Gamer Girl: A review of Dishonored.

I came across this amazing Gamer Girl who wanted to share her reviews with me. Gamer girl's are rarely taken seriously, as they're somewhat of a "mystical being" that few actually get to meet.

So, here is the lovely Christine. She writes for www.gamingopinions.com

If you're interested in more of her reviews, check it out!

Thanks Christine! 

Dishonored:

I was a little late to the game (no pun intended) with Dishonored, being side tracked by other big releases like Assassin's Creed 3 and the last few episodes of The Walking Dead. So it didn't make its way into my Xbox 360 until more recently. But with all the promising things I had heard about the gameplay, I felt it was better late than never to experience the stealth game everyone had been talking about.

Dishonored gets you into the story quickly; you are the bodyguard of the Empress of Dunwall, but quickly spiral into the role of infamous assassin when you get framed for her murder. You are set out to find her kidnapped daughter, who is the rightful heir to the throne, while taking out corrupt men who stand in your way.  This all happens within the first five minutes of the game; there's no playing around with setting up the plot.

Your first foray into the sneak-tastic experience of Dishonored is escaping from prison. The controls are a little strange at first; X is your action button, different from the usual use of A in most games. A let's you jump instead, so I did a bit of jumping instead of grabbing or opening for the first 10 minutes.  

Going into sneak mode is as easy as crouching with your left stick, but I found issue with the way it alerts you that enemies can see you. Breaking line of sight keeps them from outright attacking, but when I'm in a more open environment, there's no indicator of whether light levels help me, or why one guard seems to not notice me 2 feet away but another spots me yards away.  They do have levels of awareness, represented over their heads as little squiggly lines, but it just isn't enough.  I found myself in hand to hand combat a lot more than I wanted to be.

However, once you get your supernatural powers, things get a lot more fun. Blink is the first power available to you, which lets you teleport short distances, making it much easier to sneak by guards or get away if they are on your tail. Other powers like possessing people and animals and slowing down time make the gameplay a lot more diverse.

Speaking of diverse, the maps for the game have varying routes to complete your mission. You can sneak through a storm drain, head up over rooftops, barrel straight through guards or get to your target through connecting buildings, all within a single map. It definitely speaks to the replayability of the game.

The graphics themselves are interesting, similar to Bioshock's slightly surreal/cartoon-like appearance. In fact, a lot of the game reminds me of Bioshock but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The style, the powers, the town, all very reminiscent of the world of Rapture but it still has it's own touches to make it unique enough.

Overall, Dishonored is a fun experience and perfect for someone who really loves a variety of choices in gameplay. While the story isn't very strong, the game clearly isn't about that. It's about sneaking, snooping and killing in any manner you can think of and it's a lot of fun when you accept it for what it is. 

If you haven't tried it yet.......go get it! You won't be disappointed! 

Cheers, 

~7