AnarchistReview: Hitman: Absolution

About

Name: Hitman: Absolution 

Developer(s): IO Interactive

Publisher: Square Enix

Genre: Third person shooter, stealth

Players: 1

Online?: Yes (asynchronous) 

Platforms: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360

Platform used: Playstation 3

Review

It has been a long time since IO Interactive resurrected Agent 47 and unless you count the more polished version of Blood Money onto the Xbox 360 (and we don't) this is the first entry in the series to be made for this current console generation and with the impending launch of the next generation it will probably be the last.  Hitman was the IP that IO Interactive was built on and in many gamers their confidence in them may well have been shaken by the promising but flawed Kane & Lynch and it's ridiculously short and disappointing sequel.

It would be worth declaring an interest first of all, we are massive fans of the Hitman series.  Personally I have played every version and played them to death so in order to give people a reasonable idea of what to expect I will split this review into two parts (which we will be doing for all ongoing IPs in the future), for the series fan and for someone trying it out for the first time.

Alvin!!!!!!!!!!!!

Review for the fans:

First off here's an excuse to just stop reading, if you have been looking forward to a new Hitman game I don't think you will be disappointed.

The game takes the tried and tested formula of and adds a few modern twists that bring the series up to date.  The new graphics engine looks fantastic, the rag doll physics is less hilarious, the throwing objects for distractions is smoother, the NPC interactions are improved, the dark humour is still there (if a little diluted) and the shooting is more satisfying.

If you have been concerned by the Assassin's Creed style "Instinct Mode" then you can rest easy.  In the easier difficulties it works as a hint system, highlighting relevant NPCs, targets or objects as well as highlighting objectives and offering clues ("you could drug his coffee" for example).  In all but the hardest difficulty (which strips everything out including the HDD) the "Instinct Mode" allows you to avoid eye contact with NPCs who would be suspicious of that bald guy in Gary's clothes who just walked by.  This is a finite resource which regenerates in time, is regenerated by certain actions (i.e. subduing a guard and stashing his body) or not at all depending on your difficulty.

As you would expect the higher the level the guards become more numerous and more alert depending on the difficulty.  The different difficulty levels also follows on the tradition of changing the ability to save, the first three levels allow you to activate checkpoints that saves your progress (gone are the number of hard saves you can make) and the top two leave you on your own, as you would expect you are expected to play the level through in one run or not at all.

"Whoops, um, this officer? This is for gutting fish, here let me give you a closer look"

One enhancement to the mechanics cribbed directly from another Eidos IP Deus Ex: Human Revolution, namely the cover based stealth system, allowing you to stick to cover and quickly switch from one piece of cover to another which fits well, it shouldn't all be "knock out/kill someone, steal their clothes, hide the body, walk somewhere, rinse and repeat."

It's not all good news.  Depending on how you look at it the campaign is less of a Hitman game than previous instalments and more of a progressive narrative.  Previous games had you performing hit after hit with your signature arsenal leading up to an impending final boss, the story was always something of a secondary thing. *Minor Spoiler Alert* After the prologue you are on the run from the agency and you need to give up everything but your filament wire which may make you feel a bit cheated by the narrative, however there is something of a moment of cheer when you are reunited with your beloved Silverballers.  Also not every mission contains a hit, for example the second mission after the prologue is entirely an infiltration mission with the follow up being a long escape from the bungled hit.  It is clear that the logic behind this was that as a single mission it would be too challenging on the higher difficulties so early in the game but you can be forgiven for feeling pissed off at infiltrating the building, finding the targets room, crawling into a vent and the screen going black, mission over.  What?!?

"Hello? Police? There has been a terrible accident......"

The real joy of this game comes from the Contracts mode.  This gives you free reign to pick a level, target up to 3 NPCs as targets, set conditions, make the kill and send it off to your friends list and challenge them to match your skills.  This isn't just limited to your friends list, IO create their own as well as they have stated that they will pick the best public Contract challenges and make them accessible to everyone with full leaderboards.  Anybody who is a fan of the series remembers comparing their best run-throughs of certain maps with their friends, now you can go one better with what some have dubbed a deadly game of HORSE "I've just killed those three people with a single shot from a sniper rifle and escaped whilst dressed as a chicken, try topping that!"

