Dishonored is easily one of the better first-person games to come out in some time, avoiding most of the usual elements found in shooters and instead giving you options galore, whether it’s laying waste to enemies using magical abilities or using good old fashioned swordplay to get the point across. In some cases, you don’t even need to kill at all, relying instead on stealth and occasionally knocking someone out as you seek justice. How you play really goes a long way here, as there’s two different ways your game can ultimately go.
For our latest Spoiler Alert, we’ve decided to talk about both of these fates, as well as the general storyline that Corvo, the main hero of the tale, follows. You’ll find treachery and death afoot everywhere, along with heinous betrayals that you might not see coming.
As always, Spoiler Alert includes spoilers, so if you don’t want to read about what happens, we advise playing through the game instead. Now, for those of you still here, enjoy…
The game opens with Corvo returning from a foreign voyage, trying to eliminate a deadly plague, which has brought death and a large infestation of rats, to the city of Dunwall. Upon delivering a message to his Empress, they’re suddenly attacked by a group of teleporting assassins. Corvo is overcome; the Empress is murdered; and her young daughter Emily is kidnapped. With no one else around to blame, Corvo is arrested and brought up on charges of murder, while the Empress’ Spymaster assumes power over the city.
Months later, Corvo is given the opportunity to escape from prison after receiving a letter from Empire Loyalists, which proves tricky at first but inevitably concludes by meeting a man named Samuel on the shores beyond the prison walls. It’s here that he leads him to the Hound Pits, where he meets the Loyalists, led by a man named Admiral Havelock.
Upon resting at the pub, Corvo runs into the Outsider, who brands the assassin with a mark, giving him the first of many supernatural abilities that come over the course of the game. After awakening, Corvo sets out to unseat the Lord Regent’s conspirators, starting with High Overseer Campbell. Now, how you wish the game to play out is entirely up to you – you can either leave a blood trail of enemies behind you, or sneak your way about and get to your target. This is where that path to your ending starts.
After a chance encounter with Granny Rags (a witch) and Slackjaw, Corvo subdues Campbell and finds Emily in a brothel called the Golden Cat, with two brothers, Custis and Morgan Pendleton, watching over her. After defeating the brothers, Corvo pursues a genius scientist named Sokolov, who helps power the Lord Regent’s high-tech weaponry and other technologies, to get information on his financier. It turns out to be Lady Boyle, who Corvo can easily dispatch of – or send away – at a royal ball.
Following this, Havelock believes that the Lord Regent is ripe for removal from office, and manages to do so – either by death or dispatching. He also learns that this Lord brought in the plague to begin with, in an effort to eliminate the lower classes from the city.
His mission completed, Corvo heads back to the Hound Pits pub to celebrate with the Loyalists – but something is afoot. It turns out Samuel was assigned to poison him at Havelock’s request, as he seeks to install Emily into Empress position and rule through her, with the help of his allies Treavor Pendleton and Teague Martin. Samuel, however, didn’t kill Corvo, and instead sends him drifting away in a boat – where Daud and his teleporting assassins subdue him.
They’re looking to turn Corvo in for a huge reward, placed by Lord Regent Havelock, but the assassin has other plans, taking out the assassins (or capturing them) and then proceeding back to the city, where he runs into Granny Rags and Slackjaw once again. Here, Corvo has the option to kill one or the other – again, an element leading to the ending – and returns to the pub, where most of the Loyalists have been killed by Havelock’s men. Here, Corvo can choose to save various allies still alive, and then proceed after Havelock, with some help from Samuel.
After catching up with Pendleton and Martin – who have been nearly killed by Havelock – Corvo goes after the Lord Regent, with the option to finish him, and then has the option to either save or not save Emily, depending on what the player’s mood is.
Now here’s where things get interesting, as you’re introduced to general good and bad endings for the game. Saving Emily, and not going on a crazy, murderous rampage throughout the game, leads you down the light path, where you not only learn that the Empress’ daughter may very well be Corvo’s, but also stay by her side as she returns Dunwall to prosperity, eventually being buried alongside Empress Jessamine after years of service. The city remains in high spirits.
However, if you decide to be a murdering bastard, and don’t save Emily at the end of the game, the plague eventually overruns the city of Dunwall, and it begins to crumble under the corruption that it’s suffered. As a result, Corvo finds himself fleeing the city by ship.
Again, the decision on the route you take in Dishonored is yours, and it’s interesting to see how conditions change as you play, like how more rats gather with the higher body count, or how people’s spirits rise depending on who you manage to spare (like Lady Boyle, for instance – instead of assassinating her, you can send her away with her beloved to live a fulfilling life). It just really depends on what you’re in the mood for, but either way, this is one of 2012’s best.
You can check out Dishonored now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Published: Feb 18, 2013 04:04 pm