The community Dishonored poll

Didn't love it, but didn't hate it either. Quit in chest-burdening boredom and dissatisfaction and unfulfillment about 4 (?) hours in.

I expected a glorious homage to good old PC stealth games that had amazing interactive gameplay that let ME play stealth cat and mouse on the battlefield rather than be stricted by cutscenes and linear pathways.

The weird thing is, Dishonored IS that game, it's totally loyal to that genre and the gameplay was great. But it still bore me out of my mind! The cartoony aesthetic was extremely offputting for my eyes, the guard AI just felt wrong, the story and voice acting felt like a meaningless morning cartoon...

Everything about it felt so lame, like I couldn't wait to take a break.

@humanity I'm not sure basing anything on random musings from him is the best idea. He has often struck me as someone probably on the hunk. heh.

It seems like the poll options don't really cover the more common "Dishonored was alright, and ya know, maybe even pretty good at times," opinion that I've seen a lot. It was relatively well received critically, and user reviews on many sites appear to suggest that it is considered a better than average game. Giant Bomb user reviews in particular have it heavily pegged between a 4 and 5.

I even liked it, as well. Sure it could have been better, but anyone saying most people don't like it is almost certainly pulling your leg or a little wackadoodle in the Francis York Morgan.

Taking anything tropyhunter says particularly seriously is the first step to madness.

@truthtellah: Well I wanted to find out through good ol' fashioned democracy. I think there is a decent middle option there. I mean technically you either liked it, didn't like it or thought it was O-K - anything else seems to be splitting hairs to me.

Loved it.

But I'm a sucker for any game that let me sneak around fools without being forced to kill. And when I played it again, it was also pretty fun going on mad-man-killing-spree, still without being seen.

Also, independent of which game is better or worse, Dishonored's saucy Cat House is absolutely better.

Thief forces you to listen to and watch the prostitutes have kinky sex for the sake of a puzzle, and I found a lot of it uncomfortable and less than fun. Though, I do suppose some people may appreciate it more for that very reason.

Not to mention, the Thief brothel had vases on the ground everywhere for you to run into. It didn't make sense, but whatever, here's three more vases waiting for you to slightly nudge them. That was not great.

heh. Then yeah, I liked it as an okay game with some compelling aspects to it.

But again, I wouldn't let random opinions from kinda cooky folks potentially give you the wrong impression about things. That's a perilous path. :P

@truthtellah: I don't know.. you torture the heck out of that one dood in the Golden Cat in quite a brutal way. I suppose it's a matter of what you find more uncomfortable - sex or violence. I'm almost done with Lords of Shadow 2 and I assume you played Thief so how is it? You'd say that it's a decent romp or is it really as bad as people say? I liked sneaking around and stuff.

I liked it. Wouldn't quite say I really liked it, I never actually finished it but I wouldn't necessarily blame the game for that. It came out at a weird time for me.

I appreciated how smooth all of the movement felt and the options you had at your disposal. I never fell into a gameplay routine of using the same methods in every situation, it always felt like I was being kept on my toes which I quite enjoyed. On the other hand though a big part of games on this scale for me is the story, atmosphere, visual design, all that stuff. And personally, Dishonored's attempts at those things just didn't jive with me.

Well, torturing that guy in the Golden Cat is optional, but sure. I guess it's just that in Thief, listening and peering in to watch multiple people in the brothel is required for progressing in the game. Like... the developer really wanted to make sure I gave it all a good look. It just struck me as very odd, and I didn't appreciate it as part of the main mission.

Anyway, I wouldn't say Thief is bad. If you were super into the old Thief games, well, I could maybe see considering it bad by comparison, but taken as just a recent stealth game, it's decent. If the idea of pilfering things strikes your fancy, there's a lot of it. Collect shiny pens and cups and knick knacks to your heart's content. Though, it's a little clunky and disjointed, like the developer was unsure what kind of game they really wanted it to be. And the story and characters are not too good. Yet, to call it bad feels like an overstatement to me. On sale for $20-$30 in the future? Sure, I'd endorse that for a fan of sneaking around.

