as clever, mature individuals could turn into such babies when they don't get their way.

Lizard_King I wonder if the above poster is right. Where did you get your start in sneaking games? For me it was Thief and then Deus Ex, so the first-person perspective doesn't bug me one bit.

And yeah, the game really is just totally broken at this point for me. I can move around the environment at will, take down anyone I care to take down at will... It's actually really, really enjoyable and empowering. The main challenge at this point is identifying fun ways to navigate the levels; I"ve gone from "try not to kill anyone" to "don't kill anyone" to "ghost," which has been an enjoyable progression.

The only exception is...

I'm going to pick this up today; I've been stalling because I struggle with games where stealth is the main system (mostly because my ADHD kicks in and I start to get reckless). From other posts in this thread it appears the game starts off a little slow and then ramps up quickly as powers come into play. So I can attempt to maximize my enjoyment of the game system, anyone have some thoughts about what powers to take/upgrade first? I'd like to make a go at this game and see if I can become a believer in the genre. Then I can circle back and try out Deus Ex and the AC games.

For pure utility, I think Blink (rank 2), Dark Vision, and Agility are good early investments. I also really liked Shadow Kill (stealth kills turn corpses to ashes) to help play the sneaky-but-violent route. Really though, read over each of them (including the Strategic Tips section for each power) and work towards whatever skills sound most fun for you. IMO one of the game's strengths is in offering a diversity of approaches based on the powers you select. One person's Corvo could play totally differently than another's depending on those investments.

Pure stealth / low violence: get the following at Rank 2
- Blink
- Darkvision
- Stop Time
- Agility

That's the basic super stealthy / no kills toolkit. You'll get level 1 in Blink for free iirc, I'd get Darkvision next and then Agility at rank 1 (for high jumps) before going after anything else.

No Possession? I'd think that would be a no-brainer for a nonviolent run.

And by 'pure utility' I basically mean that Blink 2, Darkvision 1, and Agility 2 are likely to be useful skills no matter what build / approach you take to the rest of the game. They're also fairly cheap early on. (It may be worth noting that Stop Time is rank 2 and stupid expensive.)

By contrast, I would recommend avoiding Adrenaline completely, unless you are deliberately forsaking stealth altogether and plan on lots of face-to-face melee combat.

I haven't used possession at all. I can totally see how it'd be useful, but I'm having so much fun blinking and jumping around that the idea of turning into a Rat or something just doesn't appeal to me!

I only use it sporadically (and I only have rank 1, so no taking over humans) but it's a pretty fun way to add additional options to your mobility palette, like swimming through an area underwater, or using the little rat tunnels. Plus, you get an achievement for possessing a fish.

Also may be worth noting for the audience at home that Possession doesn't just confer mind control, you actually inhabit the body of whatever you possess (your own body disappears) and can use it as a vehicle until it expires. I had a friend who thought it was just used to make guards run face-first into laser walls.

That's why I didn't use possession at first; I didn't realize it wasn't just mind control. By the time I figured it out I was having too much with agility + blink to care.

The standard stealth use of Possession is, I think, to walk through walls of light as a guard.

I didn't even get Stop Time until the last level, so that was an important option for me.

Stop Time is hilariously OP. Generally I only use it for emergencies, though.

Middle of the third mission now. SO AWESOME. Regarding builds I did take adrenaline because when I see less than 3-4 guards I think hey, I can take them head on! Won't take shadow kill because that's just way too cheesy, and possession... I don't know. Sounds rarely useful when you already have Blink 2 and Agility 2, and what exactly happens when it runs out while you're in a tiny rat tunnel?

I think you misspelled "awesome" there. ;)

Hey, I can summon rats to eat the corpses and that's totally more stylish and, er, realistic!

:( I'm sad that the game is over! But holy crap was that awesome. Anyone have any clue how it did, sales wise?

I'm really frustrated in the first mission after 'the twist'. The gameplay seems to have changed from a fun, empowered "sneak and fuck with guards" game to a grim, combat oriented slog. Maybe I'm trying for non-violent too much, but it feels like it changed. :( Anybody else feel this?

Nope, can't say I ever felt that. Sneaking and non-violence never failed me.

Which part are you on? The Drowned District?

Yep, I'm there. I'm not having trouble with the sneaking, exactly, it's just that the addition of the blink assassins as the primary enemy represent a fairly substantial change in the necessity of tactical awareness, and I'm just not trained up in that way. Did you feel the Drowned District wasn't that different?

I found parts of the Drowned District quite tricky due to the density of enemies, but I don't recall using substantially different tactics against the assassins. Stay out of sight lines, creep up from behind, and stash the bodies out of the way. My main tools were dark vision and blink 2, although time stop and possession also came in handy.

They're substantially different than guards in a heads up fight, of course, but I was avoiding those (ghost).

FWIW I went all violent on the assassins. It's one thing for me to be sneaky when it's the City Watch or whoever who are just doing their jobs and are kind of innocent bystanders. But the blink assassins? They killed my empress, fuck those guys!

