this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
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[–] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 73 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Dishonored nailed a neat trick: If every game dev stops innovating immediately after you release an innovative game, your game will always be considered highly innovative.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (13 children)

Yeah, people are always like, y no half life 3?

Look at what Valve has said in response to similar questions.

Its basically a polite way of saying 'yeah there really isn't a better possible first person shooter, single player experience.'

So they made a reality breaking first person puzzle game, became the de facto overlords of PC gaming platforms, invented VR tech, oh and made linux be able to run every game, oh and we make console-esque PCs now too, I guess.

Hell, I don't even know of other games that solve the 'multiplayer fps maps are predictable and boring' the way L4D did, where the map itself csn basically mutate, have a bunch of semi-procedural preset variants.

Nope, instead, we still have the most popular multiplayer FPS games have basically static, memorizable maps.

Turns out gamers broadly don't actually seem to want innovation, they seem to want gacha games, as gacha games are now basically more than half of the gaming market.

Example of that: That friend you know who's still really trying to convince you that Fallout 76 is better now.

[–] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Half Life 2 was about 5 years too early to be considered "basically beyond imptovement". The graphics are a little dated now, and maybe the gameplay is a little simpler than a modern FPS, but ultimately it's pretty close to the mark. I haven't been surprised by FPS mechanics or graphics in 10 years, so there's basically no way for Half Life 3 to surprise us. Dishonored 1 and 2 were basically identical. If you told me the second one came out immediately after, I'd believe you.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah, thats fair, I'm not trying to personally say HL2 is literally perfect, and I don't think Valve are either...

But they're saying that, by the time people really really wanted Half Life 3... they knew they would have to do something so revolutionary, so much better, to top it... that it actually wasn't possible.

So, think outside the box, innovate elsewhere, all the other shit they've done?

Conceptually and practically easier than making a sequel that would live up to HL3 expectations.

Although, there are apparently reports/rumors that they are now actually trying to do HL3.

But that has been the case for almost two decades.

... these things, they take time.

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[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 46 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] other_cat@piefed.zip 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh man, VGCats. I remember those days.

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[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Dishonored (1) is my favorite game of all time. I've put in so many hours across every console I've owned since it came out in 2012. Some of the best DLC story expansions of all time, too. Glad to see it still getting some love and mourning the fact that we'll never get another game.

[–] Alabaster_Mango@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Raphael Colantonio, the creative mind behind Dishonored, has started a new studio! Here's an article about their next game

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Wow that looks like a blast. I just finished my ~fifth playthrough of Bioshock: Infinite last week and that game looks like it would slot in right beside that. Thanks for sharing!

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[–] leave_it_blank@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (9 children)

When I played the Dishonored series I had massive Thief vibes, I loved it! I looted everything and I killed no one, and it felt like good old times.

Reminds me, time to play them again!

[–] dangling_cat@piefed.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

That game is insane. Like, I played the game with a non-lethal route because of the good ending and stuff. But after I finished the game, I wondered how other people played this game, and holy shit, we are playing different games lol. This game is very gorey I don’t even know it’s part of the core gameplay lol

[–] villainy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Dude it's a blast. When they came out I played through each Dishonored once slowly, methodically, and non-lethal. Then immediately started over and hauled ass just slaughtering anything that got in my way. Both ways are valid and so much fun!

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

Its a very solid heir to Thief.

Just a damn good game.

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[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If you like dishonored you should try prey by same studio. Level design is amazing and character interaction/plot changes based on how you play and where you are when certain events happen.

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[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I think I'm the only person who played through the entire game and didn't like it. Yes, yes, I should probably have quit but I'm a bit of an optimist and hoped it would get better.

It felt to me like the game really didn't want me to kill anyone. However it had any number of fun ways to kill people and then scolded me when I was naughty enough to (gasp) use them!

Also the rats were bizarrely low poly compared to everything else. Odd gripe, perhaps, but given how crucial they are to the setting it felt strangely shit.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It was unfortunately a product of its time where moral systems ultimately amounted to binary good guy/bad guy outcomes which was the style at the time. The system was designed to make you want to play it twice. If you’re used to the more modern moral ambiguity in today’s RPGs I don’t think anyone can blame you for disliking it.

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I grew up playing Fallout 1/2, Deus Ex, stuff like that. Dishonored framed its morality system as "chaos" rather than good vs. bad but ultimately I had characters complaining about my methods. You brought in someone to specifically be an assassin and then you're outraged that he kills people? I shot the damn traiterous boatman in the head at the end of the game.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (14 children)

IIRC you still get the low-chaos ending if you only kill the targets. It's just by going wild and killing everyone that you get high-chaos, and I think this fits in the moral framing of the game.

I do agree with your gripe that D1 gives you a lot of fun ways to kill people and challenges you not to use them, while at the same time giving you very little nonlethal tools. They addressed this well in the sequel IMO, but I did also love the challenge and the temptation knowing that these enemies would be so easy to defeat with a rat swarm but I just shouldn't. Like I said, keeps with the moral framing about the slippery slope of mindless revenge IMO

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Playing as Emily in 2 is really fun. You have the option to ignore stealth, go all out with your powers, and still not kill anyone.

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[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well an assassin kills his targets. He doesn’t kill every innocent bystander he sees. In the first game, the guard enemies you see are your colleagues who are fully under the impression that you are a traitor who killed the empress. They are functionally your enemies during the game, but they are ultimately the good guys.

The rebel leaders, especially the admiral are going to complain about you killing who are also basically his men.