On PC, preferably. It will probably be updated quite a bit, and updates might iron out some of the rougher edges. For sneaking and stealing fans at a budget price, Thief should be able to scratch that itch.

I really enjoyed it. While the ending was a little disappointing, and they could have done more with the Outsider, I loved just about everything else. It managed to give me several different options for completing a mission without it every feeling like, "choose A, B, or C".

Dishonored was a fantastic game, the story didn't do a whole lot for me, but everything else about it was excellent. The DLC that was released last year really hammered home to me how much I love the game. That Brigmore Witches stuff is some of the best DLC made last last gen, by the way.

It fucking depresses me that not one of the guys at Giant Bomb in SF like that game.

I just don't think any of them, SF or not, like stealth games in general and considering their profession I can kind of understand that. Patrick has been dipping his toe in it but frankly I don't really agree with a lot of his assertions about whats "bad" about it and how it should be "fixed" per se. That aside, seeing how very often they would have to review something over the weekend, or jam through a 40 hour RPG campaign in the matter of a few days, I can see how one would get conditioned to play games at a breakneck pace. Having to review a slow, methodical stealth title on a tight deadline is probably a nightmare. Stealth itself is also an acquired taste. I think as a fan of the genre the player brings a lot of the fun himself - toying with guards or setting personal goals is a large part of the fun.

Really disliked. Not really I'm surprised I'm in the minority. :P

Wow, I'm surprised this is even a question. To me Dishonored is one of the absolute top tier games of the last gen, and high up there all time. I freaking loved every minute.

The levels and the gameplay are great, the look and feel of the world as well. The story is completely forgettable though, as are the characters. And I don't think it's all that fun if you play it any other way than stealthy and non-lethal, with the games kinda black-and-white approach to killing (which might be fine on an ethical level, but just made the generally fun to use combat options a lot less attractive).

its a perfect B game, just enough Jank that you could get away with breaking the systems of the game but it had some silly flaws like non verbal protagonist and a few silly glitches.

The Knife of Dunwall and Bridgemore Witches were LIGHT YEARS BETTER then the core game.

If you can completely ignore the story, you'll find a pretty good game underneath. Unfortunately, the story actively punishes you for having some bloody fun, so it's not as easy to do as you might think.

Enjoyed it a lot, loved the visual design of it the most probably. Still got Bridgemore Witches to play through, should actually do that during my vacation.

Just started it tonight. It's OK so far. Voice acting's a bit... off? Weird? Needs more British accents? It's a shame they give you so many great ways to kill people, then punish you for doing it. Unless the game really ends up grabbing me, I'll probably just have fun slaughtering my way to the end and Youtube the good ending. It's also kind of funny how the game straight up dumps this in your lap in a very early loading screen tip that literally tells you that if you kill people, the ending will be "darker".

I didn't finish the game. Got close to the end and I may go back to it. I really like the art style, but I'm pretty bad at stealth games, so I just end up killing everyone if I can. And I was confused about the stuff with the spirits and stuff.

I didn't care much for the story they told, but the game play was flexible and deep enough to see me through to the end. It was fun to sneak around laying traps for guards and being able to come out on top in a fight when the traps failed. The thing that I remember most is the world Arkane created. Those poor whales D:

I wouldn't peg myself as having really liked it. But I did enjoy it quite a bit. Largely for the visual aesthetic and the smoothness/snappiness of actions and controls. It's slick. My only real annoyances with it was the silent protagonist and by proxy a predictable twist you could do nothing about; as well as not really doing anything with it's cool lore setup. (until the DLC)

But I do disagree that adding in decent combat made it a better stealth game or fixed anything, it made it a better game sure, especially if you weren't good at the stealth bits of a stealth game generally, but it didn't somehow make it a better stealth game nor a pinnacle of the genre as Patrick likes to keep putting it on a pedestal. It's stealth mechanics were just fine holding up on their own if you wanted to go that way, without being revolutionary or anything.

