Dishonored

[Kitsune]

Yeah, it feels a whole lot like Human Revolution, scene changed to be all steampunk with more dismal atmosphere.  That's a compliment.  Thus far I'm pretty pleased with it.

[Fabricated]

I got to play all of 15 minutes of it, and it basically feels like a more melee oriented steampunk Deus Ex which is I think what people expected. More first-person VIEW oriented however, no 3rd person pullouts and sticky cover.

[pohsyb]

I'm a few hours in and its great so far.  Teleporting around murdering people is delightful, the kill animations are decisive, quick, and non-repetative.  I'm playing kill everything that moves (and scouting out the stealth paths for next play through).

The character have a semi-cartoonish feel, not as extreme as TF2, but Rodin like large hands and feet. 

[Kitsune]

The game's visuals are definitely unique.  Environment textures are done with a very watercolory feel, wisps of colors on greys that simultaneously cover for the low resolution of them and still manage to look nice regardless.  Character models are strange with the aforementioned big hands and long arms, but it isn't bad, just weird.  If their goal was to work up an art style that made a world feel a bit unreal and strange without getting cartoony or into the uncanny valley, they accomplished it.

The level design is exquisite for exploration addicts who like to ferret their way over and under things.  It's very nicely easy to get onto rooftops or down into tunnels if you're looking for better ways around opposition.

My only gripe thus far is that my non-lethal lifestyle is much more limited in options than the crazed murderer lifestyle.  The game offers lots of ways to kill, but only a couple of ways to render unconscious.  It offers a fair number of ways to avoid combat entirely, but I would like a non-lethal melee weapon to use, as I've accidentally murdered on occasion thanks to always having a shiv in one hand.

[Kitsune]

Oh, and I should probably mention, the game's story is fairly hardcore, at least up to the point where I am now.  People have said that the ending is weak, but playing it so far I've only found nice crunchyness.  (And even if it is bad, it'll be hard-pressed to be worse than Human Revolution's cheap ending, so I feel prepared for it.)  There's a lot of people who really do deserve to die horribly, hundreds of people dying horribly from a plague who really don't deserve it, the chance to profit greatly from morally dark choices in quests, creepy people with creepy secrets, and a fair bit of what the fuck is going on with the supernatural things.  Dirty and terrible things are going on in the world.  And (spoilered for spoilers, but also for rough subject matter that the squeamish will want to avoid)
The grimness of things isn't being done in a hamfisted way, like some teenage writer who has characters performing atrocities all over the place to make it 'mature'; I have yet to encounter anyone inhumanly evil.  But things going on in the game do mesh with the sort of stories you hear from war-torn parts of the world where order is breaking down and people are able to be brutal without consequences.  It's not shying away from just how badly people treat each other when times get tough.

[Fabricated]

Great game. Only complaints so far:

-You get like a ton of skills/weapons to kill people but if you're going for a "lighter" ending you can't really kill people so like 70% of the goodies/skills you get are pointless.
-Enemy perceptiveness is random and annoying even with dark vision.
-Stealth is pretty much shot the instant you get spotted for real because practically everyone for 20 miles comes to kill you and it's hard to disengage to the point they give up.

[Kitsune]

Great game. Only complaints so far:

-You get like a ton of skills/weapons to kill people but if you're going for a "lighter" ending you can't really kill people so like 70% of the goodies/skills you get are pointless.
-Enemy perceptiveness is random and annoying even with dark vision.
-Stealth is pretty much shot the instant you get spotted for real because practically everyone for 20 miles comes to kill you and it's hard to disengage to the point they give up.

If a lone guy spots you and you're quick at tagging him in the face with a sleep dart, he'll drop before he can call for help.  But if he starts shouting and shooting, yeah, they're all coming.

[Fabricated]

I know this is a forum that's mostly people who're hitting or past middle age but if you can pull yourself away from your X-COM induced nostalgia-boner (well, I'm assuming it's this. I have no plans to buy X-COM ever) for like 5 minutes this is a pretty good game.

It is unfortunately $60 and it's looking to be pretty short considering I haven't been playing THAT long and I'm kinda sure I'm at least half-way done. If it gets a green-man gaming or other shady-ass steamkey sale, jump on that shit.

[Evildrider]

I just finished this today, it seemed pretty short to me as well.  The game was fun though.

[Rasix]

It's going on my Christmas list.  Occasionally my in-laws like buying me games. 

And hey, X-COM is good even without the nostalgia.   Helps to be a fan of the genre.  Usually a long drought between decent squad based tactical RPGs.

[Sky]

I was hoping it would be a bit more like Thief than Deus Ex. We just had another Deus Ex, and the last good Thief game was 13 years ago, ffs. Murder sims are a cop-out, imo.

[Quinton]

Loving XCOM, but this sounds like plenty of fun and is in the queue.

[Yoru]

I started this yesterday after finishing XCOM. It's decently fun, but I think I've been doing this too long. I can see the designed hamster tubes running all over the levels. Combat tube, stealth tube, another combat tube, another stealth tube. I've played through three missions so far, so maybe it opens up a bit later.

