A bodyguard must become an assassin. In the world of Dishonored, a revolution is underway. The people of Dunwall, the city where the game is set, must adapt to the new order, but at the same time, the city adapts itself to the actions of one man. The universally acclaimed Dishonored is a modern masterpiece of the immersive sim genre, a descendant of stealth games like the equally lauded Thief. If you’ve yet to set foot in Dunwall’s dark, rat-infested streets, this may be your best chance to do so, with the game now available free for Amazon Prime subscribers.
In Dishonored, you play as Corvo, bodyguard to Empress Jessamine. At the game’s outset, Jessamine is assassinated, her daughter is kidnapped, and Corvo is tossed into jail by the perpetrators, having been framed for it all. Before long, Corvo finds himself blessed by a dangerous god-like being, who grants him supernatural abilities that will let him take revenge on those who wronged him. The rest of the game is about Corvo enacting that revenge, and how the world reacts to his methods.
Dishonored is a stealth game, but what that means is up to you. You can move through Dunwall entirely unseen, finishing the game by staying out of sight and avoiding harming anyone you don’t absolutely need to. Or you can go with the idea that it doesn’t matter how many people see you, as long as they don’t make it out of the encounter alive.
Plenty of games have played with morality systems, like Mass Effect letting you choose between being a space saint or violent maniac, and Fable literally keeping track of your character’s deeds by changing their body. Dishonored goes a step further, letting the city of Dunwall itself keep the score for your actions. Be a silent shadow and Dunwall will continue on as it’s been, maybe even ending up a little better for your presence. But reach for your knife a little too often and the city will fall into chaos, with scared guards getting more trigger-happy and waves of flesh-eating rats consuming the streets. Dishonored is a living example of how one person’s actions can ripple out with profound consequences for their community, though having magic on your side definitely makes the change more dramatic.
As you shape the fate of Dunwall, you’ll also be playing through one of the best stealth games in recent memory. As an immersive sim, Dishonored is all about how you combine your environment and your powers to create unexpected effects. There’s almost never a “correct” way to approach a problem in Dishonored. Instead you have countless options for how your supernatural abilities and more mundane stealthy tools and techniques can be used to make it through. Teleporting behind an enemy for a takedown, freezing time before they can respond, and calling on ravenous rodents to devour foes are just a few of your many choices, and you can find surprising ways to use them in concert all the way to the finale.
Dishonored: Definitive Edition — the version available for free — also includes all of the game’s DLC. That means you’ll have access to additional story campaigns after the main game, and a challenge mode spread across ten new levels. So whether you want more of Dunwall’s bizarre supernatural affairs or just a playground to use the game’s otherworldly abilities, you’ll have more of what you’re looking for.
The stealth and immersive sim genres aren’t nearly as popular as they used to be, and Dishonored is among the best they have to offer. It’s a game well worth playing, especially since a spiritual successor has recently been released. That makes now a great time to see what makes Dishonored so special, knowing there could be more of it coming before too long.
