Dishonored reviews started skulking in last night at midnight, like a thief in the shadows, stalking his unaware prey. Sorry about that first sentence. Reading so many Dishonored reviews is clearly having an influence on me. Which isn’t exactly surprising given how glowing the reviews have been thus far. With the embargo lifted, we can finally find out what this exciting new IP has to offer.
The first one I read was IGN’s 9.2 review, which read:
Each mission is built as an elaborate network of choices for players to explore, and the same can be said for Corvo himself. Each player’s selection of powers, perks and other upgrades will inform how they see and interact with this world, and no two play-throughs will be exactly the same.
Receiving a score of 9 or higher at IGN isn’t exactly impossible to do these days, but from the text, the score sounds justified.
Patrick Klepek of Giant Bomb also enjoyed the game, likening it to Deus Ex, but with better combat and giving it 4 out of 5 stars. Regarding the skills you obtain in the game, he said:
Other powers allow you to take control of people and animals, another one stops time and can eventually be used to have someone kill themselves with their own bullet. How? Pause time when the shot is fired, possess them, and place them in front of where you just were. Combined with a proper combat system, Dishonored encourages rampant experimentation.
Ben Kuchera of Penny Arcade was taken with the game’s choices, stating:
It’s fun to share your solutions to the game’s puzzles with your friends and other players. “You can do that?” I found myself saying to people sharing their stories about a clever use of weapons or abilities, before scrambling back to the game to try it myself.
When we watched the Dishonored trailer, we made a point to joke about all the obvious influences the game clearly has. Mitch and I even Shunned the game in a recent feature. But it appears that Dishonored managed to live up to the high expectations set by both the developers and the marketing team. I was wary of the game for many reasons, but it seems my worries were unfounded. I know there has been some concern about game length, but I don’t think that is an issue as it sounds like someone did a speed-run. I plan on purchasing (Or receiving on Christmas) Dishonored in the future. Do the Dishonored reviews change your mind or confirm what you already suspected? Hit the comments!
My mind is much more at ease now. I may go get it on Steam now, or I’ll hold of until sales, I dunno. I’m just glad it turned out well for Dishonored.
After doing a little research during another thread with playersbro, I ended up pre-ordering the game with excitement. Now it’s pre-loaded — I’m pooping my pants.
@Julez, haha, fantastic. Let me know how it plays, because I’m leaning heavily on buying it when the opportunity presents itself.
Played 4 hours straight last night, doing a stealth play through. Already looking forward to a second play through with weapons. Great level design, game looks and feels great to play and I kept turning to my girlfriend saying “holy sh%t, look at this…”
😀
I was previously on the fence about this game and after the reviews I don’t think there’s any reason not to get it. Hopefully it will get a small discount in the Steam sale at Christmas.
EXCELLENT! It’s settled then, definitely buying when I get the chance 😀
i want this game so bad, but the only, and i mean ONLY thing holding me back is the 20 hours playtime…because i am so sparing with my money, and my addiction to free roam games, i am used to games like skyrim…so 20-25 hours just slaps me in the face.
20 hours is a ton these days. Take it and run!
It saddens me to think that 20 hours is as you say Anthony, a ton of gameplay, I miss games of yesteryear when 60 hours was an average amount of game time.
Unless you play RPG’s exclusively, I don’t think 60 hours was ever the average, haha
No? I can think of a swath of games that I spent upwards of 40 hours and often 60 hours on. The Dynasty Warriors saga, the earlier ones anyway, Spiderman 2, Sly Racoon 2, Some of the Ratchet & Clank games were epic long. Hell, Soul Calibur 3 sucked my life away like you wouldn’t believe. But fair enough, I suppose there were a lot of short games back then as well, all the same, they certainly were MUCH longer 5-6-7-8 years ago. But yes, I do play A LOT of RPG’s 😀
Oh: 20 hours in Dishonored would easily put you into second-playthrough territory. None the less, it beats schmushing rats to level up 🙂
I’m perfectly happy with 20 hour games. That said I’m up to 52 hours on Borderlands 2, so…
The Ratchet games were about 12-20 hours long. Sly 2, which I just beat, was 20 hours. Sounds like you are doing completionist playthroughs? Getting every collectible and such?
Hell, even FF VI, a game which was marketed as 60 hours only took me 40 hours my first time through. For most people, just getting through the story is enough.
Check out this great site:
http://www.howlongtobeat.com
It helps me decide what to play next.