I do wish it didn't push the "The Choice is YOURS!" crap in your face every time you enter the crux of a level. It mostly seems to be a choice of whether I sneak in the front door, the back door, or through the (rooftops | sewers).

I suppose there might be more choices if I were killing everyone, as then I could do all kinds of funky traps, mind control, etc. As is, I'm just looking for the designer-authored tube between AI patrols.

[Fabricated]

I started this yesterday after finishing XCOM. It's decently fun, but I think I've been doing this too long. I can see the designed hamster tubes running all over the levels. Combat tube, stealth tube, another combat tube, another stealth tube. I've played through three missions so far, so maybe it opens up a bit later.

I do wish it didn't push the "The Choice is YOURS!" crap in your face every time you enter the crux of a level. It mostly seems to be a choice of whether I sneak in the front door, the back door, or through the (rooftops | sewers).

I suppose there might be more choices if I were killing everyone, as then I could do all kinds of funky traps, mind control, etc. As is, I'm just looking for the designer-authored tube between AI patrols.

It gets a bit better about that later. The first part of the game really pushes that tube stuff because I imagine they realize people are idiots and are going to not know they can do half the shit they can do. The guards should be more perceptive of people going missing IMO; they're only now starting to note when other guards aren't around but they don't seem to do anything about it. Their visual perception however is kinda random. Not hard to avoid but sometimes you can practically stand on top of them before they start to notice you, and other times they seem to see out the back of their heads.

I'm having a lot of fun. It would be nice if there were some sections I could get away with killing people without raising my chaos though. I literally use nothing but sleep bolts.

[Yoru]

I hope so. So far, every street or room has had a convenient air-duct or ledge running above or nearby it, running exactly where I want to go and nowhere else - or with one branch that runs directly into a secondary objective.

I've mostly been using the chokehold and creating a giant nap-orgy with the sleeping guards. Sleep darts are for when I fuck up, or have absolutely no other options. Do guys you knock-out ever get up? I had it happen once during the first big mission, where I saw some guy patrolling in an area that I was sure I'd cleared. I just avoided him, closed doors behind me, and all was well.

I apparently have killed one dude; I think it was a guard that I laid down with the "throw" button while standing next to a wall. There was a crack and some blood. Oops.

[Quinton]

I hope so. So far, every street or room has had a convenient air-duct or ledge running above or nearby it, running exactly where I want to go and nowhere else - or with one branch that runs directly into a secondary objective.

This was something that annoyed me a bit about DX:HR -- sometimes there were better about it than others, but it was often pretty immersion-breaking.  Part of it I chalked up to the difficulty of giving the player some flexibility without creating a completely insane open-ended sandbox.

[Fabricated]

I dunno, I think guards can wake up other knocked out guards but I'm not sure since I'm never around for it and sometimes when I've come back to other parts of the map they're still all passed out.

I always stash guards in places off their patrols but whenever I get to the end of a mission I always have a high "body discovered" count for some fucking reason.

I'm hoping it gets more and more crowded later, because with stop time, improved blink, and agility you can do some crazy shit. Taking running leaps off of buildings and blinking at the apex of your jump to barely make a ledge, or stopping/slowing time and using blink to sneak straight through guards and light barriers.

[Evildrider]

I went straight chaos.   

[Evildrider]

This guy is pretty badass.

[murdoc]

This guy is pretty badass.

My brain just doesn't work that fast in games anymore. It would take me reloading and practising for a couple of hours to get that whole sequence down.

It was a tossup between this and XCOM which I would buy now or buy during the Steam Christmas sale and due to peer pressure, XCOM won - but I will definitely pick this up at some point.

[HaemishM]

It's going on my Christmas Steam Sales list.

And hey, X-COM is good even without the nostalgia.

Both of these. I really want Dishonored, but my X-Com nostalgia (and the extra $10 and free copy of Civ V) won out. X-Com really is the bee's knees but I plan on doing Dishonored the minute I see it on Steam sale. Though I did consider getting it for the XBox. Is it more conducive to mouse control or anything like Assassin's Creed (which I did on the XBox)?

[Fabricated]

It's going on my Christmas Steam Sales list.

And hey, X-COM is good even without the nostalgia.

Both of these. I really want Dishonored, but my X-Com nostalgia (and the extra $10 and free copy of Civ V) won out. X-Com really is the bee's knees but I plan on doing Dishonored the minute I see it on Steam sale. Though I did consider getting it for the XBox. Is it more conducive to mouse control or anything like Assassin's Creed (which I did on the XBox)?

Nah, it'd work fine with a controller really. It's not really a shooter; the pistol isn't very accurate, and the crossbow is more for sniping. Melee works fine with a controller. It might be easier to zap around crazily fast with a mouse.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I really want this game but the talk of length concerns me, how long is it exactly in one playthrough?

[Fabricated]

Guard AI can be hilariously stupid. I hacked a wall of light (tesla-coil doors that fry unauthorized people), didn't realize it hacked ALL of them in the immediate area. Someone got vaporized by one, which put everything on full alert. Guards start pouring in and running everywhere...

