The city of Dunwall is a thriving industrial whaling city currently in the grips of a terrible plague. In the years leading up to the plague, a new process was discovered for making whale oil more volatile; allowing a series of astounding technological advancements to take place. Despite this technological prowess, the city has been unable to stem the epidemic that has quickly plunged Dunwall into chaos. Crime and gang activity is at an all time high, and the City Watch (armed with militarized technology) has had to crack down hard on the city’s populace. Supplies and recourse are being strictly controlled, and the situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

This is the city that you, Corvo Attano, Royal Protector to Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, live in. Weeks ago the Empress sent you off on a diplomatic mission to some of Dunwall’s neighboring nations, in the hopes that they may have faced this plague before and have some way to lend you aid. But alas, you are unable to return to her with good news…

That’s the set up for Arkane Studio’s new first person action/stealth game, Dishonored. A truly thrilling game that manages to channel the best of similar games in its genre, such as Bioshock and the most recent Deus Ex game. Set in a “mission” based format, each level of the game provide you with two things; a location and a target. From there, what you do is entirely up to you. How you get there, who you kill, and how you eliminate your target are all things that are left up to you, the player, to decide.

Want to cause a little chaos? Running and gunning through the streets like a whirlwind of blood and bullets? Go for it. Or perhaps you prefer a more silenced approach, lurking in the shadows and picking off you enemies one by one like the monster from some horror movie. Or perhaps you’d rather be little more than a ghost, neither seen nor heard by anyway; and leaving no trace what so ever of your deed (including a body) as you orchestrate your targets downfalls through non-lethal means.

Such is the freedom provided to you in Dishonored. Lethal or non-lethal. Stealth or brute force. You, the player, have the ultimate decision on how the game is going to be played. In what could have easily been a linear romp through dungeons or alleyways, Arkane Studios has given us something that comes ever so close to feeling like a truly sandbox style environment. As the city streets and dark alleys of Dunwall provide ample room for the player to explore and discover its secrets, including providing the player with optional quests and NPCs to meet and converse with as they explore what can only be described as a “whale-powered” steampunk environment.

What’s more, early on in the game Corvo is given access to some magical abilities gifted to him by a mysterious being. Through these abilities players can further refine and enhance their play-styles. While some abilities, like blink or time-stop, can help both stealthy or combat oriented play-styles. Other powers, like the ability to turn bodies to ash upon killing them, provide greater benefit to those trying to play the game a certain way. In the case of the ash power, those players trying to be stealthy and leave no trace of their dark deeds will find that power very useful. While those planning on running through and shooting everything will care very little about leaving a pile of bodies in their wake.

Perhaps Dishonored’s greatest strength though, lies within its crafting of Dunwall itself. The city feels like a very tangible place with a rich history that we are only given a brief glimpse of. The world in which Dunwall is located in, and the other nations and cities that presumably exist around it, are left just far enough out of the players reach that they perk your interest yet leave you wanting. The art direction of the city and its inhabitants is, likewise, just as solid. With the game world portraying a very unique and dark take on what could have been a very cheesy and silly looking steampunk setting. This is probably helped out by the fact that the game doesn’t actually use “steam” in its steampunk setting, it uses a “refined” version of whale oil capable of generating electricity and giving the setting a unique vibe.

Of course how this is oil is refined and why it is that these “leviathans” of the deep even have this unique ability is a question left open for the player to wonder. Combine that with the fact that the creator of this technology has been getting his technological “revelations” through dreams, and the fact that mystical forces and beings are, in fact, very real; and well… you’re left with a lot more questions than you started with. So while the creators of  Dishonored may not quite be sure whether their going to make a sequel to it or not; Arkane Studios has once again proven that it’s possible, in a single title, to craft a living, breathing game world that leaves players asking for more.

All in all, I’d given Dishonored a perfect score. The characters, world and game play are amazing and a testament to how well crafted and deep a video game can be. But sadly, I can only give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. If the game had one failing, it would be its ending. While by no means a “bad” ending (like the one a certain space opera was shipped with), it does seem to end rather abruptly, and leaves you wanting to know more. A fact that I can’t really fault the game for, as that’s pretty much the same thing it did in regards to its game world. So it’s hard to be overly bitter about that.

Likewise, as I have yet to finish my second playthrough of the game, I am unsure of exactly how different the two endings of the game (High Chaos or Low Chaos) will actually be. I will say this though; not many games get a second playthough out of me, yet Dishonored has proven its worth. I might even give it a third time through, in an attempt to get one of the achievements that asks you to forego all of your magical powers. Three different playthroughs, three different play-styles. What more could you ask out of one game?

I’ve also seen some people criticize how “obvious” or unoriginal the story is. To which I just shake my head and sigh. Are their parts of the game that you see coming miles before they happen? You bet. But, to me at least, that seemed to be part of the plan all along. Like I mentioned before, the world building in the game is nothing short of genius. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to find that, if you pay enough attention to things, you can figure out what’s going on before it happens.

For example, while exploring the room of a target I’d just killed, I found a recording detailing his recent events. On this recording he talked about visiting a certain NPC that I was trying to find, and enjoying how these visits allowed him to “inspect the facilities”. This little snippet, mixed with his obvious fondness for prostitutes (as evident by other notes and “clues” in his room) meant that the NPC I was looking for was probably being held in a whore house. And since I’d spotted numerous posters and signs for the “Golden Cat”, a place advertising “The finest ladies in all the Isles”, it didn’t take much to but two and two together. Was this particular part of the plot a surprise to me? No. But I was actually quite proud of myself having called it ahead of time. Not because the story or flow of events was overly obvious, but because the game left enough clues for me, the player, to figure it out ahead of time.

Some might claim that this is bad game or story design, but I’d argue just the opposite. Dishonored is the kind of game that you want to immerse yourself in and take in every detail. The world, the characters, the city… each part of the setting is rich enough in detail that you can let yourself be taken in and become part of the game itself. Now I don’t know about you, but that’s exactly the game I want to play.

Also, PROTIP: Do what was suggested by other reviewers and turn off objective markers before diving into the game, as without them you’ll have to rely on good old common sense and exploration to figure out where every detail and clue is hidden. A fact that only enhances your experience as you trudge through the plague ridden streets of Dunwall.