Firstly let me go through the PROs of this game;

- The city/landscape is amazing. You can tell a lot of work went into the game, and you can also tell that it had a little City17 about it.

- Blink, is one of the most fun FPS mechanics of all time.

My main problem with this came can be summed up in one word; connection.

As I played through the game as I asked myself many questions;

*SPOILERS*

Why should I care about Convo?

Why should I care about the Empress when I knew her for about three minutes?

Why should I go on a revenge mission for two people, I really didn't know.

That was my main problem. Lethargy towards the main character.

Just wondering if I'm the only one.

i don't really care about a connection with the character. i just loved playing the game.

Honestly the character I found the most interesting in the game was the heart Corvo carried around. Her stories about the world and her personal experiences were way more interesting that a lot of the other stuff going on in the world.

You care about Corvo because he signs his goddamn name on the guestbook at a party after knocking out the host, just before jumping into a canal.

Seriously though, I agree with you. I don't like silent protagonists – they assume the player is verbalizing their responses or nodding at the screen the whole time, which is untrue. To have NPCs constantly engage with Corvo and have him just walk away is a disappointment.

difficult to think of a first person game where you care about the character. i don't think even gordon freeman is someone i felt especially connected to at any point

I didn't give a fuck about him but I really enjoyed the game.

I didn't either. It's a new IP with a silent, first-person protagonist so I didn't really expect a whole lot of connection. That didn't prevent me from enjoying the other characters, the world they created, and the gameplay.

You're from from the only one.

For more people discussing why exactly Corvo doesn't work quite in depth:

http://www.giantbomb.com/dishonored/61-35850/oh-lord-that-ending-spoilers/35-563955/#70

http://www.giantbomb.com/dishonored/61-35850/silent-protagonist-really-hurts-this-game/35-563800/#59

(the gist is that they try to straddle the line of a silent protagonist yet try to make the player care for the story as if he had a personality of his own)

I'm sure it has been said elsewhere, but if you use the heart a lot on random stuff that it was the empress who was speaking through it, or her spirit/soul. I half thought you would encounter her in some form and have to free her. I still think that the next game could involve freeing her soul from The Outsider or something. Would be very cool and give some needed purpose other then revenge to identify with Corvo.

were they also trying to insinuate that Corvo and the Empress had a 'thing' going on?

@benstewart84 said:

were they also trying to insinuate that Corvo and the Empress had a 'thing' going on?

Yes it's mentioned in several places throughout the game. Some notes, some hidden places, some conversations.

More then a thing actually, It's heavily hinted at that Emily is Corvo's daughter.

@benstewart84: I don't care about Gordon Freeman and what happens to his life after I'm done taking it over. He, and Corvo, are empty vessels that act as lenses for players to experience that world through. Coupled with that, The Empress is not supposed to be a source of empathy--she is a tool to start the spark the core conflict.

The more important question is whether or not you cared about Emily. She is the character that the whole game tries to make you feel for.

I also didn't give two shits about Corvo... nor Dishonored really for that matter. The only part I really enjoyed in the game was the mission where you're sent to the party and have to get rid of one of the sisters... until for some reason one NPC repeated alerted everyone that I was a killer for stealth killing a guard on the other side the mansion that I'm sure they didn't see.

@benstewart84 said:

were they also trying to insinuate that Corvo and the Empress had a 'thing' going on?

I think multiple NPCs refer to Corvo's suspected affair with the Empress. Havelock also writes in his journal that he suspects Corvo is Emily's father.

Edit: I guess @Tennmuerti beat me to it.

Nobody cares about Corvo. That was one of the game's major complaints - the silent protagonist schtick is getting old.

Still, I doubt this game could have made me given a damn about him even if he did speak. Maybe he doesn't say anything because every other motherfucker in the game is an emotionless robot so I guess he just wanted to one-up them by not showing anything, meaning that Corvo's character is more complex than anyone else in the game by that fact alone. He's a tragic man, unable to figure out how to use or show his emotions so he just keeps his angst hidden and takes it out on unsuspecting guards.

The game is great. Nuff said...............

It has been touched on before, but yes I think the whole silent protagonist thing didn't do the character any favors. Dishonored felt like a game without a soul to me.

I enjoyed the game a lot more when I began liking the game for great level designs and mechanics rather than any kind of story.

The stealth and FPS mechanics are really well developed, it just seems to me that the "story" is more of just an excuse to have some cool levels.

Well, shit, I cared about Corvo. Not a lot, mind you, but enough--and reading through the game content, using the Heart quite a bit (which I realize many people didn't do), you learn quite a bit about Corvo, the other characters, Emily, and the Empress. It's not as well-developed as I might have preferred, but it's definitely there. It may have been a mistake to have so much of this submerged beyond the top layer of gameplay. Using the Heart meant giving up your power for the moment, which made using it awkward.

I'm wondering how many people who didn't connect with Corvo didn't use the Heart much, or didn't bother to read most of what the game offered for backstory. I suspect it's probably a rather high percentage.

Silent protagonists can work (Half-Life 2 still proves that for me) if you don't tell a story based around them. Which is EXACTLY what they did in Dishonored. It just felt weird playing this "personal revenge story" with a character who doesn't emote in any way shape or form.

Luckily the rest of the game was simply amazing.

Unfortunately, like most of Dishonored more interesting story beats, the good bits are written in text or implied.

When a game has such great gameplay though, it makes it difficult to want to break the action with some blocks of text/minute details in the world.

But DAMN that game was freakin' good. Like, really really good.

Neither did I. I more cared about all the many ways I could stabmurder or sneakchoke any guards who ventured too close to my path. The story of Dishonored is not its strong suit.

Seeing how things change and the reason the player may do something is based on their own viewpoint I don't really have a problem with Corvo being silent. I don't need my main character to have any sort of personality if I don't really every look at them, or if I'm the one making decisions.

FPS stories are never about the main character rather they are about the conflict the character is part of. The part of Dishonored story that i find interesting is that it's a commentary on violence. How succumbing to a blood lust makes the game more difficult, and things become worse off. You teach Emily that force must be beaten by force. The abuse of ones power is the the most effective way to solve any problem. Low chaos shows restraint, you break the cycle, you show Emily that power must be used responsibly.

I'm currently playing through Dishonored for the first time. I've found that the less I concentrate on the story, and the more I just play around with the cool stealth mechanics, the more fun I have with the game. It's a shame the narrative isn't as strong as the gameplay but it's still a fantastic game.

More like Bore-vo

That's all, I just wanted to use that pun.

@benstewart84 said:

Firstly let me go through the PROs of this game;

- The city/landscape is amazing. You can tell a lot of work went into the game, and you can also tell that it had a little City17 about it.

- Blink, is one of the most fun FPS mechanics of all time.

My main problem with this came can be summed up in one word; connection.

As I played through the game as I asked myself many questions;

*SPOILERS*

Why should I care about Convo?

Why should I care about the Empress when I knew her for about three minutes?

Why should I go on a revenge mission for two people, I really didn't know.

That was my main problem. Lethargy towards the main character.

Just wondering if I'm the only one.

You shouldn't. The narrative is the biggest problem with Dishonored. Even if you do put yourself in Corvo's shoes and apply your believes over him, if you read enough of the audiologs and find the diaries, you come across all the backstories and true natures of your compatriots, which pretty much spoils the ending for you HOURS before you reach it. Annoyingly, the most interesting stuff revolving around the game's lore is REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to find, but it's the most interesting, the kind of stuff that would have kept my disbelief suspended for another 5 to 10 hours.

Game is fun though.