I have heard some people going on about the basic character of 47 has been changed, that he has all of a sudden grown a conscience.  I'm not sure that's the case, I remember his church gardener days from Hitman 2.  Like all psychopathic people he is may appear cold to the outside but through the centre is an almost sickening streak of sentimentality for anything they identify themselves with most when the time comes to make a decision. In my opinion 47 has never been a hero and isn't a hero here.

Ultimately there is nothing here to put off a hardcore fan, everything I love about this series is retained and in most cases enhanced, although the single player campaign is more story at the expense of fun missions the Contracts mode makes up for that and gives this title the longevity to be played for years to come.

Review for the First Timers

If you have never played this series you may well be wondering what the fuss is all about.  Hitman was one of the first games to ever use rag doll physics back in 2000 and it's open level design was made the series a true evolution in gaming and joined Metal Gear Solid as iconic tactical action game.  It's hallmarks of being able to steal NPC costumes (and in later instalments stashing their bodies in containers), creative ways to kill your targets and lots of black humour stood it in good stead and all of these are retained in the original.

There are some things that this game has that flies in the face of what you might expect when measured against it's counterparts on the market.  The game is not designed to be forgiving, you should expect to reload games from the optional checkpoints (not available on the harder levels and there is no option to save) or from the very beginning often.  It is designed to be a stealth game not a flowing action narrative.  Sure, you can treat it as a cover based shooter but expect to have your ass kicked if you do and you won't experience any of the best the game has to offer.

Agent 47 - The cheerful life and soul of any party

The AI is more advanced than many stealth games, you will find yourself changing your costume often in order to move from one area to the next, I have seen reviews where they expressed frustration where they dressed up as say a police officer then complained that you were spotted by the other police when they were blending in.  I don't know what your initial reaction was to reading that but if it was "that's bullshit, in Assassin's Creed I can stand with monks and I am invisible" then take a second to think, these characters are designed to be on the look out for intruders, you waltz up dressed in the clothes that belong to someone they know, of course they will be suspicious whilst unrelated NPCs will ignore you.  As an example one of the early levels you have hotel guests, hotel maintenance, electrical contractors, hotel management, maids and mercenaries.  If you are a mercenary everyone in the hotel will treat you like the armed thug you are and let you walk about however you like, however come too close to another mercenary and they will know pretty quick that you have Steve's shirt on and he doesn't remember working with a bald guy and will get suspicious, if you don't get out his line of sight pretty quick he will follow you, blow your cover then try to catch you then sound the alarm (depending on the type of NPC they will start shooting).

The game is designed to be played tactically, you have multiple routes and multiple methods.  The difficulty levels are designed to ease you into the way of playing the game.  The "Instinct Mode" which feels a lot like Assassin's Creed's "Eagle Vision" or Batman's "Detective Mode", in the easier difficulties it will show you what you can interact with, where your target is and where the guards are and their path through the map, as you go up the difficulties the access and functions of this mode get disabled until all you have is the finite ability to turn your head away to avoid suspicious glances.  The game is also designed to be played over and over in different ways which is why the accumulated level bonuses are sometimes contradictory e.g. go through the whole mission in your suit and wear X costumes or multiple ways of dispatching your targets.

Keith Carradine plays the main antagonist (not pictured) clearly unconvinced by David's "suicide" he hires a look alike to go out for revenge with his gimp and blind sidekick

For multiplayer rather than going for PvP deathmatches they have developed a Contracts mode.  This allows you to pick any campaign mission, select up to three NPCs and execute them however you like, you can then set this up as a challenge to your friends to complete your challenge with the conditions you set.  It has a build in bullshit detector, by which I mean that you need to have completed the challenge yourself before you can post it so the only limit to the difficulty is your own ability.  As well as this there are some developer created challenges and they will be selecting the best from the community and providing them for public play with global leaderboards.

This game has a lot to offer but requires a little commitment to get used to the play style but when you can walk in, dispatch your target with everyone thinking there has been some kind of terrible accident you are playing the game the way it is designed to be played.  That said there are lots of ways in between, to achieve the Silent Assassin award in each mission you need to be a ghost who facilitates tragedy but that doesn't stop you being able to find a nice vantage point and shoot your target in the head and escape in the confusion or execute every guard you find.  All of these are ways to play but ultimately the game rewards you for playing like a cold professional killer not a maniac, collateral damage gets in the way of getting your job done.

Latex clad murderous nuns because.........um..........no we don't really know either but we do know it has and will continue to piss some people off

Ultimately this isn't a traditional shooting game nor is it at all like Assassin's Creed which people will be comparing it to.  The missions are fairly short puzzles with multiple solutions and you are encouraged to take your time and experiment, the excitement comes from the tension not the violence.  If you are looking for a fast paced action driven game that you can blow through and move on to the next one you should look elsewhere, otherwise this title belongs in your collection.

