Game of the Year Trinity: Dishonored
Why is Dishonored the best game of the year?
By modern standards, Dishonored is the most conventional of the year’s best games. Coincidentally, it’s also a game whose greatest strength is that it defies classification. It’s an assassination game where you don’t need to actually kill anyone. It’s a stealth game where you don’t care if you’re noticed. By empowering players in ways most games won’t, developer Arkane Studios has made a sandbox experience that not only let’s players act on their ideas, but encourages them to avoid the rails they’re used to following.
When most game developers tout that there are many ways to approach a situation besides facing it head on, they generally mean you should try to avoid combat, but we won’t restart the game if you don’t want to. Though Dishonored definitely pushes players to at least attempt a stealthy approach, the player almost always has the tools to get themselves out a bind to either eliminate enemies or simply get away. By removing the fear of instant failure, players are much less likely to feel cheated or frustrated.
Dishonored has created one hell of a sandbox in the Steampunk-esque city of Dunwall. Like Bioshock and the Portal series, it’s Dishonored’s setting that serves as the glue that holds it together. A cityscape whose cloudy skies and plague-ridden citizens evoke a dark and brooding time for a world that’s just familiar enough to empathize with, and strange enough to infatuate — It’s not just that you can explore the city, but you’ll want to. You’ll want to read what’s scrawled on the wall, or in that dead guy’s journal, because piecing together the story of the place is as compelling as playing in it.
Dunwall also supports Dishonored’s gameplay mechanically. The abundance of exposed pipes and chains help sell the idea of a world that’s futuristic but not digital, provides platforms and other means of creeping around that don’t feel forced.
Of course, a sandbox is only as good as the toys you have to play with. The real magic in Dunwall is… well the magic. For the uninitiated, protagonist Corso is granted unique abilities to overcome the odds: It’s those powers, along with his physical arsenal, that makes the game so fun to play. Though it doesn’t sport as many weapons as the average action game, each of Dishonored’s abilities can be used to interact with the world dynamically, and not just in a canned, “use the telepathy to life heavy objects,” kind of way. Each ability is a mechanic that can be layered on top of the one’s already in play.
Blinking, Corso’s simplest power, is also the most dynamic. Though it’s only a short-range teleport, a simple means of movement, it changes the way players think about every single situation. Having the ability to move from point A to point B makes stealth more palatable by taking a lot of the waiting out of the equation. It defines exploration: Areas players would normally see as window dressing become viable perches and pathways, making the world feel bigger and opening the door for unconventional thinking.
Though not every power is as infinitely useful, they all have a similar effect of changing the way players problem-solve. Whether it’s summoning rats to take care guards, dead or alive, or stopping time to put an enemy in front of a bullet meant for you, every weapon and power feels like a whole arsenal unto itself can be used in ways other than the way you’re told to. More importantly; once you pull off some unexpected manever and it really works, you’ll want to do something unexpected.
That’s what makes Dishonored great in a nutshell: Not only does it provide the opportunity to do amazing things, the world and the gameplay compel you to play differently than you normally would.
Why is The Walking Dead better?
For the same reason it’s better than XCOM, really - The Walking Dead has an incredible narrative and Dishonored really doesn’t. Despite the amazingly complex intricacies of the game’s setting, the primary narrative of the game is a standard video-game storyline: Get revenge on the people who ruined your life… and save the world at the same time.
Though Dishonored does a decent enough job with surface-level character building, very few of them feel like actual people, least of all Corso. Your motivation in Dishonored is to play a game. You play The Walking Dead, despite the fact that it makes us immensely sad, because of a connection to the story and the characters.
Why is XCOM: Enemy Unknown better?
XCOM is also inherently more replayable — Despite all the different ways you can play each level, Dishonored realistically only warrants two playthroughs: One stealthy and one combat-heavy. Dunwall is an amazing place, but the game’s narrative isn’t won’t pull you back to play it again once you’ve put it down for good. XCOM playthroughs, on the other hand, are unique every time. The gameplay may not change, but every level will play out differently.