While we are on this tangent what annoys me from time to time is the criticisms (by staff and other critics) how guards/AI are dumb in this stealth game or other. When they are dumb in every stealth game. Neither Dishonored nor Mark of the Ninja were any exception. Mark of the Ninja just demarcated their AI limits in a very clear way. Guards have to be dumb, what would you want them to do in stealth games, go into alert state for hours? check everywhere for you non stop? raise a global alarm at the first missing person or shot light? because those would be the examples of "smart" behavior; before asking for realistic smart AI in stealth games one has to also think of the repercussions and what a hydra of new problems that would have to be solved to make it a fun game again. Guards are dumb so that you can actually play the game, predict their behaviors and have outs if you fuck up. What's more funny is when they criticize not being able to know when they are hidden when games like Dishonored or Thief give you several in your face ques and are annoyed at being discovered, making smarter guards would increase their badness at stealth a hundredfold.

@jz

It's mechanically and aesthetically interesting, fun even! The narrative is not necessarily bad, just perhaps a tad conventional.

I never finished it, but I did enjoy the four hours I played when I rented it when it came out. I liked the art and gameplay but the story sucked and the game isn't nearly as open as Arkane and Bethesda want you to believe.

One of my favourite games of the last generation. The balance between wanting to be stealthy but not being punished for failing was perfect.

If anything, you were rewarded for being spotted because the combat was hectic and delightful in its own way - even if I always reloaded to get that perfect run anyway.

I wish there had been more of the Hitman-style clockwork box levels, like the cat house. Dishonored's at its worst when you're being forced forward from load-point to load-point. From what I gather, Thief is very much like the latter which is why I'm not too interested in it.

I am saving the DLC as a treat for when I get excited about the (fingers crossed) sequel

I've always suspected that the Dishonored haters were a vocal minority and this seems to confirm it. I loved the world/atmosphere and I loved to reload and replay a scenario five different ways to see five different outcomes. I even thought the story was fine. It wasn't Shakespeare but it was perfectly OK. I'm no stealth expert but I thought the stealth gameplay was more than good enough.

My only real complaint is that the morality system and how it affects the end-game is fairly nonsensical. In my first play-through I got to mission 7 with Low Chaos, and then I killed like 40 weepers (which to my mind is a mercy killing and shouldn't affect the morality) and wound up with High Chaos for the end-game. The "bad" end-game turns out to actually be more interesting any way, but I thought that was kind of silly.

EDIT: Also, play those two Daud DLCs. Every bit as good as the main campaign.

EDIT 2: Also, I don't consider this a "pure stealth" game and didn't really approach it that way. Thief is "pure stealth" while the Deus Ex games are more "immersive sims" that happen to have pretty good stealth mechanics. I'd put this more in the Deus Ex category. You can totally play Deus Ex like Doom if you spec your character right, same as this.

I loved dishonored, even with its flaws. The game's best was the first few hours then it went downhill after that, seems to be a trend in stealth games.

I liked it.

I bought Dishonored during a steam sale but haven't installed it yet. I'll get to it eventually.

Seeing Thief just made me want to play Dishonored again. It also made me appreciate how good of a game it was. I really hope they get to make a sequel for it.

I really liked Dishonored, playing through it again right now!

I found the opening in Dishonored to be a bit slow but when you get a bit more powers and familiarity with the system, I found it really fun and enjoyed my time with it.

man that party sequence was amazing

I liked it even though I did not get the no kill trophy. One of my knocked out foes must have perished somehow.

I chose really disliked, because I didn't get more than a handful of missions in, even though my feeling is more one of such strong indifference that it just wasn't the best thing I could do with my time. It was one of those things where doing things perfectly was a pain in the ass, and doing them imperfectly (i.e. ending up in combat) was very unfulfilling and yet easy. The balance just didn't work for me, and of course the story was worthless.

I've tried so many times to play Dishonored and I just get bored pretty fast. Don't know why honestly. I think it looks cool and sounds great on paper but I just get in there and then... eh.

I'm only an hour into Thief but I'll have some thoughts on it later. So far I think it's not bad gameplay wise.

I thought it was fantastic. I've been wanting to get the GOTY edition for some time now.

