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With everything once again right in the city of Dunwall, I’m hanging up my sword, gun, crossbow & special powers and calling it a day with Dishonored. Dishonored is a unique FPS in the fact that I felt a great deal of freedom to play as I wanted. For me, this meant a non-lethal approach… well… mostly non-lethal. Some blood was spilled, but hey when you’ve been framed & betrayed things are going to get messy.

Dishonored (Xbox 360) by Arkane Studios (Bethesda Softworks) released 10/9/12

Price Paid: $0.00 (borrowed it from @Howrobot,thanks)

Recommended Buy Price: $30 – 40

Time Played: 26 Hours according to Raptr.com http://raptr.com/tengaport

Difficulty: Very Hard

Achievements: 28/60

Glitches / Crashes: 1 (jumped over a wall I perhaps wasn’t supposed to)

Will I Buy A Sequel: Yes

Will I Buy DLC: No

Dishonored has plenty of personality to stand on it’s own but I can’t deny the Bioshock vibe the game extrudes. The industrial sea-port setting of Dunwall is reminiscent of Rapture, while the dual wielding of special powers & firepower felt vaguely familiar.

Dishonored’s setting hasn’t quite fallen apart like Bioshock’s, but there is still plenty of political corruption as well as a rat driven plague to sully the scenery.

The similarities between Dishonored & Bioshock come to an end though when you tally up the bodycounts I left in each. In Bioshock, I no enemies were standing by the time I finished but with Dishonored I did my very best to avoid any lethal confrontations. So much so that I skipped out on a lot of the game’s gadgets and upgrades and hardly fired a shot throughout the campaign.

My pacifist play through didn’t make Dishonored any less exciting. Quite the contrary, as trying to remain undetected in the shadows made for many heart racing moments. Instead of brute force I relied on cracker jack timing, my character’s enhanced agility and all the available, non-lethal implements I had in my bag of tricks. There were plenty of fails and restarts along the way which tested my restraint but I kept my frustrations in check and spared the majority of those that stood in my path.

The levels themselves turned out to be much more open and sand-boxy than I was expecting with some nice variation on themes between them. During the campaign you’ll traverse sewers and slums, but you’ll also infiltrate a burlesque-esque brothel and a high society party.

I came into the game thinking it was going to be another linear FPS, and was surprised to find that it was quite the opposite. You won’t find any kill corridors here. Instead, Dishonored offers multiple paths, options and ultimately choices as to how you want to complete each mission. There are also hidden upgrades and augments scattered around the levels to reward your exploration.

 

The story has a few twists up it’s sleeve which actually caught me off guard. I thought my Dishonored play-through was coming to an end when the game threw me for a loop.

So – cool abilities, good story, wonderful levels and plenty of action and a freedom to play-your-way. A huge thumbs up for this new IP. Highly recommended if you’re looking for something different in a first-person action game.