NA October 9, 2012 AU October 11, 2012 JP October 11, 2012 EU October 12, 2012
Genre(s)
Action-adventure, stealth
Mode(s)
Single-player
Media/distribution
Optical disc, download
Dishonored is a 2012 first-person stealth action adventure video game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released worldwide in October 2012 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, beginning in North America on October 9.
Set in the fictional industrial city of Dunwall, modeled after Victorian London, Dishonored
follows Corvo Attano, a legendary bodyguard to the Empress who is
framed for her murder and forced to become an assassin to seek revenge
on those who conspired against him. Attano is aided in his quest by the
Outsider, a powerful being who imbues him with magical abilities.
Several actors provide voice work for the game, including Susan Sarandon, Brad Dourif, Carrie Fisher, and Chloë Grace Moretz.
The game is played from a first-person perspective and allows the
player to tackle a series of assassination missions in a variety of
ways, with an emphasis on player choice. Missions can be tackled by
stealth, combat or a combination of both. Exploring levels opens new
paths and alternatives for accomplishing mission goals, and it is
possible to complete all missions and eliminate all of Attano's targets
in a non-lethal manner. The story and missions are modified based on
violent actions, or lack thereof, committed by the player. Magical
abilities and equipment are designed to be combined to create new and
varied effects.
Gameplay
The game is played in first-person, with an emphasis placed on stealth
action and the utilization of gadgets as well as the
environment to
eliminate opposing forces. The game world is a series of self-contained,
mission-focused sandboxes designed to allow for multiple avenues of
exploration in terms of in-game movement and powers. Between missions
the player is taken to a central hub in a pub.
In the pub Corvo can meet with his allies, receive mission briefings,
alternate objectives, and convert recovered loot into new equipment and
upgrades.
In-game areas include loading docks, royal estates, poverty stricken streets, and a bathhouse.
The game features the ability for the player to save anywhere and also
includes a checkpoint save system, with both disabled during combat.
There are four difficulty levels which affect the effectiveness of
health and mana potions, and enemy perception, damage and
responsiveness. The easy difficulty also enables health regeneration.
Dishonored also features role-playing game elements
including a character upgrade system and moral choices with focus on
non-linear consequences. The game is designed to allow the player to
complete it without killing any NPC, including boss characters and
mission targets. An example of a non-lethal situation given by
co-creative designer Harvey Smith
involved the player completing a side mission for a character which in
turn was rewarded with the mission targets being kidnapped and enslaved
in a mine.
Each mission contains multiple avenues of exploration and reaching
targets, with traversal and exploration of levels designed to support
the array of abilities at the player's disposal, rather than having a
specific "hacking path" and "sneaking path".
Specific elements of missions are also randomised such as altering the
color of a targets clothing and mask in one mission, requiring the
player to explore the game area to locate the intended target each time
the mission is played.
Actions committed by the player are not judged to be of a good or
evil morality, but instead are tracked by a "chaos" system that records
how much collateral damage, violent actions and deaths are caused by the
player. The game world is modified by how little or much damage is
caused, affecting story decisions with an emphasis on not punishing the
player or forcing them to choose one style of play over another.
For example, a non-player character (NPC) who disapproves of violent
methods may not support the player and may even betray them.
The game reacts to the chaos caused in both scripted ways, such as
dialog, and dynamic ways, such as increasing rats, plagued citizens and
adding new scenes, and can affect the current mission and future ones.
The system also influences the two game endings obtainable, with variations based on which characters live or die.
Playing violently can allow missions to be completed in less time than a
stealth approach, but will consume more resources such as health and
mana potions, which are required more often in direct combat.
Features and abilities
Gameplay emphases combining bypass
obstacles. The player summons rats, slows time so that they can attach a
weapon to a rat and then possess that specific rat, before walking it
to the enemy, killing them. (0:3
The game features six active powers, four enhancements (passive
powers), and 40 "bone charms" that grant the player supernatural perks
such as increasing the duration of rat possession. Only three bone charms can be active at any time.
