Dishonored - Having Issues Getting Into It

[WarpedAcorn]

I bought Dishonored pretty cheap a few weeks back and have been trying to get into it, but am having trouble getting into it. Normally, I'm all over stealth-action games like white on rice. I enjoy lurking about, watching patrol paths, sneaking past, using non-lethal means to complete an objective, ect...On paper, I should love this game. But I just can't bring myself to get excited about playing it.

Right now I'm maybe 5-6 hours in and have only completed the first 2 missions past the prologue. I feel like I've given this game enough time to grab my attention, and it just isn't doing it. I think a large part comes from the protagonist, Corvo. Honestly, the silent protagonist thing he has going on is turning me off. He feels like a cardboard cut out with no emotion, no desires, and no personality. The fact that all the NPC's exposition around him and then boss him around is very off-putting. I don't feel like Corvo is a part of this underground organization, just a tool like a wrench or screwdriver. The fact that the Emporess sent this silent 2D guy off as a diplomat at the start of the game doesn't help.

Another issue I'm having is that no one gives a crap that I have Supernatural powers. On top of that, I've got no explanation (thus far) as to why I got these powers from an other worldly being. The Cinematic trailer made more sense than the in game exposition The Outsider gives you. At least in the trailer, I got the sense that a godlike being wanted to introduce a little chaos to the world and Corvo was just the right type of desperate to use it.

Gameplay wise, the game seems good. I like the way you can combo the powers to bypass obstacles. The art style is interesting and the setting is very gritty. Honestly, I wonder if this is just one of those games with really good elements that just don't fit together very well...or if its just me.

Long story short, did anyone else just not get into this game?

[draykorinee]

I totally did not get this game at all, not even a little bit, I didnt get in to the story, the mechanics were clunky, the stealth was terrible, the thrown in super powers etc. Really unenjoyable, I do not understand how this has been so raved about.

[Shinzai]

I've got to admit, when I first started playing Dishonored, I expected to be hooked. It has a visual style that I find really appealing and it had a lot of really good ideas in it. But as the OP states, it just didn't grab me. I've gone back to it a few times, playing it in a really disjointed manner and I just can't stick with it. I always just end up screwing around and seeing how many people I can blatantly kill and get away with it. The stealth mechanics just don't click with me and the game's pacing is really off for myself.

I don't know what it is exactly, maybe I was just expecting another Thief game, or Bioshock with assassinations, but it just doesn't quite land either mark for me. It felt almost as though the game was too open for my liking; I could screw around on one mission then be stealthy the next, with no real consequences. The Stealth in general just feels dull to me.

I dabbled with the Knife of Dunwall expansion, despite my apprehension and I find Daud an infinitely more interesting character and it actually feels as though I'm more motivated when I play as him; it gives an interesting mind-set with his own demur view on life.

[WarpedAcorn]

That is interesting you mention the expansion (the Witches DLC is what reminded me that I should see what Dishonored was priced at). I wonder if I should just put Dishonored on hold and look at the DLC. Does Knife continue the storyline or is it something completely different, or more plainly, will Dishonored's storyline be spoiled by playing Knife?

[Shinzai]

That is interesting you mention the expansion (the Witches DLC is what reminded me that I should see what Dishonored was priced at). I wonder if I should just put Dishonored on hold and look at the DLC. Does Knife continue the storyline or is it something completely different, or more plainly, will Dishonored's storyline be spoiled by playing Knife?

The DLC interlinks with the main story in way or two; minor spoiler (just in case anyone doesn't know) - Daud is the assassin that kills the Empress at the start of Dishonored.. However, the DLC's story is not directly related to the main story, it's a new story thread for the new main character and it focuses solely on him and his morale breakdown: Go back to your murderous roots, or not? In general, to me at least, Daud feels like a more aggressively designed character, even if you take the pacifist route, he just grips myself in a way Corvo didn't - Corvo is just a Mary Sue character to be whatever, vague wishy washy puppet you want, Daud actually feels like an individual.

[Yvaelle]

The best way to play Dishonored is to be a shadowstepping rogue who stabs all the people in the back

It's not a good game if you try to go full-stealth mode and avoid everyone, and it's not designed for true action combat.