Thanks for the thoughts, Damien. I think part of it was just burnout. I played for like three straight days, about 3 hours a day, and re-did several levels. I'm interested to dive back in and eff up those assassins.

EDIT: Yep, it was just burnout. I started playing an hour ago and am back to loving it again. Pulling one over on the assassin leader was fun as hell and made me feel really crafty and badass. :)

Yes to this. Being non-violent doesn't apply to murdering criminal bastards. They're bad for society, even after they wake up. >:)

ZOMG THE TWIST

Already 23 hours in, so I actually thought the game was about to end. Pleasantly surprised that there will be more levels.

I just finished and MAN that's a good damn game! The last level felt like an awesome playground. I felt super empowered in it, just having a ball hiding bodies and thinning the guard herd. Love the level design of the final level; it's nicely different than many other levels. I played Super Meat Boy right before Dishonored, which I think really helped me with quickness and seizing the initiative. I was playing much more aggressively than usual and it was a blast; I knocked out lotsa dudes really, really quickly.

I really wish there was a way to get lots of runes early. I wanna play with the powers in the early levels. More, more!

Question: if I start a mission from the Select a Mission screen, does it just use my abilities from my campaign progress at that point? Is there a way to start one particular level and play with different skill sets? That'd be awesome.

EDIT: Wow. I just started a new game. I've decided to kill when I must, but spare the guards' lives whenever possible. Criminals are fucked, though.

After murdering about 10 of their buddies, I left these three Bottle Street gang members asleep next to a Springrazor. Whoever wakes up first is an executioner. > : )



Their buddy I left asleep on top of the nearby archway. He'll have a hell of a time getting down, and when he does, he'll be in a charnel house of his friends' bodies. (wow, writing that made me feel bad)



And finally, I found a nice young guard who needed a nap and tucked him out of the way. I wish I could be around when he wakes up. I see him getting SO much shit for this.



Playing this way is fun as hell. It makes me plan a lot but improvise and run around like a freak when stuff goes wrong, and I move through the levels faster than when being super-sneaky. (knowing them fairly well helps a lot with that) I need some more non-lethal skills for when combat is unavoidable. I have Blink I, Dark Vision I, Slow Time I, and Agility I. I'd like Sneaky Kill and Whirlwind. Is anything else good for non-lethal?

Also, it seems like Stop Time (the upgrade of Slow Time) is actually not as cool; you have less time, and though you can be spotted in Slow Time, you can chain together effects with greater results in Slow Time. You guys think that way?

Possession 2 is pretty nice for non-lethal runs, and seriously awesome for ghost runs. It really helps with those annoying situations where two guards are standing around staring at each other.

My best possession moment was jumping off a three or four-story building, possessing a guard standing next to an arc projection before I hit the ground, walking him around to pull the oil tank from it, and then throttling him before he figured out what happened. Fun times!

Slow time lasts longer, but stop time is better for ghosting since it lets you avoid detection entirely.

Finished with high chaos ending. The last missions are a bit of a letdown. Some dialog is surprisingly bad (what's up with the Piero voice actor?), I noticed the first buggy objectives in the game, the boatman turns schizophrenic (I waited for you, I knew you'd come! Get out of by boat, you asshole!), and the final mission just screams for choices that aren't available (edit: turns out this only applies to the High Chaos ending, so it's deliberate). Ran out of development time I guess. Fantastic game for most of the way, though, and definitely the best I've played this year.

What's wrong with Piero's voice actor is that he is Brad Dourif. Which is to say, he is awesome.

Not in his final appearance, that's really badly phoned in.

What was his last appearance? When you have to set up the device that knocks out the soldiers that take over the pub?

Yes, before and after that. His voice acing was fine otherwise, but in that mission he sounded as if he was forced to do unpaid overtime.

At any rate, Dishonored is the best game since Thief 2.

Finished this over the weekend. Fantastic is probably the best word I can use to describe it. I won't go so far as to say it's the best game since Thief 2 but it's definitely a worthy sequel in spirit to Thief 2.

One thing I would have like to see was a little less hand-holding. The heart and the quest arrows took a lot of the fun out of exploring. The levels were also on the small side, though they were very well designed overall. But that's quibbling. Sneaking through a brothel, looting precious things, and killing a guard that gets in my way by teleporting behind him and jamming a blade into his skull never got old. And the game never dictated what I could do, it made suggestions but I could be as blunt or as circumspect as I desired.

Hell, I'll probably end up replaying this to try out the optional paths I missed out on. And maybe make myself some bone stew.

I agree, but FWIW, you can turn off (almost?) every element of the HUD, that's what I did. Obviously using the Heart is voluntary, too, but it might be hard to get through the game without using it at all.

For my part, this game has fallen off the front-burner, sadly. Sleeping Dogs is too much fun to let much anything else get any playtime.