Dishonored was (dare I say) a near flawless game... where's the buzz for 2?

• Super tight controls. Plays like an absolute dream.

• Plenty of optional content and varied (and fun) approaches to finishing missions

• Stellar game/level design

• A deep skill tree and perk system that made multiple playthroughs genuinely feel different.

• Viktor Antonov (Half-Life 2) as a visual director. Dexter composer Daniel Licht providing the music and System Shock/Deus Ex/Thief veterans the fantastic writting and direction!!!

• World class DLC with Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches

• Fantastic world building and tons of surprisingly elaborate, non intrusive material that can be optionally explored by reading books, examining environments, logs or using the mechanical heart on people and locals.

• A unique atmosphere based on a mix of lovecraftean's brand of cosmic horror, Poe's romantic flair and victorean steampunk .

• A well crafted and paced campaign full of distinct characters and memorable situations, plot points and set pieces.

• AGAIN. An optional mechanical heart that contextually narrates the history of the game world at the press of a button and reads NPC minds/memories. HOW COOL IS THAT?!

.....

...

Am I panicking too soon or do I smell Deus Ex Mankind Divided levels of meh from game enthusiasts?

Dont **** this up people, the first game was an absolute modern gem of interactive entertainment. The sequel deserves more than a flavor-of-the-month treatment.

!Praise the Outsider!

Dishonored was... Dare I say... Not a good game. Zero hype for the sequel.

@primorandomguy: Care to elaborate on what's so bad about it or is this just poor bait?

Yeah, except where they fucked up with the "you have to play the stealth way to get the good ending, and not use the fun stuff" part.

@speedfreak48t5p: Get the bad ending then?

What's wrong with getting that conslusion when the narrative fits the players actions?

@Thunderdrone: It wasn't fun. Making you use stealth was annoying, and you were pretty much forced to since the combat was poorly implemented. Dry game. Found it a chore to play.

I loved Dishonored, and actually enjoyed it more the second time I played it when the remaster came out on XB1. So naturally I'm very excited about Dishonored 2... it's probably my most anticipated game for the rest of the year.

Dishonored was fun, but I wouldn't say flawless. Not great, but good enough I'd consider trying the sequel. But, nothing I've seen to date regarding any sequel is worth being excited for yet, not for me at least. I'm gonna need to see more before I get amped for the next entry. If you have anything other than some screenshots and promised features, like maybe some gameplay, by all means, share it, try to change my mind, please.

EDIT: okay, found some gameplay footage, haven't seen any yet so I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a looker it is, it definitely has that going for it, I'd like to know more about the gameplay mechanics though, but combat seems fluid. It's been a while since I played the original, but I remember a much stealthier game. Hopefully the game balances both styles of play well.

@primorandomguy: A stealth game is bad because it encourages you to use stealth instead of it's purposefully basic combat system?

@Thunderdrone: When the game is supposed to be tailored to let you play the way you want, then yes, it's pretty bad to be forcing stealth.

I really liked dishonored, but I feel liked there has been no press to get me that hyped for 2. I will probably get it eventually, but its not a day 1 at this point

I enjoyed Dishonored a lot, but I was a little disappointed with the story. It wasn't necessarily bad, but because of the initial reveal trailer for the game I had certain expectations about how the story would be and overall I felt the characters and story weren't developed sufficiently enough. Gameplay was excellent overall.

What stealth games do you like?

@primorandomguy: Its still a stealth game and redesigning the combat to fit the option of a full on, deep first person action/shooter build would render most of its systems, its pacing and level design absolutely pointless.

If you hate stealth then no, its not for you.

@Alucard_Prime: The story is relatively simple and handled well enough. The real meat and bones of this aspect is in the world building and lore.

Its a game with a straight forward plot, taking place in a super interesting, detailed and insanely well thought out world.

@navyguy21: @Thunderdrone: Yeah I'm not a fan of stealth games, maybe that's why I don't like it. It still sucks that they advertised it as play it your way, kind of game. I didn't expect all the boring stealth. I don't know what it was but I felt the rats added nothing to the game and made it more tedious.