DLC, Online Passes and DRM

There is no DRM on this title, which is always good news.  There is an online pass which had stuck in our throat until they relented and made it free for all to download which earned this title GAA status.  There are a number of fairly inexpensive outfits and weapons that were available as pre-orders from different retailers.  This is a real negative for us, the idea of store specific pre-order DLC is really irritating, it is a cheap commercial trick to force you to use a certain retailer and also to force pre-order over day 1 or later purchases.  Thankfully unlike the Resident Evil 6 different challenge maps or the Robin DLC for Arkham City these costumes are fairy innocuous and don't really affect the game in any meaningful way and has been overshadowed to us by essentially removing the online pass by making it free to all.

Summary

Pros

• Stunning visuals
• Great music and voice-overs
• Huge replay value
• Wide range of gameplay options from casual to hardcore
• Creative and satisfying online mode
• Murdering a gangster with Fugu poisoned cocaine
• Free online pass
• I almost forgot Kane and Lynch 2 existed

Cons

• Campaign too heavy in story at a cost of entertaining assassination levels (it feels a bit like you start part-way into the game, especially if new to the series)
• Missed opportunity to include older missions into Contracts mode (A New Life or A Dance With the Devil from 2006's Blood Money would be favourites)
• Huge numbers of NPCs and graphical details limits level maps to smaller than previous titles
• Latex-clad killer nuns and some of the other darkly comic overtones are a shade too subtle and could be misrepresented as misogynistic
• Retailer specific DLC
• Having to wait 6 years for it

Overall: Great, an essential buy for anyone who is a fan of the IP or the stealth action genre and a strong recommendation to anyone else.  If undecided as the online pass is free you might want to consider renting first to get a feel for how you like our murderous baldy clone friend.

AnarchistReview: Baldur's Gate 2

With the news of Obsidian Entertainment's huge Kickstarter success  this week, setting new records with $4,000,000 invested in their concept Project Eternity, inspired by the hugely successful Dungeons and Dragons RPGs of the late 1990s and early 2000s.  The Neverwinter Nights 2 developers who are mostly noted recently for creating the South Park RPG The Stick of Truth that looks truly promising and comprise of some of the key member of the Black Isle development team.  Who created and or published some the most definitive RPGs of all time, Fallout 2, Planescape Torment, Icewind Dale 1 & 2 and last, my favourite the Baldur's gate series.

To this day Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is a game that I have put more time into and played through more times than any other game so in tribute to this return to the old school and to celebrate a remastered re-release of this title next year I present to you, the AnarchistReview of the Bioware classic Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and it's expansion Throne of Bhaal.

Based on the hugely popular role playing Wizards of the Coast brand of fantasy Baldur's Gate 2 follows on directly from it's predecessor. Your player created character is a child of the Dark God Bhaal, the Lord of Murder and has recently finished his previous adventure where you learn of your heritage and defeat your half-brother Sarverok, another of Bhaal's children, an all round vicious bastard in every sense of the word.  Following character creation (for those of you who dread this there is a choice of 4 pre-generated characters) introduction cut scene (which for me was my first exposure to the story, having not played the original at this point) your protagonist awakes in a cell in a murky dungeon with no idea how you go there being tortured and experimented on by the villain of Tron and Time Bandits David Warner who as power hungry mage Jon Irenicus provides some of the most iconic lines from any game I have ever played, here he is breaking out of a prison designed specifically to hold powerful rogue mages in bad ass fashion.

In essence the story begins with you escaping from your prison discovering some of your old companions on the way, some of them ready to join up with you and seek revenge for their abduction, others due to a bad case of death just generally lying about waiting to be revenged.  You manage to escape into the city of Athkatla where your childhood friend, budding mage and generally sweet person Imoen is captured, alongside your captor by an order of wizards for using magic inside the city without permission.  From this point, like many of the open world RPGs you are now dumped in the centre of a huge world with a specific ultimate task to perform, no idea where or how to do it and nothing but the few bits of crap you managed to scavenge on your way.

