Featured Image: (Pacer Graphic / Sophia Phillips)
The gaming industry reached an unprecedented peak in the early 2010s. Games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Minecraft, Dark Souls and Far Cry 3 dominated the industry while also making a statement. They were so well received that they are still considered some of the best games of all time today. Among these games, there were a multitude of genres. From action to horror to puzzle, gaming saw a resurgence in popularity that would ripple for years to come.
One genre that didn’t receive as much attention as the others was stealth. The stealth genre was captured by Konami’s Metal Gear Solid franchise for years, but with its reign virtually ending with the fourth installment, Guns of the Patriots, stealth needed a new game to get players invested in it again. Luckily, French video game developer Arkane Studios came up with the perfect game to fill the void that Metal Gear Solid left.
Dishonored is a 2012 stealth action video game developed by Arkane Studios and released by Bethesda Softworks. In Dishonored, the player takes control of Corvo Attano, a framed man fighting to regain his honor or die trying. Early in the game, Corvo is gifted with supernatural powers from an outside deity that watches over him throughout the rest of the story. Players must use these powers, alongside an arsenal of weapons and tools, to take the fight to Corvo’s enemies.
The environment in Dishonored is praised by fans and critics alike for how much it adds to the game’s story. As the player travels through the plague-ridden Dunwall, the city in which the story takes place, they may notice how the environment changes with how they play.
If the player kills a lot of their enemies, there are more NPCs (non-playable characters) that have contracted the highly contagious rat plague that is going around the city. There are also larger swarms of rats that devour any living being, including the player, that they come into contact with. The characters also become more cynical and downtrodden.
If the player decides to spare their enemies by rendering them unconscious however, they will see that the streets are noticeably cleaner, characters have a higher sense of optimism and there are less rat packs flooding the streets.
This type of environmental storytelling made Dishonored into the classic that it is today. It was one of the first times a game delved into its world and story while giving both equal importance.
The gameplay of Dishonored left its mark on the industry by perfecting the “play your way” style of gaming. By allowing the player to pick between stealth and direct action, it added a layer of freedom that hadn’t really been seen before.
By playing stealthily and avoiding confrontation, players could save time and equipment while still progressing through a level. If they choose to go in guns blazing, they are able to get a better feel for the combat while using equipment and abilities that they may not get to use otherwise.
The multitude of ways that the player can approach the game adds to its already spectacular design. Without Dishonored, games today could be locked into a more singular, linear pathway instead of one that sprawls and changes with how the player acts.
In the beginning of the game, Corvo Attano is established as the last bodyguard to the Empress of the Empire of the Isles, Jessamine Kaldwin I. After Empress Kaldwin is assassinated in a staged coup, Corvo is framed for her death by the empire’s religious order, the Abbey of the Everyman, and sentenced to execution. With some help from a shadowy group of loyalists, Corvo escapes prison and begins plotting to stop the government that betrayed him.
During his first night out of prison, Corvo is visited by the Outsider in a dream world dubbed “the Void.” The Outsider is a deity that some citizens of Dunwall believe to be a savior of sorts. Should the player accept them, the Outsider gifts Corvo with a set of mysterious supernatural abilities. The reason for this gift is left up to speculation, but seems to be for the Outsider’s own entertainment. Now, with help from the loyalists and powers from the Outsider, Corvo begins to take the fight to the Abbey of the Everyman.
The story of Dishonored seems simple enough at its core, but it’s so much more than what it leads players to believe on the surface level. There are themes of morality that are littered in lines of dialogue or messages written by the characters across the game. There are also warnings of political corruption, industrialism and the consequences of the abuse of power. Above all else, Dishonored is a story of redemption. It shows how one man can change everything if his heart is in the right place.
The power of choice is Dishonored’s strongest draw. It allows players to choose the person that they want to be while showing the results of their actions in the world that they inhabit. Every choice that they make contributes to one of the multiple endings of the game. Once it’s all said and done, the player must sit with their choices and think on if they made every selection that aligns with their personal beliefs.
Despite being released in an era where almost every game was peak, Dishonored managed to stand out amongst the crowd with its undeniable world building and power of choice. Now, two games and many DLCs later, it would seem that Dishonored’s story is finished, like that of Metal Gear Solid’s before it. The impact that it left cannot be understated and its name is etched in the world of stealth gaming forever.
Grade: A+
$19.99 – Dishonored: Definitive Edition – PS5 / PS4 / Xbox One / Xbox Series X|S / Steam
$9.99 – Dishonored – Steam