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[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 3 points 1 month ago (4 children)

In what way do you think the game scolded you for killing enemies?

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[–] Cyv_@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 month ago

I adored dishonored, I played through them a couple times so I could see both endings, and I felt like it provided a really different experience.

I especially liked how you could do ng+ in dishonored 2, meant I could replay it as the other character with a bunch of free upgrades and unlocks to get things started.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I bailed on Dishonoured for one very specific reason; the morality system.

Dishonoured is, in my opinion a spectacular example of game design, and an equally spectacular example of how to break your game design by not understanding the way players interact with the tools you give them.

Dishonoured is a stealth game. It's also a game with a superb combat system, and a really fun and exciting set of powers for the player to enjoy using. These things can, sort of co-exist, if somewhat uneasily. But then you add the morality system.

The morality system, in effect, punishes you for playing the game in a non-stealthy way. Or, more specifically, for playing with the wrong kind of stealth. The morality system wants you to ghost the whole game, slipping past every opponent without the slightest evidence you were ever there. But doing that means not engaging with most of the powers and any of the combat.

Having the option to follow a ghost playstyle is great. But when the game sets up a bunch of really fun mechanics, then punishes you for engaging with those mechanics in exactly the way they were designed to be engaged with, that just sucks.

[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Can you explain why you think the game punishes the player for engaging in combat and killing enemies? I get that the events in the game may change but I'm not getting how that's a punishment to the player.

[–] dodos@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You get a bad ending if you kill too many people, and the non-lethal option is just the chokehold for the most part. I bailed for the same reason the first few times I tried to play through the game. The morality system is really the games only critical flaw (or they need more non-lethal options)

[–] SmoothOperator@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Non-lethal also means avoidance rather than conflict. But ultimately, "bad ending" is subjective. You still save the princess, it's just a more murdery vibe.

Also you get to kill the baddies yourself, it's the good ending where most are killed for you right?

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[–] hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes, its a deliberate choice.

Dishonored is a descendant of the looking glass studio, 0451 immersive sim games, such as Deus Ex. These are games have flexibility, they let you choose how you approach. You can fight, or you can sneak, or you can do both. The game succeeds on this goal, as you can have a very satisfying time with the combat or the stealth, and you can do both. You can fight your way out of failing to sneak.

The morality system gives the game reactions to your actions, gives your choices an effect outside of the level you're currently on. It does encourage a specific play style but that is deliberate. The outsider is a malevolent force, who doesn't care for this world. He gives you these powers that come with a cost. Getting the good ending requires to resist the temptation. That's the point.

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[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 month ago

Dishonored is one of the few games that I've turned right around and played through again after I beat it. The gameplay is just so free. It's not really the biggest map ever, but it is so dense and easy to navigate. I also haven't experienced a lot of titles that just ooze atmosphere the way that Dishonored does. The art direction is off the charts, and I think it's aged pretty impeccably. It's always a good idea to do stylized over realistic, at least if you want your game to stand the test of time.

[–] LostWanderer@fedia.io 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The Thief vibes were stellar in Dishonored, I liked it more than Dishonored 2 to be honest! Dishonored had the right amount of stealthy gameplay, places you could hide easily without too much issue. I succeeded most levels as a ghost or with few kills, solid stealth gameplay!

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[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Damn, I should really go back and play this. Bet it runs great on Steam Deck too!

[–] not_so_handsome_jack@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

That's a great idea. Lemme add that to the queue. Right after I finish Hades 2 and baldur's gate, and expedition 33 and...

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Hey, those are on my list too!

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[–] Alabaster_Mango@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Dishonored is my favorite video game series of all time! I play that thing every year, lol. Love the stealth challenges and all the ways you can approach things. I really enjoy the sequels too, and this year I've finally gotten into the books. Fantastic game. Also they leaned heavy into the style, so 13 years later it still looks decent. Not nearly as aged-looking as "realistic" graphics from that time. Those still look decent too, all things considered. But stylized graphics tend to fit their current limitations better than pushing for realism.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Alabaster_Mango@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

And a few comics!

Novels

Dishonored: The Corroded Man
This takes place about a year before Dishonored 2, and POV characters include Emily and Corvo. I really liked this one. Especially how it expanded on the relationship between Corvo and Emily. Some neat character insights too. Emily is canonically a beefcake.

Dishonored: The Return of Daud
This one follows Daud during the events of Dishonored 2 as he looks for the Twin-bladed Knife. Really cool concept that is once again brought down by Daud and his Daud-ness. "Woe is me, I killed the empress! Who can I push this blame upon to heal the hole in my black heart?!". I'm making my way through though. It does show a bit more of Gristol that is outside of Dunwall.

Dishonored: The Veiled Terror
I haven't gotten here yet. It follows Billy Lurk after Death of the Outsider, and how she deals with the consequences of the ending of that game.

Comics

I have not read these at all yet, and they may be hard to find.

Dishonored: The Wyrmwood Deciet

Dishonored: The Peeress and the Price

There may be more, but those are the only ones I've heard of.

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[–] Flickerby@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago

One of my favorite trophies to get was the no kill run on the first dishonored. A lot of fun finding all the different ways to be a ghost. Though I wish they had more stealth magic, most of the stuff was combat based if I remember correctly

[–] ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

So good, story isn’t bad and didn’t really follow. The gameplay was unique and fun.

[–] barooboodoo@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Weird stupid pedantic gripe but the way the headline is written is confusing. Isn't it only possible "years later" that anything even could be considered a classic?

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