5 Niggling Things: Dishonored

“No piece of media is ever perfect”; those words, placed in my review of “The Last of Us” have led to this new series. The games that I rate highly all have a moment or two that keep them from entering the realm of complete flawlessness. Hopefully I won’t be too nit-picky, but here it is; “5 Niggling Things” with Arkane Studio’s Dishonored.

1. The occasionally fiddly sword play

Taking the more direct approach in Dishonored almost always results in clashing swords with opposing guards and while it is often brutally satisfying to cut your way through to your target, problems begin to arise when battling multiple foes. There’s no way to counter or block multiple strikes at once or chain takedowns together, meaning that unavoidably, you’ll take damage whilst trying to eliminate an entire group of enemies. This makes the swordplay an unnecessary annoyance at times. If there had been a wider range of combat moves to upgrade as the game went on, that would have put the sword combat on the same level as the other ranged weapons at Corvo’s disposal.

2. Predictable plot twists

After creating such an interesting world which draws from the likes of Bioshock and Half Life 2, I had high hopes that Dishonored would also match this with an equally thoughtful and developed plot; unfortunately while Dishonored’s plot does have some intriguing characters and themes, it ends up relying too much on tired twists that really diminished the impact of the story. The worst offence comes after the supposed final mission where Corvo eliminates the corrupt Lord Regent; he returns to the Hound Pits Pub a job well done, grabs a drink and what do you know? He gets betrayed again, this time by the people he thought were his allies in the fight and is dumped in the flooded district of Dunwall to die. It didn’t completely spoil the game’s setting and atmosphere but it did diminish the game’s overall impact a bit, leaving the gameplay to make up for it.

3. Granny Rags or Slackjaw?

Towards the end of the game, Corvo comes across an encounter between the mysterious Granny Rags and gang boss Slackjaw. They have been against each other over the course of the game and now marks the final part of their participation in the storyline. Will Corvo throw Slackjaw into Granny Rag’s mystic cooking pot, or will he free Slackjaw and kill off Rags for good? It’s an interesting dilemma but it also stands out as the one time in the campaign where the game’s freedom of choice is interrupted and you’re forced to decide one way or the other to proceed onwards. Ignoring both characters and getting the key to the door is an unnecessarily difficult process, especially if you’re going for the no alert and no kill playthroughs; attempting to pickpocket the key from Granny Rags always results in her detecting you, making this choice an infuriating part of the story.

4. Infinitely respawning enemies on the final mission

Dishonored’s 9 main missions pack in a great deal of variety; from the multi-layered areas of Dunwall’s streets, the covert operation into Lady Boyle’s party and the final infiltration of Kingfisher Island where all the game’s obstacles and hazards are thrown at you. There’s one tiny thing that keeps the Kingfisher island mission from standing out; respawning enemies. After going through the entire game, successfully eliminating opponents and slipping by undetected, the final mission has enemies reappear in the same location after eliminating one of them, resulting in several annoying moments of getting caught and having to reload a save. This is more of a problem once Corvo breaches the fort and must make his way to the lighthouse as countless numbers of the same enemies emerge from the same steel battlements. Ultimately the issue of respawning enemies does affect the game’s immersion just a tiny bit, a shame, given how the setting and characters actively work to draw the player in.

5. A few inconsequential moments

Dishonored builds its name on player choice, something which it does incredibly well throughout its single player mode. Will you kill indiscriminately, creating high chaos and ultimately hurling the city of Dunwall to a much darker outcome or will you choose to be merciful where others are not? This core moral choice extends into the level design which offers countless ways to traverse and eliminate Corvo’s targets and the game’s three different endings. Indeed you’ll be hard pressed to find a game that can match Dishonored in this regard. But occasionally there are a few instances where the choices you make don’t really have any kind of payoff later on. In one mission for example, you can choose to help Slackjaw obtain a code to a painter’s safe and he will eliminate two of Corvo’s targets non-lethally in return. Devious players will obtain the code but will rob the safe before returning to Slackjaw; this involves getting past the crime boss’s men. The problem is that this deed never comes back to haunt Corvo later on; there’s no hit squads sent out, no berating, no anything. The same can also be applied to the citizens Corvo may happen to rescue or assist, who only give small benefits linked to the mission at hand. These moments stick out because most of the time, Dishonored handles player choice excellently, weaving subtle changes in the levels to reflect the level of chaos. Perhaps if a sequel was to be developed, Arkane Studios could focus on giving more weight to these seemingly ordinary choices.