I liked Dishonored. It interested me that the Outsider's influence wasn't necc. a moral one or even a safe one, at least going by 2 NPC's. I'm not sure what his stake was in human affairs. I'm not even sure what he was except he looked male, and the character acting and voicing was off putting at first, then I came to get used to and even liked it. And that is how the whole game hit me. The character designs and environments were a bit tweaked towards cocaine dystopia. What would you expect from a world that vivi-sectioned whales. That is except for the protagonist, who looked much different than the rest in his world.

I would not say love, but I liked and finished this game.

Dishonored was incredible and it looked fantastic. I loved the style.

The ending was pretty terrible though.

I finished Dishonored though I didn't think it was a great game. What I did enjoy was the optional ways to finish a stage, as well as the freedom of movement. Some cool powers that were fun to use, particularly possession. But the game just did not click for me, possibly because I'm not terribly good at stealth games. The blink ability was fiddly as it wasn't always clear what parts of the game geometry you could jump to. Story was standard stuff. Was thrown by the accents - a Dickensian setting needs more English accents even though this is fantasy world and not earth.

I really liked it. Toying with guards and finding satisfying ways to destroy my enemies without killing them felt really good. Though, the fate you leave the brothel twins in should you not kill them is impressively harsh.

Need more poll options. Dishonored is Bioshock with better combat/environments/exploration and a less interesting story. Thief is just an old stealth game, they don't seem to be inherently comparable.

I didn't pick up Dishonored immediately as I thought it was too steampunkish for my taste. When I did get around to playing it I realised that its sense of environment and character was exactly what I enjoyed from Thief 2.

I found the magic/outsider stuff a bit weird to begin with, but by the end of the Brigmore Witches story I was totally onboard for the outsiders detached view on humanity and the reason magic exists for some people.

Also I derive quite a lot of enjoyment from baiting the AI by dropping bodies from the roofs or balancing them on chairs and watching the guards react.

I adored dishonored. It was a very fun game to play.

I don't like Stealth Games, and I really wasn't into it for the first couple of hours, but good lord did I have an absolutely fantastic time with Dishonored by the end of it. Going for a Mostly Non-Lethal Run is enthralling.

The story was pretty dumb, but I actually grew to like quite a few of the characters.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying here. Patrick likes to preach about how stealth games are fundamentally broken and Dishonored somehow gave us the tools to break those terrible chains of carefully planned, methodical gameplay. What, to me, defines a stealth game is the very specifically restrictive nature of avoidance rather than confrontation. Dishonored was fun, but the fact that detection carried no real consequence as you were able to easily dispatch at least a half dozen armed guards at time meant the game was robbed of any real tension - and to me it's this very tension that is crucial to a proper stealth experience. I would almost go as far as to say that Dishonored is closer to the power fantasy genre of inFamous and such, than it is to sneaking classics. Likewise the opinion about dumb guards is pointless because as you point out, dumb guards are a necessity. You learn patrol patterns and solve the "puzzle" of how to time your route in order to facilitate a stealthy intrusion. We need those guards to be dumb because outwitting your would-be pursuers is half the fun. Last I think the entire point that stealth games are somehow bad because the moment you get detected you have to start over is ridiculous. The challenge of "sneaking" is to not get caught, and if you don't enjoy that then maybe stealth games are not for you. It's like making a StarCraft game only without all that tedious base building and micro management.

Dishonored is fantastic. It's not a pure stealth game, it's something more akin to Deus Ex in that it can be played as one if you want, but that's fine with me. Yeah yeah, the story is bad, the characters are bad and the low/high chaos system is misguided, but whatever. I thought the "bad" version of the final level was more interesting anyways.

Also the Daud DLC doesn't get enough props, given that it's on par with and even occasionally superior to the main game.

It was the best game of 2012 after Journey. I really loved that game, enough to play it 5-6 times in the first month. I loved the variety in Dishonored, all the levels felt distinct and interesting. I loved the world they set up even if they really didnt do enough with it. It looks great and it played very well...blinking across the environment felts so satisfying. When i was thinking about buy thief i would always think about just playing Dishonored again until Theif was cheaper. It also just dawned on me that i never got around to playing the DLC...i guess i know what im doing later.