What single player FPS campaign are you playing?

[Exhuminator]

Dishonored is the ultimate successor to those games in every way.

So Dishonored lets you explore monster filled caves and creepy haunted places like Thief 1 & 3? I was under the impression the game took place entirely in a city and you were always against human guards.

[Xeogred]

Dishonored is the ultimate successor to those games in every way.

So Dishonored lets you explore monster filled caves and creepy haunted places like Thief 1 & 3? I was under the impression the game took place entirely in a city and you were always against human guards.

Have you not played it? I don't think it would be easy for me to define the Dishonored world in any way, but it is straight up one of the coolest worlds ever to me. It's oozing with character. I mentioned this to you directly in another thread but I don't think you saw it, but did you know Stephen Russel will be voicing the main guy in Dishonored 2? He is mute in the first game, but I don't think it'll be an odd change or anything. And well Stephen Russel in a leading role again... um yes please. I really can't emphasis enough how excited I am for 2.

There are no straight up monsters but it's chalk full of weird tech and super natural elements.

I dare you to hit up Dishonored and Thief 4 back to back.

[Exhuminator]

I don't doubt that Dishonored outclasses Thief 4, from all I've read, and given what I know of the two developers.* I have not played either yet though. I do own Dishonored and Thief 4 on 360. Just haven't gotten around to them.


*As for Arkane Studios, I played through Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Both of which I thought were excellent games and both highly underrated. As for Eidos Montreal however, all I've played by them was Deus Ex: HR, and you know how that went for me.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I don't doubt that Dishonored outclasses Thief 4, from all I've read, and given what I know of the two developers.* I have not played either yet though. I do own Dishonored and Thief 4 on 360. Just haven't gotten around to them.


*As for Arkane Studios, I played through Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Both of which I thought were excellent games and both highly underrated. As for Eidos Montreal however, all I've played by them was Deus Ex: HR, and you know how that went for me.

If the haunted and monster bits of Thief Gold are what you're expecting in Dishonored and will only play it if those are present, then I can't recommend it to you. It's much more the child of Thief II than Thief Gold. There are plague victims which are zombie-esque, but there's nothing that compares to the catacombs, the mines, or the Constantine's mansion (in as spoiler-free terms as possible) in Thief Gold. The game is basically entirely going through, admittedly somewhat distopian, heavily urban areas. The art style, for me at least, is very remenisent of how Alice: Madness Returns draws the normal areas of London (which I'm fairly sure is the city and time period they were trying to replicate in Dunwall).

Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic stealth game, one of the best I've ever played, but if you want the creepy exploration bits of Thief Gold, that ain't here.

Also, I HAD NO IDEA ARKANE MADE OTHER GAMES!! They've had a copy of Dark Messiah sitting at the Gamestahp down the street for ages! Gon' have to get that bad boy tomorrah.

[Xeogred]

Yeah Exhum, fate isn't looking too good with Thief 4 for you.

I laughed at GI's podcast when they mentioned HR having good verticality to it. Um, it is in no way comparable to how Dishonored handles it. And unfortunately that's one of the biggest issues I had with Thief 4. The level design was so insanely complex, getting to a street over sometimes required going through windows (loading times) zig-zagging through apartments and other crap... just to get on the other side. 5-10 minutes later! Can you jump on that roof that's a few inches from your head? Nope, only sometimes. Man it was a headache because the hub was damn fragmented and riddled with loading screens. This was thankfully not a huge deal in HR to me, the level design philosophy seems similar, but it just handled the smaller hubs way better and the game was more "point A to point B" for the most part. But with Thief 4's hub and all the side missions, I wanted so bad to care but couldn't stomach it after awhile. So the game got a lot better to me when I said screw the side missions and just focused on the main quest.

Thief 4 DOES have another cool haunted level though. The atmosphere and art direction is amazing. But the game design is yikes in too many areas.

Dark Messiah was freaking cool. I played it on the 360 but I'll get the Steam release sometime for a replay. It definitely did melee and the combat really well.

[Exhuminator]

If the haunted and monster bits of Thief Gold are what you're expecting in Dishonored and will only play it if those are present, then I can't recommend it to you.

I wasn't expecting that stuff, I was saying that's why I hadn't jumped on Dishonored yet. Exploring urban areas and fighting human guards just isn't as exciting to me as say sneaking around ghosts or monsters. I'm sure Dishonored is solid though, I've only ever seen it praised.

I HAD NO IDEA ARKANE MADE OTHER GAMES!! They've had a copy of Dark Messiah sitting at the Gamestahp down the street for ages!

Yes, they made two fantastic games before Dishonored:

Arx Fatalis
-This is basically Ultima Underworld 3. A truly fantastic dungeon crawler, but I can only recommend the PC version. It's on GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/arx_fatalis

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
-This is an action adventure game with fantastic melee combat. A lot of people were disappointed with it on release, because they were expecting a true Might and Magic game. But really this has nothing to do with classic M&M gameplay. If you just want a kickass medieval fantasy first person slasher, this is the ticket. I played through the PC version of this, but I guess the 360 version is okay.

So the game got a lot better to me when I said screw the side missions and just focused on the main quest.

I'll keep that in mind when I play it.

[isiolia]

It's arguable a bit less on the RPG elements and NPC stuff, kind of like the original Deus Ex vs Thief or System Shock 2, so they are different flavors, but yeah. Dishonored just continues to feel like a flawless masterpiece in my eyes. With the exception that the rewards system is unfairly unbalanced, with there being very limited options for non-lethal, but doing high chaos gets you the bad ending.

For the "arguably" part - for my money, the way that Dishonored handles things can be stronger for role playing than some. High or low chaos runs make significant impacts to viable playstyle, since you have to abide by self-set rules. Deus Ex games do that occasionally too, but I don't think they tend to stick with them for the length of the game (HR has an achievement if I recall, but you can basically just pick whatever ending you want).

To me, that beats out navigating a bunch of conversation options, and then doing the same fight anyway.

[Xeogred]

Hah, I can definitely see what you mean. In addition to that I really do like how Dishonored's characters and plot feels low key in a way. Almost even transparent to an extent a first time through if you don't really pay attention or try to dive into it, but I don't say that in a bad way. It just feels really grounded and it's like the characters don't "pop" out in unrealistic ways. Which can be a goofy offputting thing in other games sometimes, like hey here's this super detailed colorful looking NPC and character with forced cutscenes and stuff, so he must be important! None of that in Dishonored really. It has a weirder sense of storytelling that doesn't seem to pander to the player like you're a dumby, I really dig that about it. Hopefully 2 is similar.

[MrPopo]

I did a low chaos run in Dishonored (but missed out on getting no kills because apparently tossing an unconscious body in the water to hide it kills the guard) because Corvo was wrongfully accused and was trying to do the right thing. My plan is to do a high chaos Emily run because she has been personally wronged and is out for blood.

[Ack]

(but missed out on getting no kills because apparently tossing an unconscious body in the water to hide it kills the guard)

Just like in Thief.