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[120v]

thread is making me want to nab this on the steam sale... curious how it looks on PC with settings cranked up (only played it on 360)

anyway the game was the biggest sleeper hit of last gen for me. i was almost kind of bummed when i found out a sequel was likely because it seemed better as a "one off" kind of thing... but hopefully arkane will bring the goods

 

[Fahzgoolin]

i liked the game, but i adored the styilized oil painted art style

I was always amazed to hear so many complaints about "ugly graphics."

 

[wild wild rice]

Shit. Now I REALLY wanna start another playthrough.

Do we have any idea if this "definitive version" on PS4 is actually a thing?

 

[Zolo]

Hopefully, the game takes place on another island/continent with a new main character.

 

[UnluckyKate]

Hopefully, the game takes place on another island/continent with a new main character.

teaser last year (maybe fake) hint at the southern islands, so another country than where Dunwall was

 

[Jb]

I was always amazed to hear so many complaints about "ugly graphics."

One obvious shortcoming of the art style was how wooden the characters' faces were. It made it sort of hard to care bout most of them.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

One obvious shortcoming of the art style was how wooden the characters' faces were. It made it sort of hard to care bout most of them.

Hmm. I always thought the faces jusy looked grim and hardened. I guess I can see what you mean.

 

[inm8num2]

I liked how the faces had a caricature element to them with somewhat exaggerated features.

 

[Coreda]

curious how it looks on PC with settings cranked up (only played it on 360)

Courtesy of DownsampleGAF (Dennis, jim2point0, iNvid02, etc):

 

[Derp]

I'm tempted to buy the first one if it make an appearance in the Steam sale. What's the funnest way to play through it? No killing at all?

 

[MichaelFassbender]

More Dishonored is great! Hopefully they'll keep the tone and quality from the first one. Arkane does good work.

 

[CHC]

I'm tempted to buy the first one if it make an appearance in the Steam sale. What's the funnest way to play through it? No killing at all?

Don't try for either, just do whatever the coolest thing is at the moment. If you see the chance to use an ability in a clever way, seize it. If you get caught, don't load - try to get out of there and turn the tables on them.

The whole kill / no-kill thing is NOT absolute. You can still go through the game and kill some people without unfavorable outcomes. The only reason to kill ZERO people in a playthrough is for the external achievement, it's not acknowledged in the game itself.

 

[JaseC]

I'm tempted to buy the first one if it make an appearance in the Steam sale. What's the funnest way to play through it? No killing at all?

Taking the lethal approach offers a far broader pallet for experimentation.

 

[Seanspeed]

Courtesy of DownsampleGAF (Dennis, jim2point0, iNvid02, etc):

With a GTX970, you can play the game at 4k with a locked 60fps. It's lovely.

Alternatively, at 1440p/60fps with a GTX670, which still looks nice.

I suppose I can see how some might not have been too impressed on the 360/PS3, but I still quite like the art style.

 

[The Technomancer]

Sweet. If it looks like they figured out the problems with the level design I'm there

 

[keltickennedy]

I was always amazed to hear so many complaints about "ugly graphics."

Yeah, some people just think that "more realistic" means better graphics. Personally, I love when games go for their own unique style rather than trying to achieve hyper realism.

 

[Stiler]

This just isn't true. Most of the supernatural powers (Blink, Dark Vision, Bend Time, Possession, Windblast, Agility) were non-lethal. It was only the rat swarm and turn-bodies-to-ash one you'd miss out on, and all the weapons and gadgets had lethal and non-lethal variants.

This is the game that turned non-lethal assassinations into almost mini-missions of their own, figuring out the sequence of events necessary to deal with all your main targets without having to kill them. Things like eavesdropping on guards and reading books to find out you could brand the High Overseer as a heretic, turning him into an outcast. Or the whole investigation at the fancy dress ball, talking to all the guests to work out which of the three identically-dressed sisters is your target, and then convincing her to follow you out to the sewers to be abducted. As opposed to the lethal option of "just stab'em"; if anything there was more attention paid to to non-lethal side of gameplay.

Maybe you misunderstood me, I am mainly talking about powers that you can use for "combat."

Things like:
Devouring Swarm
Wind blast (the upgraded version)
Blood Thirsty
Shadow Kill

Are all powers that you can't really use if you want to play for the good ending.

Meanwhile, what powers (for combat use) are there?

There's bend time....and the first version of Windblast, that's about it.

Then you had the weapons, sword? nades? ranged?

Where's the blackjack? brass knuckles? Sleeping darts?

Thief/Deus Ex (the first one) and Hitman are better at this then Dishonored imo.