Smith and Colantonio stated that it is impossible for a player to
accrue all of the powers and abilities in a single playthrough. Mana is
necessary to use the abilities and only partially regenerates after use,
enough to allow the use of powers like "Blink" and "Dark Vision", but
mana potions are required to recover larger amounts of mana, restricting
the use of higher cost abilities like "Possession" and "Bend Time". Magic is assigned to the player character's left hand and weapons to the right hand.
The main supernatural powers are unlocked and purchased using Runes, and each can be upgraded.Announced powers include: "Dark Vision", which allows the player to see
enemies through walls, their field of view and an abstract
representation of sound made by the player; "Blink", a short-distance teleportation ability; "Possession", that allows the player to inhabit and possess other characters from rats and fish to humans temporarily; "Devouring Swarm", which summons a swarm of deadly rats; "Bend Time", that slows or freezes time; "Wind Blast", a gust of wind; and "Shadow Kill" that turns dead enemies to ash preventing their discovery. The player also has access to weaponry including a sword, grenades and pistols. Coins must be collected to upgrade weapons and gadgets.
Stealth is based on occlusion, hiding behind objects and architecture
and avoiding the enemies' cone of vision, with lighting also a factor
in player visibility. When hiding behind an object, the player can lean
around the sides to view the immediate area and eavesdrop, and as long
as Corvo's body remains hidden, enemies will not see him. The player can
also look through keyholes to gain insight into closed rooms.
Enemy AI will respond to sound and can be distracted by the player
creating a sound in one place to lure a guard away from their position.
Guards have several states of alertness ranging from normal, to
suspicious, aware of the players presence and then actively searching
for the player. Remaining concealed from guards eventually reduces the
alertness to aware, but it will not return to normal in that particular
mission. Enemies communicate their alertness state to their allies, in
turn increasing their alertness level.
Synopsis
Setting
Dishonored takes place in the industrial city of Dunwall, modeled after late 1800s-early 1900s London and Edinburgh,
that is ruled over by an oppressive regime following the assassination
of the city's Empress and the kidnapping of her daughter. In the city,
technology and otherworldly forces coexist. Dunwall is a center for
fishing and whaling, with whale oil a valuable resource necessary for powering the city.Following philosopher Esmond Roseburrow's discovery of whale oil's use
as a fuel—known in the city as trans—the government used it to develop
powerful weaponry which in turn bred government corruption.
The city is stricken with a plague spread by rats and dogs that is
killing the poor and isolating the rich. The infected, known as
"Weepers", cry blood and can become violent against others. The government uses the plague as an excuse to take or purge citizens as they wish.
Order is maintained by the Tallboys, heavily armored officers on tall,
mechanical legs, and districts are separated by Walls of Light, barriers
made of energy that disintegrate those that attempt to cross them.
A covert group of activists, the Loyalists, plot to overthrow the
government and install the Empress' daughter as the city's leader.
Cast
The main character of Dishonored is Corvo Attano, the
legendary former bodyguard to Dunwall's Empress Jessamine Kaldwin,
turned infamous assassin after he is framed for her murder. Corvo is
skilled in stealth and combat, armed with unusual gadgets, and possesses
great supernatural powers. The game designers chose not to have Corvo speak so that the player can project themselves onto the character. The cast also includes Granny Rags (Susan Sarandon), a former aristocrat now blind and deranged after years of living on the streets; Piero (Brad Dourif), an inventor who builds Corvo's mask and supplies him with gadgets; Admiral Havelock (John Slattery), the Loyalist leader and ally to Corvo; Daud (Michael Madsen), an assassin; and Calista Curnow (Lena Headey) a caretaker for the Empress' daughter Young Lady Emily (Chloë Grace Moretz).
The Loyalists also include Treavor Pendleton, a member of parliament,
and Overseer Teague Martin. Corvo is offered aid in his quest by The
Outsider (Billy Lush), described as a mixture of God and the Devil, who imprints his mark on Corvo, imbuing him with magical abilities. The Outsider also grants his mark to other characters, granting each different abilities.