Flawless? The story was boring as hell and none of the characters were likeable in any way.

For a narrative-driven game, that's an unforgivable sin.

It's a real shame too, because the gameplay was actually pretty damn good.

Dishonored was one of my favorite games of last gen, so I'm certainly looking forward to the sequel.

It's one of the games I'm genuinely looking forward to. I don't think it's anywhere close to flawless: The stealth aspect of the game has its short comings, the game is poorly balanced, the story is rubbish, making a story that punishes you ending wise for actually having fun with its systems when it makes the passive playthrough boring as sin is really silly, and while I like the idea of all those kills making the city chaotic, again when the passive playthrough sucks, it just makes this hurdle less acceptable, the level designs mistake width for depth n detail at times, the visual direction actually is a bit scattershot and gets by on being stylish, and doesn't get criticized enough for a lack of cohesion. That said? I dug the original Dishonored a hell of a lot more than what I played of Human Revolution this year, and I expect Dishonored 2 to be more my type of thing than what Mankind Divided is.

Where the game may falter in a pure assault playthrough or a pure stealth playthrough, it shines at making the player feel like the baddest mother fucker of an assassin ever, and makes you wonder what the **** Ubisoft has been doing all this time? You get so many neat tricks for crazy guerilla tactics, and the ability to take your systems and turn scenarios and your enemies into bit players in your own absurd little rube goldberg machines is an absolute delight. The levels are also fairly strong in terms of the option they provide.

I didn't like it much. The teleport thing made you way too OP. It was like a Thief game for the younger crowd. Also didn't enjoy the story.

The gameplay was decent, but that story was just so damn boring. And, the characters were all boring to boot.

There's no "buzz" in System Wars because it's a multiplat game.

Im hyped for it. Maybe not day 1, but thats just because of how rarely i buy day 1. And the first Dishonored was a bit short, so I'd at least like to wait and see how long it is before paying full price for it.

Definitely getting it though. I loved Dishonored. It was one of the best games of last gen for sure.

story suck, world suck. gameplay was pretty good

@Thunderdrone: That's because it wasn't. It's a damn good game, for sure, loved my time with it. That said it did have it's fair amount of flaws and limitations (being a new IP and all).

Definitely looking forward to see what they do with the sequel though.

Dishonored is fantastic and Arkane is one of the better game devs but Dishonored is not without its flaws. For starters, the story is not good and characters are forgettable. The game is Immersive Sim but it relies on quest marker.

The first thing I did when playing the game was to turn quest markers off. But then every once in awhile the game asked me to take disarmed friend to a safe location and I had no idea what that safe location was. It didn't matter even if I took his body to other side of the map or disarmed every enemy in level. It forced me to turn quest marker back on temporarily and it turned out that I had to dump his body outside overseer's office, inside that one special dumpster.

DLCs made this worse where you can't see assassins due to their abilities. So when the game said 'go meet your assassins' it forced me to use quest marker to reach a location where assassin appears once I get there. I expect the game to explain its quests properly and tell me what I need to do instead of expecting me to follow the quest marker.

In Thief The Dark Project when Hamerrites ask me to escort injured high priest to safe location, they explain everything in detail and give me the door key to get there. Which means I know exactly where to go and what to do, even without quest marker because the game was not made with quest marker system in mind and due to that clues were hidden within the environments and writing was sharper.

Dishonored was also created with detective vision in mind, you barely hear footsteps of guards and are forced to use dark vision to know exact location of enemies. The entire game becomes powerpoint presentation and immersion breaker from time to time.

And then there is weak stealth pillar. You have handgun, crossbow bolts, grenades, mines, traps, shadow kill, incendiary arrows, sword and so on, all for killing enemies. What do you have for disarming or ghosting again? Just sleep darts. You rarely find those darts during mission but every third guard has a gun with bullets for you to take. You get good ending with stealth and yet that pillar is weaker. Dlc fixed some if these issues by leaving more sleep darts in levels and by giving you some new tools like disarm traps but it also broje some other stuff.

