Dishonored

Game trailers do strange things to the head, just like movie trailers, and sometimes the editor who makes three minutes of awesome can do more for game anticipation and early sales than just about any other factor. Nowhere has this been more true than in the game Dishonored, the heavily-styled diesel-punk assassination game from Arkane Studios.

The fact is there’s just a bit of everything thrown into this game: whale oil powers an industrial revolution! Pistols and swords! Corruption and intrigue! Magic and kidnapped empresses! Stabbing! Just about no weird trope is off the table, and that’s as true for the gameplay (you can be super stealthy and never harm a soul, or burst in on your target after killing everyone in your path) as it is for the storyline. The game looks a treat, if a bit washed out and stylized, and once you get a play style down of how to approach your missions, movement around the city is dead fun.

Sadly, if this game should be compared to anything, it’s Batman: Arkham City, and few games can stand up to a comparison like that. While Batman has a lot of the mythos and world-building already established, the game makes Gotham feel like a living, breathing world that extends far beyond what your character can see. The little details give it so much life and the movement, combat and skill progression feel so natural that it stays with you long after it’s over. Dishonored, by contrast, feels a bit like a theme park ride, where there’s lots of set dressing and style, but scratch the surface too far and there just isn’t much there.

No mistake, Dishonored is fantastic fun, and if any game has earned a franchise and a sequel, it’s this one. There’s a lot of ambition here, and while not all of it pays off, the parts that do make for a great few hours. [Alex Cole]