Smith described the character as an amoral figure who grants abilities,
but leaves the choice of how to use them up to the recipient. Carrie Fisher provides the voice of the loudspeakers found throughout the city relaying government propaganda.
Corvo's targets include: the Lord Regent Hiram Burrows, who
masterminded the Empress' death and framed Corvo, and now controls
Dunwall; his lover Lady Esma Boyle, an aristocrat funding the military;and the Pendleton Twins, Lords Custis and Morgan, members of parliament.
Plot
Corvo Attano returns from a voyage abroad conducted in order to
gather aid from the neighboring cities to help deal with the Dunwall's
plague. Upon arriving to the tower of Dunwall to meet with the Empress,
he delivers the message that the other cities are going to blockade
Dunwall and wait for the plague to die out, taking the city with it. The
Empress is shocked at the news, but before she can speak more of the
matter, she notices that the palace guards are missing. They are then
attacked by mysterious cloaked figures who blink in and use arcane
abilities to restrain Corvo, kill the Empress, and kidnap Emily, her
daughter. A weakened Corvo crawls to the Empress who's last words are
for Corvo to save Emily. Moments later, the Lord Regent arrives with
guards and arrests Corvo under the charges of murdering the Empress and
kidnapping Emily.
An undisclosed amount of time later, Corvo is in jail and the Lord
Regent is trying to force him to sign a confession under torture. Corvo
refuses, and the Lord Regent mocks Corvo, telling him that now that the
royal family is dead, Dunwall will need new leadership. Corvo is slated
to be executed the next day.
On the day of the execution, a guard gives Corvo his last meal, which
consists of a loaf of bread and under it the key to his cell, along
with a note saying that he is needed, and that in order to save Emily he
needs to escape the prison.
After escaping the prison he enters a dream like world where he meets
the Outsider and is granted the arcane powers that were used by the
assassins earlier. After mastering his powers, he is given his first
target: the High Overseer and his army of religious zealots.
Development
System Requirements
Minimum
Recommended
Microsoft Windows
Operating system
Windows Vista or Windows 7
CPU
3.0 GHz dual core or better
2.4 GHz quad core or better
Memory
4 GB RAM
Hard drive space
9 GB hard drive space
Graphics hardware
NVIDIA GeForceGTX 460 512MB or ATI Radeon HD 5850 512MB
NVIDIA GeForceGTX 460 768MB or ATI Radeon HD 5850 768MB
Sound hardware
Windows compatible sound card
The game was first announced on July 7, 2011, by Bethesda Softworks
as a first-person stealth action adventure game for Microsoft Windows,
PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Dishonored is the first Arkane Studios game to be published by Bethesda following its purchase by Bethesda parent ZeniMax Media in August 2010. Arkane Studios founder Raphaël Colantonio and Deus Ex developer Harvey Smith act as the game's creative directors, and Deus Ex designer Ricardo Bare acts as Lead Designer. Half Life 2's City 17 designer, visual design director Viktor Antonov and art director Sebastien Mitton lead the art team.Smith, Colantonio, Antonov and Mitton spent three years in
pre-production. Bethesda first approached Arkane and asked them to
develop a new game and develop a new intellectual property. The team
already had ideas in place for a similar type of game, but specifics did
not form until Bethesda approached the studio. Mitton contacted Antonov in May 2009, asking for his help in establishing an artistic identity for a new intellectual property. The full Arkane team including their officers in Lyon, France, and Austin, Texas worked on the game.
The development was influenced by methods that the team discovered to
exploit each player ability or tool, such as combining a high jump with
a teleport ability to travel greater distances than either ability
allowed independently. Instead of restricting these exploits, the team
tried to design levels to accommodate them.
However, not all of the power ideas were considered suitable for the
game, including a power that would turn the player into a 2-dimensional
shadow that could move along walls. Dishonored's stealth system was originally based on the Thief
series and its use of level lighting and shadows to determine how an
enemy can detect the player. However, it was decided that it was
unrealistic that an enemy could stand directly in front of a player
hiding in shadows and not detect them. It was also considered that
making certain areas dark hid the efforts placed into the level designs
and ultimately contrasted poorly with well-lit areas.
