Dishonored

Get XCOM first, then get Dishonored on a sale or used. It's fun (I'll do a review of it later), but it's kind of on the short side.

Also, god damn do these celebrity voice actors suck. Only one of them worth anything is Chloe Moretz, ironically enough; a freaking kid does voice acting better than these seasoned professionals.

Uh, I can't say that I've had any problems with the voice acting. Moretz is great, certainly, but I think Sarandon does a really good job as Granny Rags.

They all sound bored to various degrees. Admiral Havelock and Piero in particular strike me as really bad. Honestly, I've grown to expect random celebs appearing in Bethesda-published games, but can't they try to get ones that have at least some experience in voice acting?

I won't deny the pointlessness of the stunt casting, but I just don't see this boredom in evidence. Havelock and Pierro both sound like I would suppose they're meant to - the former regal and cool-headed and the latter socially awkward and withdrawn. Neither is a very "lively" character. (Also, Brad Dourif has actually been in a few games before.)

You know what this game could benefit from? A difficulty option above all the others that removes mana regen and boosts the cost of skills, especially Blink and Agility.

Dourif had far better direction in Myst 3, though. He was terrifying. And Slattery, like I said, was kinda terrible. To be fair, they might come from a different tradition of acting.

I blame the director. That and bad industry practise.

Lena Hadley was decent too, but Saradon could really have been camper/intenser during her boss fight.

So has anyone been able to pick out Carrie Fisher?

edited 12th Oct '12 5:51:54 AM by Nicknacks

Wait, rats, what are you do- ... damn, rats, you scary.

Are there any penalties for subduing guards?

Not really, it's just the "low chaos" way of dealing with them. Well that and unless you have the Strong Arm bone charm it takes forever to choke them out it feels like.

Side Note: On my lethal run-n-gun playthrough I got Strong Arm first, on my nonlethal play through the damn thing is nowhere to be found. I'm getting all the "kill-mo'-people" bone charms. What's up with that Dishonored?

edited 12th Oct '12 11:38:07 AM by AuraofMildChaos

Question: does using lethal methods on the mollusks count towards the kill amount? Because I couldn't tell the difference between an unconscious mollusk and a dead mollusk.

Only humans count as kills. So feel free to shoot mollusks, dogs, and rats without remorse.

Well, I got the Low Chaos ending and I liked it just as much/slightly more than the High Chaos one. In this mostly non-lethal playthrough I reserved my grenades solely for the acid spitting plants. Watching them get blown to pieces was mighty satisfying.

I'm liking the Heart a lot. It gives you a lot of neat/intriguing bits of backstory.

Speaking of the Heart, anyone else getting a slight bug with it? It's giving a whole bunch of generic NPC quotes for the male servant back at the dog pits.

Oh, and for some reason Overseer Campbell seems really attached to his sword. That's okay though, he's somehow worked out how to phase it through other objects.

Edit: Found a pair of women at Lady Boyle's with Leia cinnamon bun hair do's, but still no Carrie Fisher. I WILL FIND YOU!

edited 13th Oct '12 3:51:48 AM by Nicknacks

Apparently the Broadcaster's voice is played by Carrie Fisher. Yeah, I'm as surprised by anyone.

Speaking of bugs, I just hit an amusing one. Hit a couple of guards with windblast, causing one of them to get stuck by the arm in a door and the other to, uh, literally fall apart. Decapitated, hands and legs severed, torso split. Windblast isn't supposed to do that, is it?

I entertained myself by putting him back together. Pity I couldn't take a screenshot.

Is it the fully upgraded version? I think I've had that do it if they hit a wall at particularly close range. I'm more confused as to where those green swirly leaves come from, frankly.

I'm surprised at how rare it is to see a guard get stuck in the architecture, actually. I've had it happen... twice?

I've just discovered that it's entirely possible to play sneakily by Blinking right into guard's faces and instastabbing them while they're freaking out. That's hilariously broken. I cleared out the entirety of the Dunwall Tower chambers that way, aside from the start. Which I spent sniping people from an air vent. The AI's not very good at dealing with that.

Oh, and those plants die instantly to grenades, even if they're closed. Good to know, since they only hang out in clusters.

Once I'm able to play Dishonored on Friday, I think I'll try not using weapons except the knife. The powers seem quite sufficient to kill everything.

Wait, you can kill wolfhound without increasing chaos?

Slackjaw said he'd give me a key, but then he never did. Now I can't get into the hotel! I need that bonecharm! I NEED IT! I don't know what it is, but I NEED IT!

There are other ways in — only two of the ways are locked. Also, the key's on a woman being harassed by the Watch for her Elixir. She's in the same place the Bottle Street Thugs beat each other up in the previous level.

Nah, that's the Art Dealer's apartment. I'm talking about the Captain's Chair Hotel. As far as I can tell (and I spent a good hour scouring the grounds) there are only two ways in, and both require a key. Slackjaw was supposed to provide this key, but due to some error, it never appeared in my inventory.

edited 13th Oct '12 5:35:19 PM by Ryuhza

Yeah, you're screwed. Sad face.

In other news, I found Carrie Fisher! She's barely in the game, and only turns up if you kill the first announcer. I get the feeling that she was meant to have a bigger role, but that was cut along with a level of two — there's some concept art in the credits that are close-ups of a whaling ship. Perhaps we went there?

I finished a High Chaos run. Much, much better final level. Same layout, but Jesus. More complicated enemy types, interesting conflict between the surviving members of the conspiracy. Cool dialogue, character stuff and more exciting ending. Oh, and I hear that Samuel can try and kill you if you piss him off enough. I just stabbed him, so I wouldn't know.

Now I'm interested in seeing what happens when you leave Martin and you kill Slackjaw — or what happens to an expelled Campbell on a Low Chaos run. Killing Granny early results in her rats randomly spawning in levels, eating corpses you leave behind. So fucking creepy/cool. I wonder what will happen if you run into her by herself...

edited 14th Oct '12 7:00:32 AM by Nicknacks

Okay, I think I'm going to have to stop watching Stylosa's playthrough of the game. Not for spoiler reasons, but because he's going Chaotic Stupid. Seriously, he's killing everyone he comes across, not looking around for runes that he can use to get more powers, he killed Granny Rags for no reason other than her being there...he's just horrible at it XD

Also, what sort of conflict between the last few members of the Lord Regent conspiracy thing?

edited 14th Oct '12 3:36:33 PM by theLibrarian

I You Tubed Carrie Fisher just to hear what she actually sounds like and I think I might be writing this from beyond the grave.

Got into a bit of a pickle earlier. I reprogrammed a watchtower and then sat back laughing while it blew up the opposition. Then I forgot about it. A few minutes later, I discovered it was targetting innocent civilians as well. There was a maid around that walked into its line of fire.

I had just quicksaved. I tried to save her a couple of times (either by sleep-darting her or tanking the missiles myself), but the window of time I had to do it was just too small. She kept getting killed. Then I remembered that I had just upgraded Stop Time. So, I used it, choked out the maid with the missiles hanging in the air, and ran her to a safe place just in time. That felt good.