“Dishonored” is Bethesda Softwork’s new stealth/action with RPG elements. At the beginning of the game, the player takes control of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress and her daughter, Emily. Corvo is returning from visiting other isles of the area searching for a cure for a plague afflicting his city, Dunwall. Within just a few minutes of returning, the Empress is assassinated, Emily kidnapped and Corvo falsely accused. The first real mission has you breaking out of prison with the help of an anonymous ally. After escaping prison, your goal becomes to get revenge on those truly responsible for the Empress’ death and Emily’s kidnapping with the help of a group called the Loyalists, high tech weapons and supernatural abilities.

The gameplay itself is fantastic, the controls all work well and you won’t be left feeling like a button could have been better used somewhere else. The game handles all of the climbing, running and jumping you can do as Corvo very well and doesn’t slow down much during either of these. You can even get items and abilities that enhance your ability to move around the map. The level design is absolutely fantastic. There are literally dozens of ways to go through levels, from climbing across rooftops to taking control of a rat and sneaking through tiny holes in the wall. If you choose to, you can even massacre all of the guards and walk right in the front door, but killing more people does have some consequences. “Dishonored” makes use of a sort of choice and morality system. The more people you kill throughout the game, the darker the ending will be. If you choose to kill everyone in your path, the game does a good job of showing you how you’ve affected the world. On the opposite side, there is actually a way to complete the game without killing a single person. The plot is a wonderful story. However, the game struggles in its presentation of it. The characters almost seem to talk too fast, as though they don’t really care about what they’re sending you to do but just want to get it over with and the assassination missions the game sends you on don’t have much of a clear purpose.
One of the big areas this game struggles with is its graphics. The environments are lovely and detailed, but the textures on objects have a distinctly low-res look to them, which can be a bit of an eye sore. If you enjoy games like “Splinter Cell,” where you have a set objective but a massive number of ways to accomplish your goal, you will most definitely enjoy “Dishonored.”