...through the hacked gates. They have a limited tank of fuel, but that was apparently good enough to fry like a dozen+ of them as they filed neatly into the doors of death.

[UnSub]

I really want this game but the talk of length concerns me, how long is it exactly in one playthrough?

From what I've seen, it depends how much you explore and run side missions.

If you go straight at the game, I've seen people say they've completed it in 4 - 8 hours.

If you explore and sneak and take your time, 20 hours+.

It appears designed for at least 2 play throughs - a violent "high Chaos" run and a less-murder-filled "low Chaos" run.

[Fabricated]

Finally beat it, UnSub's assessment is pretty much right. If you play sneaky and like reading/listening to everything you'll clock over 20 hours; I clocked 24 or so.

If you went in full on violent "high-chaos" just fucking slaughtering everything and grabbing only the runes/charms/money you need you could probably blast this game out in a few hours.

[Xilren's Twin]

Finally played this through and while i enjoyed it, it does seem rather shortish, and a little on the easy side on normal  if you've played these types of games  Most times in the game i had basically full ammo, potions, gadget etc and never really had to use many of them.  Ended up leaving a ton of them around b/c i couldn't carry any more.  Most of the equipment upgrades weren't really useful, nor needed.
Couple of nice Thief nods in there, including one straight out hat tip to the training area in the original with one assassin telling the other "Stick to the Shadows, avoid the light". 

I'd say its worth a play through for thief fans, but i would have liked it better at $30-40.

 

[Fabricated]

I'm kinda bummed that the DLC is what I expected: non-expansive (as in; doesn't really change a thing about what happens and is never mentioned again therefore meaningless) main-plot stuff shoehorned into the game. One you play as another character, another is basically VR Missions with time trials and challenges.

[Venkman]

No idea what "lots of copies" means, but apparently this has sold very well. Which pleases me because I finally got around to playing it. The 50%-off Steam sale last weekend helped a great deal Not done yet, but really enjoying it.

Ya'all have a wider and deeper array of gaming experiences than I do, so my references are fewer. At first this felt like a melee Half Life 2 with Assassins Creed mixed in the idea of escaping and stalking. Someone earlier said Deus Ex, but it's been so long since I played that, about all I remember is some crouching and sniper stuff.

Great game. Good to see another non-squishy sneaky assassin potential-franchise enter the fray.

[tgr]

I got this during the 50% sales, and I'm really chuffed to bits that it actually does not contain any console-y features like the sticky cover bullshit (at least not that I've seen). The fact the left mouse button controls the right weapon and vice versa, combined with the fact control is block, is a bit disorientating at first. I'm used to right mouse button being block/secondary attack.

[MisterNoisy]

The fact the left mouse button controls the right weapon and vice versa, combined with the fact control is block, is a bit disorientating at first. I'm used to right mouse button being block/secondary attack.

Holy shit, that's annoying.  I keep banging on the wall with my knife when I mean to blink/shoot a bolt.

[satael]

I got this during the 50% sales, and I'm really chuffed to bits that it actually does not contain any console-y features like the sticky cover bullshit (at least not that I've seen). The fact the left mouse button controls the right weapon and vice versa, combined with the fact control is block, is a bit disorientating at first. I'm used to right mouse button being block/secondary attack.

That's the first thing I changed, left click for left hand, right click for right hand and middle click for block 

[Venkman]

Yea shit I should make that change too. Innumerable wasted crossbolts and reloads have I had because of that :)

Almost 20 hours in so far, and I just hit a big twist in the story. I really enjoy the heck out of this game. Mostly it's the creative approachs you can take to specific issues. Assassins Creed, especially the Ezio games, got very formulaec for me. Occasionally I could take out a key target in ways I'm not sure the developers intended. But here, there isn't as much of a guiding hand.

Some minor bugs and unintuitive guard behavior here or there, but I prefer to play this with a suspension of disbelief. So I assume the NPCs are super smart, which makes me play conservatively, which feels right. Sometimes in AC2, I could just jump on a group of guards and keep combo'ing through however many waves came after. That felt less assassin-y than it did ninja-y

The only thing I'm currently having a problemw with are taking down the walking towers (Walkers?) They have a Whale Oil tank on the back I'm pretty sure should destroy them, but I can't figure out which is the best weapont to use nor how many hits it should take. They're easy to avoid, which I do. But there was one in a recent pinnacle event I had no choice but to take on. Based on a combo of incredible luck and some cleverness, I finished the event before taking him out, which gave me plenty of time to deplete the rest of my arsenal on the waves that followed. Too bad mind control level 2 doesn't let you do much more than walk.

But oh how I do love rewiring those stationary Towers and Walls of Lights   

[Ard]

Easiest way to kill the Tallboys is to either get up above them or trail behind them, then blink up to them, backstab them, and watch them get assassinated like everything else.  It can take some practice to figure out exactly where you have to be to hit them properly though, but they die just as easily as anything else once you get it down.

[Venkman]

Huh. That's a lot quicker than how I've been doing it: a bolt for each of the three whale oil tanks they have on the back.

One thing I love is when guards walk around mumbling. Always the same thing: me in the garage cursing over something I'm building