Get the tele-stabbing superpowers and then it's a much better game. You get swarmed with plague rats that murder the whole city (you included) - and it feels like something the game was actually designed for

[Shinzai]

The best way to play Dishonored is to be a shadowstepping rogue who stabs all the people in the back

It's not a good game if you try to go full-stealth mode and avoid everyone, and it's not designed for true action combat.

Get the tele-stabbing superpowers and then it's a much better game. You get swarmed with plague rats that murder the whole city (you included) - and it feels like something the game was actually designed for

I think that's part of what bothers me though - killing people is treated as being bad, but it's more satisfying than being good, where as the character, as vapid as Corvo is, appears to be what should be a good guy, a little bit on the anti-hero side sure, but morally just I guess? And yet, I never feel as if I should be playing that way, because it's just tedious. It's even just basic things like the whole prison break opener; I never really feel that anyone I kill deserves it, I just kind of kill them because it's faster and more interesting.

[Yvaelle]

I think that's part of what bothers me though - killing people is treated as being bad, but it's more satisfying than being good, where as the character, as vapid as Corvo is, appears to be what should be a good guy, a little bit on the anti-hero side sure, but morally just I guess? And yet, I never feel as if I should be playing that way, because it's just tedious. It's even just basic things like the whole prison break opener; I never really feel that anyone I kill deserves it, I just kind of kill them because it's faster and more interesting.

Definitely true.

It's bizarre that an upholder of justice - first bodyguard to the Empress - suddenly flips a switch and becomes the mass murderer of cops who obviously had no idea what the whole deception was, and his framing, and etc.

I guess you could imagine he flipped a switch in his mind - became a different person - lost his faith in humanity. The world started crumbling, and he embraced his inner psychopath.

[Adam Jensen]

I don't want to sound like an ass but . . . why does this feel like something that needs to be fixed? Everyone has their own personal tastes and some people (like me) thought Dishonored was amazing, and other people did not. If you don't like it, don't play it. No reason to feel like you should be "made" to like it.

[Simulacrum]

Definitely true.

It's bizarre that an upholder of justice - first bodyguard to the Empress - suddenly flips a switch and becomes the mass murderer of cops who obviously had no idea what the whole deception was, and his framing, and etc.

I guess you could imagine he flipped a switch in his mind - became a different person - lost his faith in humanity. The world started crumbling, and he embraced his inner psychopath.

It's just how games are designed these days. The protagonist doesn't need a reason to go fucking john rambo on some fools, he's expected to.

Take Bioshock Infinite, or LA Noire, or any other similar games where on one hand you're supposed to be taking the story seriously, but on the other hand it's impossible to take it seriously because you're literally murdering your way through hundreds of mostly normal people just doing their jobs over the course of the game, behaviour that would (in the context that it's done in these types of games, at least) make you one of the most evil protagonists in video game history... if we were meant to take that seriously. Which we're prboably not, but then how can we be expected to take the rest of the game seriously? I sure couldn't.

Though, personally, when I played Dishonored (at least as long as I took the story seriously), I couldn't bring myself to kill people, unless I really felt like they deserved it. The game did a decent job making killing people feel wrong, or at least more wrong than other games make it feel, even if it doesn't feel anywhere near as wrong as it probably should feel in these types of games, where we're not killing orcs, or robots, or natzies or something... but then, we are playing a game here, not killing real people, so I don't know... maybe we should be happy it isn't set up to feel worse.

[Voidgazer]

Can't say the actual story in this game was anything outstanding. But I loved the setting, the fictional world. Geography, architecture, WHALE OIL.
Gameplay was okay. Somewhat lite on stealth elements, but overall both stealth and combat routes are enjoyable.
Graphics are stylized, but not too cartoonish. Probably the best way you can do it in video games. At least until we cross the uncanney valley (which will never happen).
Oh, and I love silent protagonists, especially now, when they are so rare in modern vidya (RIP Isaac Clarke, the engineer).

[Deleted]

Honestly, it's just a very bad game overhyped by blind bethesda fanboys.