Jon Irenicus might look like a drag queen gimp but he's all business and is out to literally tear you apart for his own ends

A lesser game might boast that as the totality of the plot but not this game, freeing your friend is just the first in the series of steps that places the whole of the Forgotten Realms in peril as you struggle against a sociopathic mage with an all consuming lust for power.  The story is immense, spanning 4 CDROMs which if that doesn't make you think wow you don't remember that this is the time of the floppy disc being the most common source of document transfer.

The main campaign is truly epic in it's own right but isn't something to be rushed as it has wide reaching effects on your party.  You hunt down Irenicus via earning passage to the isolated island prison Spellhold, fight your way through the underdark to a Machiavellian city of the matriarchal dark elves (drow) and onto an elven city to save the Tree of Life from being destroyed and with it the city then into hell to finally face your tormentor for the last time.  The expansion pack Throne of Bhaal sees you on a Highlander style mission to defeat all your fellow Bhaalspawn who are fighting for their fathers throne as the lord of murder, the question is what do you do when the throne stands empty and nobody stands between you and ultimate power as the new Lord of Murder?

Aside from these main quests which are fairly weighty on their own as with all RPGs most of the fun, adventure, humour and dark storyline take place in the sidequests where you face truly powerful mages, both living and as undead liches (in various states of insanity) as well as most races and groups made famous in the fiction, no two missions are the same.  One will have you playing detective to find a deranged serial killer with clues and NPC dialog leading you to the culprit, playing the UN in a race war alongside the usual dungeon crawling fun.  One of the most memorable moments for me is where you discover a quest giver has manipulated you and not only that is an enormous red dragon (I won't tell you which and spoil the fun), the most powerful breed of the standard "chromatic" (evil) dragons, considering their different colour kin so beneath their power level they aren't worth killing (I know, racist bastards).  Bored with his fun and having achieved what he wanted he gives you an opportunity to realised you are outmatched, take your reward and skulk off, deciding that you won't let some uppity wyrm tell you what to do leads to one of the most protracted and challenging battles of my gaming life.  I learned that their legendary arrogance against their kin is warranted  taking out a black dragon three levels earlier was a walk in park next to this beast.  The game is full of gems like this and is what sets this game as the red dragon of RPGs.

Most of the quests give you an opportunity to change your reputation and alignment with your chosen actions, effecting the game world as you go.  As with most games this gives you the scale of good to evil but unlike games such as Mass Effect where they are polar concepts you are following a general philosophy or behaviour, you can be; lawful good (Captain America), neutral good (Spider-man), chaotic good (Robin Hood), lawful neutral (James Bond), true neutral (Han Solo in episode 4 of Star Wars, before he got all loved up), chaotic neutral (Captain Jack Sparrow), lawful evil (Boba Fett or most classic Bond villans), neutral evil (Mystique or any femme fatale), chaotic evil (Riddick or a serial killer of your choice)

You develop the protagonist from a fairly powerful baseline in the scale of Dungeons and Dragons into, thanks to the expansion pack a being of literally god-like power at level 40 (fit to slap the generally ultimate mortal magical power in this universe Elminster in the face with his puny level 29) with your own home in hell.

Created using the infinity engine this world is realised in incredible detail for it's time, with rendered effects that at the time may seem run of the mill and less detailed than your average mobile phone game but in it's time it was groundbreaking, I can only hope that the high definition remastering in the re-release next year gives it half the wow factor it had then.  The game also boasts a first class voice cast, practically a who's who of yesterday and today David Warner, Jim Cummings (who steals the show as Minsc, more on that later), Michael Gough (forget Michael Caine, the real Alfred is in the house), Jennifer Hale and Michael Bell to name but a few.

You won't be hunting alone however, you have a large roster of potential allies on your quests, up to five in your party at the same time, these are, in order of going from babysitter to Charles Manson

