Dishonored Hands-On Preview

Let me start by saying, through gameplay, I’ve dishonored Dishonored. However, Arkane is on the right track with the development of Dishonored. At QuakeCon, I managed to get my hands on this stealthy title and found the game to be even more exciting than the trailers.

Throughout gameplay, Dishonored stood out to me as a very detailed assassin game; unlike anything I’ve played. When I first watched the trailers, I immediately thought, “Okay, this is Bethesda’s response to Assassin’s Creed,” but after you get to literally feel the structure of the game, weapons and A.I., you’ll see just how unique this game is.

Be Verrrrry Quiet

In the demo your plan is to enter the Boyle Estate and assassinate Lady Boyle. Sounds simple enough until you begin your mission. This particular mission is mid-way through the campaign, so you’re already masked, jumping off a boat to head up to the streets and need to play catch up with the abilities with which you are already equipped.

Upon making your way up to the top you’ll saw a few civilians. You can interact with them as they walk towards you, or you can wait only to find that they begin swinging and spitting at you.Now you probably should just ran away from them, but personally I chose to retaliate.

So yeah, after killing them and throwing their bodies in the stream, I climbed onto a ledge to see the bodies fall. To my surprise, a shark came out of nowhere and began eating the sick, and now dead civilians to pieces.

Skipping ahead just a bit, I went to an area outside the estate, handing over a note that challenged someone to a duel. We both grabbed a pistol and took position. Then on the count of three, we turned to face each other and trying to get off a quick shot.

There Can be Only One

Now the first time, being in newb and all, I turned around and shot everyone. As you can imagine I died as every solider in the demo came for me, sounding the alarms. The second attempt was more the way Arkane Studios expected it to be done.

Are You The Boyle I’m Looking For?

Back to the mission at hand, I still needed to assassinate Lady Boyle. The only problem is there’s three and you’re not there for all of them. This is where the game became even more interesting. You have the ability to kill whomever you please, but as a true assassin, you have to work your way through the motions.

I did both. The first time I saw a Boyle, I simply killed her. That brought every soldier my way, including these masked men using an overseer device that disabled my option of using magic. So to guns and sword fights it was and believe me, they didn’t go down without a fight! And if you distance yourself too much, out came the guns.

The second time I botched and killed the wrong Boyle. Why? I saw her walk into a restroom and I figured no Boyle shall be left alive. As I left, I found another Boyle dressed in Black. As she ran for her life I chased her down, feeling more like a sadistic serial killer rather than an assassin. Nonetheless, she died and it led the soldiers on a hunt for my blood.

When Being Stealthy Doesn’t Work

Don’t expect the A.I. to give up their search for you. They know what you did and are quite restless. So after exiting the Estate, the game continues upbeat and didn’t stop from there. I can simply say that Dishonored is well worth the investment.

Pre-order while there’s plenty of time left as Dishonored is scheduled to release Oct 9th, 2012 for XBOX 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.