[Pull My Finger]

I couldn't get into it. I don't care if the protagonist doesn't speak or stuff like that. That's just frills 'n gimmicks anyway. Donkey Kong doesn't talk either. I just couldn't get into the gameplay, or perhaps the lack of it.

The whole game and everything you do feels unbelievably pointless and random. I've been sent on this first mission and I'm kind of missing a common thread there. Most of the time, I'm running around in this stupid city, avoiding, or maybe not avoiding, guards or whatever, and ask myself: what the heck I am actually doing here? I'm kinda missing the point of the game, I don't know.

[Voidgazer]

what the heck I am actually doing here?

Have you tried, you know... actually listening to what characters say to you? Following the story etc...

[Pull My Finger]

Have you tried, you know... actually listening to what characters say to you? Following the story etc...

No, of course not, why on earth would I do that.

[WarpedAcorn]

In my mind, the golden standard of assassination games is Hitman: Blood Money. Dishonored has some interesting elements, but it does not feel as "open world" as Blood Money. I feel like Dishonored has given you a handful of very specific things you must do, where Blood Money was a game where I replayed the first mission (assassinating the Don in his home) for a week because there were so many different ways to do it.

I also agree that as a Stealth game, its kinda weak compared some other stealth-action games. Even DE:HR felt like a stronger stealth game (if you took that route).

Combat-wise, I have to agree that I don't have any desire to kill the cops. The first mission I was still fumbling with the controls and killed a bunch of people, mostly by accident. The second mission I was able to knock everyone out. Outside of the actual mission targets, I don't see why Corvo would want to kill anyone. And even with his targets, I didn't get that these guys were bad guys. Again, I have to refer to Hitman where, although you are a professional carrying out specific hits, you are told why the client wants this target dead. I guess in the Hitman series (most recent title excluded) I felt more invested in the character/story.

Anyways, I looked at that website HowLongtoBeat.com and saw I might be 1/3 of the way through it, so I might just grit my teeth and try to plow through to the end, then forget about it.

[Deleted]

Definitely true.

It's bizarre that an upholder of justice - first bodyguard to the Empress - suddenly flips a switch and becomes the mass murderer of cops who obviously had no idea what the whole deception was, and his framing, and etc.

I guess you could imagine he flipped a switch in his mind - became a different person - lost his faith in humanity. The world started crumbling, and he embraced his inner psychopath.

in my first run i actually only killed when i needed to, or if i felt they deserved it. some of the guards are just that, guards who are following orders and don't realise you're innocent, but the stuff some are involved with... i finished the witches DLC last night and there was a chair with a burnt and charred corpse in it in the prison, so i killed the guards who were talking about it in a casual way. most of the overseers are pretty much evil anyway, its regular guards i tended to leave be.

OT: it sounds like you just don't get it. it's a shame, i personally love it, but some things just don't twig for some people. you can try going sneaky stabby style, trying only to engage in stealthy murder, but the plot isn't really the strong point of the game. its good enough to go through, but nothing really gripping. on the other hand, the DLC stories are pretty awesome, and it makes a lot more sense that you could be a ruthless bastard seeing as who you play as

[Mothhive]

Honestly, it's just a very bad game overhyped by blind bethesda fanboys.

I'm not a Blind Bethesda Fanboy (I haven't even played any of the Elder Scrolls games!), but I absolutely love Dishonored's gameplay and story. Played as a non-lethal ghost and had a lot of fun.

[Loaf Lord]

I personally felt not killing anyone was the most satisfying of my playthroughs.

[WarpedAcorn]

OT: it sounds like you just don't get it. it's a shame, i personally love it, but some things just don't twig for some people. you can try going sneaky stabby style, trying only to engage in stealthy murder, but the plot isn't really the strong point of the game. its good enough to go through, but nothing really gripping. on the other hand, the DLC stories are pretty awesome, and it makes a lot more sense that you could be a ruthless bastard seeing as who you play as

I watched the trailer this morning for Knife of Dunwall, and it did seem to have a lot more character. Of course, that's just the trailer...