CVG - 9.5/10
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The one thing I took away from it is the more patience you show in game, the more you're prepared to delve around the catacombs and really explore, the more it rewards you. So it's just a great game to kick back and just spend some quality time with.
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There's some great games games out this winter. Hitman and Assassin's Creed 3 particularly look great. But this is just, like, a once in a generation sort of game. A real epic. And sort of the sort of thing you don't get too much of now. It seems to be everything is blowing into a more action, adventure type thing, where they've dumbed it down for the mass market. This is sort of like a real gamers game.
Shacknews
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And for that reason, Arkane Studios' Dishonored is a great RPG. My emotions drove my style of game play as the bodyguard Corvo, falsely accused of killing a beloved Empress and my friend. I started with the mindset that clearing my name was secondary to finding those that killed her and kidnapped her daughter, the future monarch that I had watched grow up in my time as their bodyguard. I began play in a non-lethal fashion, fully unaware that what I was about to experience went well beyond the traditional point-and-click RPGs.
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But minor flaws aside, by the time the end credits rolled, I was emotionally exhausted and simultaneously stunned that a game could change the way I have always played. Dishonored is that rare RPG that takes the best of suspense novels and action movies and crafts them into the interactive experience. There is no need for number crunching or debates over ideal character builds. It is role-playing at its story-driven finest and Arkane has created an RPG formula worth emulating.
Giant Bomb - 4/5
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If you love yourself some Deus Ex, you're going to really like Dishonored, and if you've found the genre impenetrable in the past, I've got some good news for you.
The Verge - 9/10
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Dishonored succeeds, despite its late narrative missteps. With everything against it, Arkane has created a game with a unifying vision and design that stands apart from its contemporaries as something different. But more importantly, Dishonored succeeds as an ambitious game not content to take one thing and do it well. It demands more than most games ever will of its player, and gives more to players than most other games will ever manage.
Kotaku - Yes/10
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Playing a video game usually feels like battling against a designer's mind. Can you figure out exactly how to get past this obstacle? Can you find the solution to this next puzzle? Can you move quickly enough to defeat this boss?
Dishonored is different. Playing Dishonored feels like entering a designer's playpen. You're given a set of tools and encouraged to experiment with them, to break them, to explore and adventure and read and fiddle and sneak and kill. Freedom never felt so good.
Digital Chumps - 9/10
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Dishonored respects its audience by not only trusting them with a myriad of options, but also having the courtesy not to stand in their way. Its gameplay systems are open and intuitive, and reaching their potential feels special in a manner unrealized by any of its contemporaries. In a world where multiplayer suites didn't pollute game design Dishonored would be the latest in a long line of great, dedicated single player games. Instead it’s an anomaly, a game almost too good for its time. Don’t let it pass by.
Eurogamer - 8/10
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This is a muscular and confident game, one with the utmost faith in its own fiction and a dedication to gameplay satisfaction at a microscopic level, paid off in dozens of situations that feel completely random and organic, even when they've clearly been planted there for you to find. Tighter control and a more generous approach to replay value would elevate Dishonored to true classic status, but it stands as one of the year's best all the same.
IGN - 9.2/10
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It's a shame that Dishonored's story isn't greater than the sum of its decidedly memorable parts, but its gameplay absolutely is. Each mission is built as an elaborate network of choices for players to explore, and the same can be said for Corvo himself. Each player's selection of powers, perks and other upgrades will inform how they see and interact with this world, and no two play-throughs will be exactly the same. Dishonored is a game you'll talk with your friends about, and that you'll want to play multiple times. In this game there are always other paths to be taken and other challenges to conquer, and that's a refreshing thing indeed.
Strategy Informer - 9/10
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The plot may be straightforward but the level of detail in the world could inspire countless fan fiction stories. Some choices may not have the consequences you’d demand from Deus Ex or The Witcher but the vast majority do and they’ll blow your mind – you remember that side-quest I told you about earlier that sent me to another map entirely? I returned to it later in the game and my actions had left it overrun with Weepers. Get immersed in the world of Dunwall, of Tall-Boys, Weepers, Outsiders, Bone Charms and Granny Rags and you’ll be thinking about it long after the credits roll. Here’s what you’re going to do: buy Dishonored, put it on your system of choice, sit down, take your time, and play until Bioshock Infinite or Thief 4 comes out. But as far as I’m concerned, Irrational and Eidos Montreal really have to step up their game now Dishonored is here. Amazing.
PC Gamer - 92/100
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The fact that someone’s still putting real effort into the PC version of their multi-platform game is one good reason to buy it. But with Dishonored, there are quite a few. The fact that it doesn’t have any unskippable boss fights. That it’s one of the few major new games that isn’t a sequel or a remake. That a developer went to huge lengths to allow players this much freedom, and a publisher gave them the time and money to make it this slick.
It’s a big, shiny example of so much we keep asking for in games, but rarely get. Luckily, the best way to vindicate it is to buy and then play an amazing game.
Destructoid - 9/10
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Dishonored is that game of 2012. It's the big intellectual property that comes to retail and shows up the competition by being bold, original, and -- more importantly -- brilliant. Easily deserving of its place among the BioShocks and the Borderlandses, Arkane's aggressive, non-aggressive, unsubtle, sneaky, thoroughly versatile tale of intrigue makes for the kind of game that reminds us this generation isn't all straightforward shooters and "me too" trend-seekers. Its level design is some of the very best, its willingness to let the player decide their own path is exhilarating, and the satisfaction gleaned from a mission well done leaves one hungry for more.
Some dated visuals and a conventional arsenal do little to hold back what a truly beautiful, multifaceted, and ultimately invigorating adventure Dishonored manages to be.