Caltrops - Dishonored

Forum Overview :: Dishonored

by fabio 07/18/2013, 4:05pm PDT

So it's probably the best Thief clone since Thief. Feels like what Thief 3 would have been if they tripled the level sizes.

I like how they handle mana management. If you wait 5 seconds after using a power, you'll regenerate the mana, but it will only regenerate the most recent expenditure. You can have unlimited mana if you limit yourself to one power every 5 seconds, but more than that and you'll need potions to recover it.

There's still some niggling issues that are bugging me. The art just feels...off. Steampunk feels right and works. This is some weird combination of World War I and sleek alien design/architecture. I always felt the whole look and appeal of WWI era tech was the monstrous bulk of everything. Most of the machinery just doesn't fit.

And I still can't get past the faces. I swear it's the exact same face for women and men, just different hair and figures. Beyond that, everyone looks like a Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark illustration, but not enough to be creepy or disturbing, just off-putting.

That guy in the screenshot is supposed to have the plague, but take away the blood and everyone in the game looks like that, most with a lot more shrink wrap sheen.

There's also very little reason to ever turn off dark vision, but playing with it on all the time is like looking at a Virtual Boy game.

The heart kind of takes any challenge out of finding secret powerups, but it's almost impossible to find them without it. A middle ground would have been nice.

And yes it is way too easy. The only challenge is if you're going for the goal of not killing anyone. Take those gloves off and the enemies have no chance.

One thing about the difficulty I've noticed: blink is an awesome power, pretty much the FPS version of Just Cause 2's grappling hook. The thing is though it feels like it was supposed to be a super powerful ability you weren't supposed to get until late game, then at the last minute they gave it to you after the tutorial level and didn't have time to rebalance the game for it. You can buy a passive upgrade that slightly increases your jump height, but what the hell is the point when you have blink?