You had far more gameplay choices if you didn't care about getting the good ending.

I'm not saying that it wasn't nice to have choices in how you played and have choices that affected the ending in moral ways, I'm just saying the powers and tools they give you far favored the "bad" apporache over the good.

 

[neogaffer1]

I'm not entirely sure it's Dishonored II. I'd love for it to be, but we did have that leak of Dishonored: Definitive Edition, which could also be the reason for Arkane staff being part of Bethesda's presentation.

 

[CyberPunked]

I think the only thing we need to be hoping for is that they didn't choose to use IdTech 5...

 

[neogaffer1]

Maybe you misunderstood me, I am mainly talking about powers that you can use for "combat."

Things like:
Devouring Swarm
Wind blast (the upgraded version)
Blood Thirsty
Shadow Kill

Are all powers that you can't really use if you want to play for the good ending.

Meanwhile, what powers (for combat use) are there?

There's bend time....and the first version of Windblast, that's about it.

Then you had the weapons, sword? nades? ranged?

Where's the blackjack? brass knuckles? Sleeping darts?

Thief/Deus Ex (the first one) and Hitman are better at this then Dishonored imo.

You had far more gameplay choices if you didn't care about getting the good ending.

I'm not saying that it wasn't nice to have choices in how you played and have choices that affected the ending in moral ways, I'm just saying the powers and tools they give you far favored the "bad" apporache over the good.

I remember hearing somewhere that the original plan wasn't to give a non-lethal approach at all, or at least not put any emphasis on it at all, until they found that play testers liked going the non-lethal route, which is why the equipment and abilities are so heavily favored towards lethality.

 

[The Janitor]

With a GTX970, you can play the game at 4k with a locked 60fps. It's lovely.

Alternatively, at 1440p/60fps with a GTX670, which still looks nice.

I suppose I can see how some might not have been too impressed on the 360/PS3, but I still quite like the art style.

I would recommend 4xSGSSAA though, better performance and less jaggies than 4K.

 

[CHC]

I think the only thing we need to be hoping for is that they didn't choose to use IdTech 5...

Yes, please. I can deal with I guess, Wolfenstein was fine, but the thought occupying the back of mind pretty much the whole time is just "this would be better in Unreal."

I know Unreal Engine 3 has gotten a lot of shit over the years, but it works. It gets the job done. It performs well. It doens't have weird restrictions.

I trust them to make a good choice and a good game regardless, but yeah... I'd really rather not see idTech5 ever again if at all possible.

 

[timetokill]

Yeah, chalk me up with the "punished for killing is the point" crowd. Numerous abilities were neutral in their base use, so it's not like playing pure non-lethal stealth regressed you to a limited set of skills. That and the non-lethal variants for targets usually required more involvement than simply offing them.

The game just didn't pat you on the back for massacring. And I mean, it doesn't have to. I think it's fine if that was detrimental to your experience but that was also largely the point. The Outsider drills this into you on several occasions, either mocking you for your insatiable use of the powers he's given you to mass murder everyone, or expressing surprise at your resilience. He empowers you to effortlessly kill and the challenge on your end is whether or not you'll succumb to that.

If you don't like the consequences for doing so, such as a bleaker ending, that's really your problem. "It's bad design that the game didn't give me a happy ending when I murdered everyone". It's really not.

The other thing that people tend to forget is that, on the micro-scale, killing people makes the game easier in the moment-to-moment gameplay. It is a hell of a lot easier to kill people and then not have to worry about watching your back, etc, than sneaking through an area unseen.

The idea that you are "punished" for killing at the end is counter-balanced by the fact that you are "punished" throughout rest of the game for taking the pacifist approach.

And yeah, the narrative points all stand as well, as you mentioned. But comparing the game as though only the ending matters is really missing the point as well.

 

[ttech10]

Technically 8, devouring swarm can occasionally come in handy if you need a rat to possess.

I believe I've beat the game 5 times between PC and PS3, and I never considered that. So yea, even more neutral powers, with more "strictly good" powers than "strictly bad" ones. I always looked at is as the powers were for a more low chaos playthrough and the weapons for a high chaos one, so surprised that so many people feel the powers were geared towards and "evil" playthrough.

I actually liked the ending where you save Emily in a high chaos path better than the low chaos path. Also, high chaos got a better last level which is much more important than a 2-minute cutscene.

I've only had that ending once, but yea, it was more interesting than the low-chaos one. However, I'm also just not a fan of that level. Enemies would always end up respawning for me, impossible to actually clear it out. All playthroughs except the first one (where I attempted to knock everyone out) I just blinked my way through it in 5 minutes.