Deep skill tree? What the hell? It's as basuc as it can get and that's fine since it's not Rpg. Last but not least, the game is way too easy. Its very hard difficulty should've been normal difficulty.

Dishonored is one of the better AAA games but it was not near flawless. There were plenty of flaws that I want its sequel to fix.

Hyped for 2 myself.

Loved the first one to bits.

Super dooper excited for Dishonored 2

The game is so close now. It will improve on everything great in the first Dishonored.

I like Arkane as a developer, but Dishonored wasn't all that great.

It's probably the best Thief-life game we've had in many years...but I spent the whole time feeling like I should just be playing Thief instead. I ended up giving up after a few missions and never looking back.

It was an ok game, would have been better if it was more like Thief 2 and focussed less on making the player overpowered IMO.

Don't know what game you've been playing but its not Dishonored. It has an amazing Combat system, super tight (tighter than most FP Games). I guess you are more annoyed by the fact there is just one gun (and one crossbow), when combined with the powers you have available makes for a never ending platter of options, yes very dry indeed. This isn't a battlefield game, it was never hyped as an action/shooter. It was always roughly in the same realm as Thief, and you should expect similar gameplay.

That said, each to their own, just try and use a least a half decent argument next time.

Lol people getting mad saying the game forces you to play stealth just to get the good ending. You did that to yourselves people, not the game.

I wish people would stop calling it "Thief like". It's nothing like Thief. It's completely different beast and that's not a bad thing.

@RedentSC: It must be miserable to get upset over someone's opinion every time you disagree with it. And I'm not the only one who said the combat was meh. It definitely isn't broadcast to be a stealth game, but it definitely is. Like I said the rats was a poor design choice. Next time you see someone's opinion that upsets you, keep it to yourself.

@primorandomguy: who said you were allowed to have an opinion

I rented it for a couple days and the way the camera moved was off just enough to give me a headache after about a half hour of play. I can't enjoy something that gives me a headache.

It didn't upset me bro, i just see and pointed out the flaws in your argument.

just as more evidence:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishonored .. Clearly States "stealth" under the Genre.

http://www.pcgamer.com/dishonored-developer-arkane-studios-picks-cryengine-for-upcoming-game/ .. An interview and statement from Arkane in 2013 again, specifically stating "stealth" when the VP is talking about dishonored, I could go hunting for more stuff but maybe you just missed it? its clearly accepted as a stealth game, in fact you are the first person who i've encountered who believed otherwise.

On the subject of keeping it to myself, no that's not going to happen. If you post publicly, expect a public response. If you want people to keep their opinions to themselves, don't post bro.... welcome to the internet ;)

I'm starting to think I'm dead inside, as I found it, like most similar games to it, to be very repetitive... bit like Dues Ex... It was a decent game, but anywhere close the best? nah.... I think my problem with these kinda games is they try to be clever and most of the time just end up disappointing.

The whole posh-party scene with hunting people down to kill with masks on, wonderful idea, poorly executed....

As was the finale.

Yes. I was about to say this

@RedentSC: It's all good. I just didn't like the game. And I guess I did miss it being advertised as a stealth game lol. Admittedly I didn't do much research before playing lol. But still the combat felt half assed, and the rats was a bad design choice imo. That's my 2 problems aside from the stealth aspects.

Yeah, it's obvious that most people who said that haven't played both games properly (or at all). Anyways,,, I am pumped for Dishonored 2, it's easily among my top 5 anticipated games. Hope it fixes some of the problems first one had because it has potential of becoming a masterpiece. In worst case scenario, it'll still be a great game.

It has more to do with how Harvey Smith pitched the game, how the pr for that game was, and how most of the shit heel gaming media tends to write working off the pr stuff. Otherwise it being a first person stealth game, and it being suspect at the sneaking is the other drawback and why that comparison is made. Because on paper it should benefit from more inventive stealth, if not the uber tense nature of Thief, but in reality shit is cake walk city since you can freeze time, possess, and blink with barely any impunity.

