Review Dishonored: A Taffing Codexian Review

[Excidium]

I'm sure it's a much better stealth game than Dishonored.

 

[Don Peste]

 

[visions]

I don't remember such a huge outcry after the Outcast feature.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Better this than girly action JRPGs.

 

[Roguey]

Since this thing has character customization and levels that change based on your playstyle, it qualifies as a RPG using Avellone and Sawyer's definition. M:

 

[Lord Andre]

Someone must have noticed by now, probably a few have mentioned it, still it merits a repeat: Excidium is an idiot of the highest caliber.

Nice review.

 

[Murk]

Good review -- you don't fly off the handle in either direction and you give good examples. Well done. I may end up trying this at a later time, but that depends on if I work through my backlog of games already (Witcher 2, Risen 2, and soon the kickstarter games).

 

[Carrion]

It's a nice review that did make me a bit more interested in the game. How long did it take you to finish the game on your first playthrough, JarlFrank?

 

[SCO]

Can't wait for the Kucona Sujo (or whatever that crap is called) review.

 

[tindrli]

 

[Twinkle]

 

[godsend1989]

What did Dishonored ever done to you ?

 

[Metro]

Next up: RPG Codex reviews Mists of Pandaria.


(I kid.)

 

[Zed]

Dishonored is a pretty cool game and this review feels pretty accurate on every point it covers. It's not an RPG but as far as popamole bullshit goes, this is pretty cool.

Next up: RPG Codex reviews Mists of Pandaria.


(I kid.)

fuck yeah I'm gonna write it now. 10/10 - MoP plays best when you've done the DEW motherfucker

 

[Brayko]

This sucks. Artfag games getting reviewed now because of a woman. /trollol

 

[sea]

Good review, though you missed one thing: the game records a fuckton of actions, far more than just chaos. There is alternate dialogue for almost every conversation in the game based on your previous actions, and a ton of stuff affects the world in little ways. Remember the painting of the High Overseer at the beginning of the game, and how if you steal the wine bottle from the nearby table, Sokolov yells at you for taking his scale reference? When you visit the High Overseer's secret room during the first major mission, and find the painting, it will have changed based on whether you removed the wine bottle or not.

There are tons and tons of things like this throughout the game, from the chaos rating affecting various dialogues and actions (i.e. on a high chaos play-through, Samuel shoots you and calls you an asshole later on, instead of being friendly), to the game altering conversations ever so slightly if you did event A before B. There's even little things in solving objectives you might not notice. For instance, if you swap the wine glasses on the High Overseer's table so he drinks his own poison, the guard captain is supposed to be accused of the murder and dragged away - but if you take out the guards he calls for first, he panics when nobody shows up and makes a break for it, which counts as rescuing him, and in the next mission there are fewer guards and security devices due to his more level-headed leadership. In other cases, tripping alarms will cause your assassination targets to retreat to more secure locations.

I have to imagine there might be less of this as the game goes on, as I get the sense Arkane had to make a lot of cuts, but even so this sort of thing really makes replaying Dishonored interesting. Too bad it's not always obvious unless you do actually replay it, though.

Thief/Deus Ex-like games seem to have gained an "honorary RPG" status over the years.

Basically. I'm okay with Dishonored because of its lineage. However if it didn't have the pedigree of Harvey Smith etc. and the obvious links to Arkane, Thief and Deus Ex, I wouldn't think to cover it.

 

[Raghar]

I told you, you shouldn't compare it to Thief.

Well, you missed that assassination part, and that artistic part. It's not a sneaking game, just as Alpha protocol isn't pure shooter. Talking only about stealth is counterproductive, it's an assassin, thus he should kill people often in creative way. There are also references on some people in 19 century. For example Sokolov. You completely avoided who was inspiration for various characters.


BTW some missions change. For example a Pendleton can be in different room.

 

[racofer]

As usual, none of you have no idea what you are talking about.

So we all know what we are talking about?

 

[suejak]

What RPG elements does this game have...? Multiple solutions?

 

[Serious_Business]

There it is

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

While this does not bring me to quite the levels of emotional engagement it probably should, I still think it might be a good idea to establish an explicit running main site feature for covering non-RPG games that are nevertheless considered to be of interest (due to whatever tangential relationship to actual RPGs they may have or any other reason the editor can think of). That way it will not seem as if some sort of Codex seal of approval for their RPG supposed status is implied.

Also, about a Codex Thief review/retrospective: maybe Serious_Business would care to extend on his write-up? I thought it was pretty good.

 

[agentorange]

Why don't we just get rid of every forum not dedicated to RPGs, and instantly ban anyone who posts about a game that is not an RPG. That includes banning anyone who posted in this thread.

 

[ironyuri]

Basically. I'm okay with Dishonored because of its lineage. However if it didn't have the pedigree of Harvey Smith etc. and the obvious links to Arkane, Thief and Deus Ex, I wouldn't think to cover it.

how's that Epic Mickey review coming along?

epic/10

warren spector / 100

 

[ironyuri]

While this does not bring me to quite the levels of emotional engagement it probably should, I still think it might be a good idea to establish an explicit running main site feature for covering non-RPG games that are nevertheless considered to be of interest (due to whatever tangential relationship to actual RPGs they may have or any other reason the editor can think of). That way it will not seem as if some sort of Codex seal of approval for their RPG supposed status is implied.

Also, about a Codex Thief review/retrospective: maybe Serious_Business would care to extend on his write-up? I thought it was pretty good.

Is this an appeal to an authority? Take wings and fly my good man. You must write your own review and pull yourself up by your ass hairs.

 

[villain of the story]

Thief/Deus Ex-like games seem to have gained an "honorary RPG" status over the years.

Have they?

No, they fucking haven't. I remember the last Thief thread, some guy got ridiculed for calling Thief an rpg, and for good goddamn reason. "Deus Ex-like games" are the ones dubbed as honorary RPGs because they are shooters with stats - Desu Ex, System Shock 2, etc.

Just because something is a sneaker game with many approaches doesn't make it an honorary fucking rpg YOU LARPER STORYFAG CUNTS HOPE YOU LIKE YER C&C UP YOUR ARSES FFSSADFAHSGFAGGHJADG

We do have a collective soft-spot for Thief style games because it's practically an extinct sub-genre and also because the developers of Thief games carried a legacy that included some of the best RPGs or RPG-Lites. System Shock 1&2, Deus Ex, Arx Fatalis and I think that's pretty much it. DMoMM might also be included with some controversy. These games demonstrate to us features that could and should have been parts of every RPG by now so we are nostalgic about them. But also because they are just solid games.

It's a stretch to say "honorary RPGs status". Maybe we could settle on "bastard cousins of RPGs"?