Del: So before we get into it, Jeff, I wanted to share with the readers two simple pictures. Hang on while I grab them.
Thought this was a funny one. I’d blinked up on top of the Radiant’s ward butte and snapped this shot of Bane (who I’ve played over 120 games with thus far). Then as I’m about to start a match one day see my time is at 666 hours. Got a laugh from that.
And then this gem.
Del: So, moving on, let’s chat about the game those three fellas up top are from. They’re the, uh–
Jeff: The Pendletons. Two are twins, obviously, Custis and Morgon, and then the other– I’m not sure what his name is.
Del: So you’ve played it a bit now, and I have too, just past the first part–when you escape the prison, so this is really early on–but how’re you liking it?
Jeff: It’s really good. I’m trying to think of anything else this year I’ve liked more, and I can’t think of anything.
Del: It has a 91 on Metacritic right now if you were to give it a score (even though GYP doesn’t do that) would you agree that it’s good enough to be that high? From what you’ve seen thus far, obviously.
Jeff: Yes.
Del: Assassin’s Creed III is a game you’ve been looking forward to. You like that story and it’s a fun series, I’ll agree there. But from what you’ve seen of that and what you’ve played of Dishonored which do you think you’ll like better?
Jeff: Hmmm… Dishonored is really good, so Assassin’s Creed III has a lot to live up to for me to consider it a better game.
Del: I’m going to make a prediction right now. I bet you’ll play ACIII more. Simply because it’s a longer game–I’ve heard Dishonored can be beaten in under 10 hours, as fast as 4 even–but I have a feeling that once you’re done with ACIII that’ll be that. You won’t go back to it, but I can easily see you coming back to Dishonored–myself too–a bit later on down the road. Think so?
Jeff: Yeah, sounds about right. I think the replayabilty of ACIII won’t be anything like that of Dishonored. I guess we’ll see. Might be why they made Dishonored short. Seems like some of its greatness comes from that desire to play it through different ways and if it was a really long game that’d be daunting.
Del: So what’re some things that have made you go, ‘Well huh, that’s cool’?
Jeff: I really like the coloring, the–
Del: The aesthetic?
Jeff: Right, yeah. It doesn’t look like anything else I’ve ever played. I also like the subtle changes when you’re in stealth mode. The edges of the screen dim a little.
Del: I didn’t notice that, I’ll have to look for it. I thought it was really cool how when you loot stuff, random junk or whatever, you just get the coins for it. So instead of carrying around an obscene amount of weight in random crap only to sell later Arkane took that pointless middle-man bit out and gave you the money. I know there was at least one Final Fantasy game that had you collecting stuff simply to sell, that was the only reason you looted anything ever if I recall right. It was so dumb. And I’ve yet to run into any invisible walls, that I really like.
Jeff: One thing I was shocked about–not shocked, but “Oh!” Was when I killed a guy and sliced his head off it just plopped off. I didn’t see that one coming.
Del: Did you know you can pick the head up and toss it?
Jeff: [Laughing] what? No!
Del: Seriously. I was watching a stream of a guy playing and he chucked a head down a stairwell and goes, “Three points!”
Jeff: I’m going for a medium approach right now. Middle of the road. I’m trying to avoid killing people, but if I’m caught and it happens, so be it. I was playing just a bit ago and you know those guys at the start? The assassin guys?
Del: Yeah?
Jeff: They showed up. One used the wind power to throw me off some pipes, but I ended up killing them.
Del: Interesting. I guess they’re trying to find you? I don’t know, guess I’ll have to see when I get there. Any closing thoughts before we get back to it so we can give our full take next week?
Jeff: It’s definitely worth the $60 I paid for it.
Del: Ok, so I’ve got to ask then: What’s a game you bought in the past year and thought, “Wow. I totally should have waited until that was used or cheaper.”
Jeff: I don’t buy many games. I only buy things I know I’m going to like because I borrowed a copy from someone.
Del: Well I guess you made a good call on Dishonored not having done that. Next week remind me to ask you how you think Deus Ex: Human Revolution compares. Once you’ve beaten Dishonored and can accurately answer that.
Look for the review GYP will have coming for this fine gem. There’s been talk of us doing a multi-view sort of review, a written round table type deal possibly; we’ll see!
Oh! One last random picture I haven’t been able to find a place to use. I call it… The Land of Sequels!
I just got back from the Land of Sequels, actually. Mechwarrior 2 and Streets of Rage 2 say ‘hi.’
Holy hell this is some damn fine journalism we got here, you guys should write for kotaku or gamespot.
That cuts deep.
Well Dylan we can’t all be professional journalists like you….
This is a pretty amateur website with mostly inexperienced writers, so I think that you should really take advantage of the malleability of this website and make some suggestions as to how to improve what you dislike before things are set in stone.
I’m MORE than happy to hear any constructive criticism anyone has, but just saying my writing or pieces are fit for Kotaku doesn’t much help.
I haven’t beaten dishonored yet, due to classes, though I’d estimate I’m halfway through the game based on having reached the first mission with the iconic tallboys, and the whale bone charms I currently have.
Twelve changes I’d make to the game are:
1. Made guards wake up when knocked out, on their own after a period of time, or when another guard wakes them.
2. Messed with all the ammo, potion, and upgrade drops.
3. Removed a lot of the unspoken explanatory text to make the game a bit less spelled the fuck out for you.
4. Add a light gem
5. Add dynamic lights that could be put out.
6. Make darkvision function the same as it does, but cost a little mana as its effects continue.
7. A save system that is actually worth a damn (little screenshot, actually timestamping it, telling you what area you’re in, hell, maybe your inventory)
8. Made the guards more persistent.
9. Better default keybinds (c for crouch? AGAIN?)
10. Allow people to customize what weapons are bound on the circle menu from the inventory (ie. have a real inventory screen, not just a list of what you have).
11. Make Corvo left handed.
12. Allow you to put away your fucking sword and just your fucking sword. I never use it, I don’t like having it constantly in my field of vision.
Also, I never got word back on that application I sent in. Does anyone actually read what gets sent to the contact email or is the body of work I attached way too tl;dr?
>Made guards wake up when knocked out, on their own after a period of time, or when another guard wakes them.
It’s sad that very few games do this (I barely even remember which games did this but I vaguely recall encountering this. Hitman perhaps?). This would really ramp up the difficulty of no-kill runthroughs because you’d have to finish whatever it is you gotta do before the first guard you knock out wakes up.
It’s in every metal gear solid game since 2. Guards can also wake up other guards in Deus Ex Human Revolution (but not the original game). For some reason, in Dishonored, there is an animation and lines where guards try to wake up other guards and it activates when they reach the body of an unconscious ally, but the unconscious body never wakes up. I’d imagine the reason for this is the fact that the bodies ragdoll and can be carried nearly anywhere, so depending on where they are dumped, it may be difficult to revive them and have them result normal processes. It’s still pretty disappointing that this isn’t the case.
Dishonored is the type of game that lends itself to Video Game Criticism, rather than review. Was it enjoyable? Of course. Was it perfect? Hell no.
I think it’s biggest misstep is a simple one: making a Dishonored Body guard and veteran spy think overly ethically about his goals. You give the player access to all these cool spells and kills, and then you punish them for exploiting them? I hate when ethics are shoehorned into video games, particularly because Corvo was wronged so thoroughly. Why are American devs so gunshy about letting their heroes act like human beings?