Game's at its best when it's played more like Bioshock wants to be played, because it's a better playing version of that games principles.

Makes sense. Most journalists are shit who blindly follow what was pitched by devs. There is no doubt that Dishonored took some of the inspiration from Thief but the final product is completely different thing.

Yeah, to be fair there is an aspect of it contextualizing the game to players, because 3d gaming is inherently harder to teach the player the game. You either do it in the most obnoxious way possible, or you try to do it in a somewhat guided manner but not so overbearing, and as a result you run the risk of not teaching some pretty important mechanics.

One of the designs on Shovel Knight said, that when they worked at wayforward, that because the pr was handled differently than other game no one properly conveyed the iframes in Bloodrayne Betrayels dodge. And the game doesn't actually teach the player either, and as a result you had these mixed reaction to the game. Because players didn't really understand how certain aspects were supposed to work, and where the frame was (It's also important for dodging traps), and as a result you had really positive reactions from people who just sort of figured it out fiddling with the game, and in other cases you had people that didn't know why the **** the game was so cheap (when it really isn't).

And that's easy to bitch about because, what the ****, learn to play a game, but it's also a product of the system. You're asking a bunch of free lance writers working paycheck to paycheck to bum rush through a game really quick to get a review on time, instead of letting the review be right. It's part of why youtube videos are far more critical and go further with their analysis, those people have the benefit of replaying a game now that they have a better understanding of the systems. A game like The Wonderful 101 for instance, comes out smelling better when you realize "oooooooooooooo, that's how that works", but doesn't work for someone who has to rush out a review inside of a week.

So as much as I think game critics are poor, sometimes the issue is more so the nature of this mediums business and pr model.

If there is anything that Dishonoured was, it was far too easy and had zero challenge. Should you failed the stealth approach on a level, no biggie, just kill everything.

I really liked it. One of the few games where I wanted to know more of the lore. First ship I seen carrying a whale I thought man this is cool. Liked how dark the world became as I was slaughtering everyone. I'm def hyped for more one of last gens best games

I loved the Dishonored and I am very excited for Dishonored 2. Hype is not needed.

• Weird mix of technology and different time era set pieces didn't set well with me
• Magic feels like cheats and basically is
• Taking the high route as much as possible is always the easiest...always, and seems to hold true for any stealth game.

That said, I enjoyed the first one and the DLC's though the story sucked but theres nothing about this second one that looks very intriguing, I see very heavy use of magic and that's disappointing, might as well provide some cheat codes while you're at it. I'd rather stealth realistically but it's obvious how the levels and enemy placement is designed to have the player make use of their abilities. I noticed quite a few scripted patrol patterns...as usual. Why can't they for once create some decent A.i. that doesn't have enemies just walk the same path and same animations over n over n over.? This is why stealth games are too easy. Take a high route, observe the patterns and time out your moves..simple.

It's always amusing to see someone say "play the game properly". Like wtf is that even supposed to mean? Either the game allows you to play certain ways or it doesn't. It's the fault of the developer, not the player. I remember in Thief 2, I realized how retarded and slow the A.I was that I could run up behind them before the engine was able to complete it's A.i. script for attacking and knock them out. It wasn't my fault the devs allowed me to do that. It wasn't my fault that you can avoid making noise by always crouching or put all the goodies in the most obvious of places where the guard patrols are heaviest. Or like Deus Ex...make those vents overly huge and they open using a hinge?..wtf? So easy to spot and obvious...like why?

@Cloud_imperium: I call Dishonored "Thief like" because the developers described themselves as huge Thief fans, and because the original plans for the game were highly influenced by Thief (including their original idea of using Thief light gem system).

The game ended up being more like Bioshock later in development, but the Thief influence is still very strong in the game - particularly in the level design, the mission objectives, a lot of the writing, etc. Plus if you ignore all of the violent powers and try to play it as a pure stealth game, it's really, *really* similar to Thief.