The game supports a separate interface for Microsoft Windows users
compared to console versions and the use of Xbox 360 controllers for PC.
Smith described the team philosophy of allowing those passionate about a
particular release platform to develop towards it, so those passionate
about PC work on the interface, while Xbox 360 fans are allowed to
develop the Achievements for that platform. Dishonored officially went gold on September 28, 2012.
Design
Seventeenth century London, afflicted by the Great Plague and the Great
Fire, served as inspiration for the fictional city of Dunwall.
The art team continued to get requests throughout development,
requiring them to extend pre-production until the end of the development
cycle. Each design was hand drawn instead of procedurally reproduced.
The city of Dunwall, designed to be a "contemporary and cool" "period
piece", is inspired by late 1800-early 1900s London and Edinburgh, and
in its earliest stages of development the game was set to take place in
seventeenth century London. Describing why London had been an initial setting and remained a significant inspiration, Smith explained:
Because it was the last year of the plague, and the year of the great fire of London,
which of course ended the plague by burning the slums down... In this
kind of game you’re always looking for a way to up the tension and
frankly make the world a little more perilous, and justify why there
aren’t giant crowds of people at the market. Then people had the idea
for swarms of rats, and we were talking independently about possession,
and we wondered if you should be able to possess rats and if they could
clean up corpses so you don’t have to hide them. All these pieces just
worked together.
Antonov described his inspiration from London as "a big metropolis,
it's messy, it's chaotic and intense...and it's both exotic and familiar
to Americans and to Europeans". Antonov highlighted the importance of
that familiarity to different cultures because "you want to communicate
to a lot of people when you make a new piece of fiction". He explained
that Edinburgh alternatively provided a sense of containment and variety
of architectural designs. These historical designs were then combined
with a futuristic vision which Antonov clarified was not comparable to
the brass, rivets and steam of steampunk design.
Some elements of the world design are derived from the fictional
alternate industrial revolution in the game, and others are deliberately
impressionistic.
Antonov and Mitton traveled to London and Edinburgh as part of their
research, taking photos of people, places and objects. The pair chose to
avoid the busier streets and focus on side streets and alleyways to
better suit the gameworld. Mitton stated: "We were trying to design the
game from a rat's viewpoint...if we have a small city, from a
constrained viewpoint, what are all the different angles that we can
explore?".
The world map was designed in as a single piece of art and then
sectioned so that the designers were clear on where each mission took
place.
The missions were designed based on an initial interesting idea which
was then populated with interesting things for the player to do. Paths
are defined to access the target areas and ideal paths developed and
then expanded. The area was then populated with NPCs which are assigned
to patrol routes and functions. The designers would then observe how
players interacted with the level using their abilities and powers to
test if the area provided a challenge or a suitable challenge for the
available powers, and then redesigned the level as needed.
The levels initially featured little directional information to
emphasize the player's ability to move through the level as they choose,
but testing showed that players would become lost or obey NPC commands
to not enter an area, leaving them unable to proceed. This resulted in
the introduction of more visual cues and verbal hints to direct players.
In-game characters were stylized in a manner inspired by illustrations from old adventure and pirate stories such as Captain Blood (1922), but maintaining a sense of realism and political incorrectness. An anatomy expert helped ensure the morphology of character faces represented Great Britain. Antonov and Mitton employed a textile carpet designer in Russia to design and paint some of the in-game art.
Balancing the effectiveness of the player's powers was considered
difficult, with Colantonio stating "we wanted to give [the player] very
strong powers, to make [the player] really a badass, but at the same
time we didn't want the game to be too easy." Each power is given a
duration, mana cost, and other tunable properties that allowed the team
to effectively scale even the most destructive of abilities by making it
too costly to frequently use or limiting how long it remains active.
No comments:
Post a Comment