• Aerie: A lawful good cleric/mage, deeply damaged by her past, sweet, vulnerable, child-like but deeply intelligent.  Can be deeply annoying and romancing her is like trying to seduce a girl who was abused by her dad who blames herself and didn't turn into a crack head and/or prostitute
• Keldorn: Lawful good inquisitor, a wise hugely powerful paladin who is really useful in a scrap against the forces of evil
• Mazzy: Lawful good fighter, a halfling who if it was allowed would be a paladin, instead committed to generally heroic good deeds 
• Imoen: A Neutral good thief/mage who your initial quest is to rescue, her initial exuberance wanes due to her experiences in the game, unless you are intending to turn your character into a full on psychopath her rare mix of classes comes in really handy
• Minsc: Chaotic good ranger, if you have only one play through of this game and you don't include Minsc the berserker in your party you are missing out big time.  A bat shit crazy force for righteousness who's witch he was serving as bodyguard to, Dynaheir, killed by Irenicus for the bad luck of travelling with you.  With his miniature giant space hampster Boo (hell yes you read that right) he is truly mighty in combat and leads to some of the best NPC dialog and interactions with other party members and world NPCs.
• Nalia: Neutral good thief/mage, haughty noble with a compassionate soul to the poor as long as they remember their place and her's.
• Valygar: Neutral good stalker, wanted criminal with a real prejudice towards magic and mages
• Anomen: Lawful Neutral fighter/cleric, acolyte on his path to knighthood which as the player have a vital hand in his passing of failure of his trials (changing his alignment accordingly), a spectacular bullshitter and a romance option to a female character
• Cernd: True neutral shapeshifter, a calm natured werewolf who as a former city guy turned lover of the great outdoors (for obvious reasons) has the verbal quirk of loving any metaphor to do with nature 
• Haer'Dalis: Chaotic neutral bard, part demon, sporting blue hair and an aura that makes otherworldly creatures uncomfortable, charming and witty so you best have your best comebacks to hand
• Jaheria: True neutral fighter/druid, hard willed widow who will take control if you won't and patronising to anyone who she considers less worldly wise, a romance option if you fancy trying to seduce the recently bereived, you should be ashamed of yourself.
• Jan: Chaotic neutral thief/illusionist, eccentric gnome who is a master craftsman of unique weapons and tools only he can understand enough to use, a big fan of telling stories that seem to go absolutely nowhere 
• Yoshimo: True Neutral bounty hunter, calm, cunning and evasive who you encounter early on and his lock picking skills come in very handy
• Viconia: Neutral evil cleric, sharp tongued drow with some powerful stats, a nasty habit of picking on those weaker but beyond this hard hide is a decent person and a potential love interest
• Edwin: Lawful evil conjurer, a haughty and powerful mage with a pretty damn funny party quest and some serious animosity and history with Minsc.
• Korgan: Chaotic evil berserker, a truly psychotic killing machine of a dwarf who can generally clear an entire room using his duel wielding axes 
• Sarevok: Chaotic evil fighter, you can choose to bring your evil half-brother back from the dead, with no supernatural powers, do you want to show him a path to salvation or leave him the hateful violent mess you know and love to hate  

With this long list of possible mixtures you will witness friendships, banter, bullying, animosity, theft, storming off in a huff or even violence, I have never such a complex, well written interplay or npcs been created in a game, unlike so many games where you end up with genuine feelings for your party, something that I have yet to see replicated in anything in modern RPGs.  Often you will find that certain companions lead to specific ways to complete a quest, my favourite being allowing Minsc to keep talking to get you committed to an asylum rather than break your way in.  Pawns in Dragon's Dogma, the set party and script of the final Final Fantasy series and the bland companions in Skyrim don't even come near, the closest equivalent being Dragons Age Origins which in many ways is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate but it just fell short of the levels of greatness of it's muse.  Choosing your party does more than pick the powers you want to concentrate on, it makes a statement to the world and the rest of your companions, you are who you associate with and if your actions displease your team members expect to hear about it and potentially to never see them again.

Leaving the best to last it's time to cover the gameplay, the interface is a point and click one, allowing you to select any number, or all of your party to position themselves on the map with a couple of clicks.  Combat is initiated with a simple click on your enemy, this initiates the complicated process of turn based attacks following the Dungeons and Dragons rules, taking into account the chosen attack, effect spells, armour, status effects and plays this out.  This can be a frantic affair so in order to allow for more considered strategic battles you can pause the battle with a quick hit of the spacebar which allows you unlimited time to change weapons, line up your next spell to case, assign movement or heal, once you unpause the battle continues and the actions you have selected will be undertaken.  The Forgotten Realms are a dangerous place and is certainly not a game to treat as a hack and slash like Diablo, protective spells and healing whilst taking down any magical defences your target has is essential in large monster or boss battles.  Unlike the more forgiving games your companions can die very easily and in some circumstances be entirely vaporised with all your lovely loot they were storing gone forever so go into battle unprepared at your own risk.

