Dishonored: First Look

When it comes to video games one might find that they see every single new release hyped up in a manner that is a bit more than acceptable, leading to some pretty bitter disappointments. Dishonored however, seems to be living up to the hype.

Dishonored is a stealth action game developed by Arkane Studios in cooperation with Bethesda Softworks. Arkane studios set out to redefine the concept of freedom in the stealth action genre and Dishonored seems to do just that, boasting an impressive amount of ways for players to accomplish the missions laid out in front of them. Along with this freedom to shape the story, Dishonored also equips the player with a multitude of supernatural abilities including things like short range teleporting, time distortion, and even corporeal possession.

Dishonored has fought for and won my attention in the past year through the use of tantalizing trailers and promises of unparalleled freedom. However, being the ever cautious person I am I didn’t want to overexcite myself and get disappointed by a sub-par finished project.  So, I decided to make playing the exclusive demo of Dishonored at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), a large gaming convention held in Seattle, WA, my top priority.

After several hours of enviously watching my peers get their chances with the game, it was finally my turn. I grasped the controller in my hands and dove into the scenario that had been laid in front of me. As I began to experiment with the controls I took a moment to survey my surroundings. This demo took place in a ruined portion of cityscape with collapsed stonework and disheveled residents wandering to and from my projected point of entry.

As I continued with the demo I shifted through my extensive physical and magical arsenal testing out various powers and weapons as I went, finding what suited me best. This process led me to a realization that made me quite happy, I actually didn’t need to fight any of the enemies in front of me to succeed in the mission I was given. Using a combination of time distortion and teleporting I managed to sneak my way into the primary mission location without inflicting a single casualty along the way.

Graphically, Dishonored is fantastically impressive with its steam punk style dystopian world. It sets a gloomy tone to the story as the main character, Corvo, sets out to clear his name of a crime he did not commit. Corvo is assisted by an enigmatic man known only as “The Outsider” who imparts upon him a seal and the ability to utilize supernatural abilities.

Dishonored brings a lot to the table for both stealth and action fans alike. With the freedom to choose how you’d like to go through the game, players will be able to have a personalized experience, different from their peers. Dishonored is a game that shouldn't be missed! It launches on October 9^th.

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A First Look: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

KoA: Reckoning is a new action-rpg title being released across the board (Xbox, Playstation 3, and PC) that takes a little bit from several games such as Fable, Skyrim, and Dragon Age, and synthesizes them into Kingdom's of Amalur: Reckoning. Before I actually say anything about the game itself there is one detail that needs to be cleared up before anyone even tries playing the demo: It is buggy as all hell. But there is hope! A lot of people (including myself) were having issues with the game showing up as completely black except for the pause menu and the cutscenes. In order to remedy this you have to simply go into the graphics options of the game and switch "Post Processing" to "disabled". There are still numerous bugs in the demo but hey, it's a demo I think we can cut them a little slack and save the brutal judgement for when the game is released a week from now. Anyway, moving on.

Combat: This is the selling point of KoA: Reckoning, they advertise it heavily in trailers along with their open world. In short, I totally agree with the hype they are sporting for the combat, its crisp, fluid, and stylized. In addition to the basic combat working well they give us a plethora of skills as we progress through the game with an equally vast amount of weapons to choose from. This extends to all classes and even the mages will move around a lot with their skills instead of just sitting around casting spells you're more likely to be running around executing combos and giant, awesome looking AoEs.

In the demo I decided to play as a rogue and they really did a nice job providing the rogues with a lot of quick physical skills as well as some shadow arts that you can seamlessly weave into combat. Many of the combos you can perform also seem to be based on your timing. For example, the skill "Crossfire" is started by briefly pausing mid combo which then allows you to use the opening hit and follow it up with a secondary strike to send your opponent flying. The timing comes into play with this skill when you use the second hit, which automatically does critical damage if timed properly. This mechanic drew me into the combat and prevented me from just mindlessly killing stuff as I do in so many other games.

The world: Now its only the demo but the starting area is huge, really huge. You're basically given a rather large forest to explore that has it's own set of dungeons and quests that can easily occupy players for more than the 45 minutes they're given by the demo. This is a good sign, it may not be as much of a sprawl as Skyrim but hey, it'll still provide players with a lot of content to explore and plenty of dungeons to crawl through.

The classes: This is another cool area of the game since they give you a ton of classes to choose from. By choose I mean mixing and matching skills from the three basic trees in order to unlock "destinies" which give you bonuses and unlock themselves once you've put the prerequisite amount of points into the trees. You can go full rogue and become a nightblade or go half rogue half warrior and end up a blademaster, each providing different styles of play. This allows players to really experiment and find their own niche, allowing them to have a unique experience with the game.

Overall: Based on the demo I think that KoA: Reckoning could be a good kickoff for gaming in 2012 provided they fix the numerous bugs that plagued the demo. The combat really works well with the open world setting and gives the game a very unique feel that keeps you engaged. I'm still very curious to see how the story plays out, but so far the game is looking like a fantastic early 2012 release. You can download the demo on Steam/Origin (for the PC) or just wait for the full game to be released on February 7th!

Thanks for reading!

-Fest

P.S There may be a video accompanying this post in the near future, stay tuned!

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