Dishonored

Available on: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC

Played it on: Xbox 360

Played it for: 25 hours

RATING: 9.5/10

Corvo Attano is on a mission. Not just to create destruction and chaos, but to restore order to his country and his people. When he returns from a long voyage to foreign lands, he bears sole witness to the murder of the Empress, and the kidnapping of her daughter, Lady Emily. He is framed for both, and spends about a year in prison before, at last, he is freed with the help of mysterious allies. And now he plots his revenge against the people who murdered his Empress.

Sounds like the premise for a horror movie that follows the villain, to be honest. But the plot of  Dishonored is far from some generic horror story. In fact, it's one of the most well thought out games of the current console world. Players can choose to kill enemies or knock them out, what equipment to upgrade, what powers to acquire, anything that could alter how the game is played. By the end, the player feels like a master assassin.

The narrative is great on its own, without even considering the mechanics. The characters are believable and likable, the story is extremely thorough, and the places that Corvo visits have a lot of twists and turns throughout them that lead to meeting new NPC's, all of which Corvo can interact with in any way he chooses. The missions ultimately culminate in finding and eliminating a target, but it's not like many other assassination games where all the targets are generic and evil. The enemies actually have personalities, and it really complicates the storyline when Corvo has to choose whether or not to exact his revenge accordingly. The whole thing is masterfully compiled between the pacing, character development, and player's choice, and it leaves the player actually quite satisfied.

The gameplay, graphics, and engine only help to complete the experience of Dishonored. The art style is somewhere between that of Fallout 3 and Borderlands, not quite realistic, but not quite like a comic book, either. What it does, is stand out wonderfully. The world is just believable enough to pull you in, especially with the level design and architecture, and it becomes quite addictive after only a short amount of time. Corvo doesn't have a voice actor, or a face that is shown in game, so before long, the player can actually feel like they are Corvo. The choices that Corvo makes are almost personal, and this is also compounded by the fact that the game never leaves Corvo's eyes, so the things that happen to him, from the camera's point of view, happen to the player. The game sucks the player in, and really makes him or her want to play more, which is something that many current games lack. Halo 4 may be well done, but it doesn't suck you in quite like Dishonored.

This aspect is increased because the game alters itself based on the decisions that Corvo makes. If the player decides to kill many guards, all of his targets, and eliminate everyone in his way, the game gets much darker and the city will fill with more dead and plague infected citizens. And he will become more notorious as well. Conversely, if Corvo removes his targets through non-lethal means, and only knocks out guards, he is seen as an almost Batman-like vigilante who's mission is to save the city above all else. This will lead to more healthy citizens, and a much lighter storyline. This is yet another way that Dishonored itself worthy of being one of the greatest games of the year.

A last, yet perhaps the most important, aspect of the game's inner workings is Corvo's Outsider Mark, which allows him to bend reality in a multitude of ways. There are items called Bone Charms located throughout each of the sprawling levels, and these can be used to upgrade Corvo's mark to summon plague infested rats, teleport, see through walls, cause a tornado of wind, possess people, or even stop time. These dramatically change how the game is played, and if used properly, Corvo may never even be seen during the course of the missions, especially with his array of gadgets like mines, sleep darts, a pistol, a crossbow, and, of course, his sword. Corvo is certainly on the list of the top ten greatest gaming assassins.

If you haven't gotten the opportunity to try out Dishonored yet, it is most certainly worth a try. Everything about the game comes together to provide a very unique experience that changes based on the way the player wants it to progress, which ensures that the player won't want to set that controller down until the game is over. And because of the multiple ways that the story can progress, it has a significant amount of replay value, or at least deserves to be played twice, once while saving the city, and once by causing as much chaos as possible. With all this in mind, Dishonored definitely earns that 9.5/10.