As a person who has never played Dungeons and Dragons myself I found this game extremely accessible once you understand the basic concepts, it has lead me into enjoying dozens of the works of fiction like the R. A. A. Salvatore Drizzt books (who makes a cameo appearance in this game, if you are a fan of his and take his name he will be pissed, especially if you are making him look bad) although I have yet to put a cape on an sit round a table to play the real thing.  This game is full of nods, jokes and cameos that the die hard Dungeons and Dragons fans will love, not to mention a fair few pop culture references.  If there was only one RPG to be saved in the world I would step over Skyrim, kick FFVII into the ditch and grip this game to my chest with out a doubt.  Go for the eyes Boo!

AnarchistReview: Dishonored

About
Name: Dishonored
Developer(s): Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda
Genre: First person stealth action/adventure
Players: 1
Online?: No
Platforms: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Platform used: Playstation 3

Review

I will be honest I have been cautiously optimistic about Dishonored, the lack of hype until fairly close to release which is more than I can say for some games that get presented as the second coming months if not years before it hits the shelves.

With a playing style style that puts me in mind of the Thief and Hitman series (it is hard to see the parallels throughout the game but that is no shame) you control a mystically powered bodyguard turned assassin bent on revenge against his murdered empress and to rescue her adorable daughter and to bring her to power.  At the beginning of each level you are presented with a target, often some sub missions and multiple paths to achieve your aims. Do you run in all swords and guns slaughtering anyone who gets in your way? Summon swarms of flesh eating rats to devour your enemies as you stride through like a dark vengeful God? Use your powers to hijack body after body as you possess yourself to your goal? Simply sneak from cover to cover or any combination of the above. All the permutations are pointless to go into but I'm sure you get the idea.

Don't be fooled by this into thinking this is a Bethesda free roaming open world do what you like affair, that really isn't the aim with this game, you aren't getting a sandbox game. You are placed into fixed levels with a clear "kill your target or do something to remove them non-fatally from the political game." This does give some nice variation but ultimately you are restricted to one of two options, killing is bad, stealth and dishonouring of your targets is good. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, you are presented with multiple paths through the levels and ways of dispatching your targets depending on your preferred style of gameplay. However there is a certain pull towards the "right way" or doing this. As with most games with a moral component going by the more fun dark path is ultimately less rewarding than the painstaking light one, much like life. There are plenty of books, audio logs and upgrades peppered around the level to keep you interested too.

The design of the game feels unique yet strangely familiar, this might be due to my years of playing Thief (for those who don't know a first person steam punk series where you could approach your target openly except your protagonist Garret couldn't defend himself if a haemophiliac toddler tried to  take him down) my recent play through of The Darkness 2 (where the character and art design feels very similar) and the fact that steam punk is so ubiquitous as the clever and unique setting it's long past being old hat.

The controls are mostly very responsive, the lack of zoom aim is refreshing as is the bobbing  crosshair that doesn't make you feel queasy. My only gripe with those is the holding down the peek from cover button feels too much like left is separate from right, the transition between the two being slightly awkward. The menus respond nice and quickly as does the quick select wheel, even if a few times I found the wrong item selected and instead of possessing I fired a sleeping dart. The AI is pretty good, the NPCs interact well, often sharing a handy tip or complaining about their day, however I couldn't quite understand how they don't spot half your torso poking out being a pillar, especially given the terrifying skull mask you have on.

The autosave feature kicks in at the completion of quest markers or passing into a new area so if you are anal about achieving a high score it may be worth saving and reloading often.

Ultimately this game grabbed me and I loved it, accepting it's minor faults I got fully lost in the experience. This is a truly last gen game in the best possible term, what you buy is what there is, a complete game, it relies on a strong single player experience of compelling story and solid mechanics. As much as I enjoyed it and will play it through again I hope there is no sequel, or if there is one it follow in the footsteps of Fable and makes a sequel which takes the key mechanics and world but creates a new story. Hopefully unlike Fable, if it does go this route, it won't ruin the entire premise of the game in the process.

Summary

• Engaging storyline
• Solid single player experience
• Creative and distinct universe (hardly unique but enough varied sources for inspiration create a unique amalgam)
• Lots of gameplay choice to match your style even if it is largely tailored to a binary ending
• Distinctly not an FPS (if you want a steam punk COD the shooting mechanics will leave you cold)
• A must for any fans of Hitman, Thief, Deus Ex et al
• No multiplayer (if you need deathmatches, co-op or leader boards for your experience look elsewhere)
• Solid comic style graphics (really brings shades of The Darkness 2 to mind)
• Any AI flaws or minor control clunkiness is easily forgiven
• Good enough not to drive me mad at the non-British spelling of dishonoured