Strong Silent Type

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has been picking up on the silent protagonist connection between Dishonored, Half-Life, and BioShock. But the games really do share more in common than just a protagonist that says absolutely nothing in reaction to things happening around him. Even bone-breaking falls illicit little in the way of reaction.

Strong silent type and creepy walkers.
Another  connection with Half-Life.

What really connects these games is the way the story is spun out. There's a mythos to each game that the developers do their best to not spoon feed the player with information about what is happening. The player is left to fill in the blanks from what's laid out in each level, and the bits of evidence and "filler" that textures the whole experience.

In Dishonored, the first time I came across a rat trap I was a little taken aback. Not content with snap traps or poison, Dishonored showcases rat traps as big dumpsters. What they're baited with or how they work isn't provided -- at least not so far, from what I can tell -- but my mind fills in those blanks quite easily.

"Dishonored" Doesn't Bother With Spelling

Reviews of Dishonored are embargoed for a bit so this isn't a review by any stretch. This post is more along the lines of "impressions."

First, for some reason I can't stop reading the title as "Dish ono Red!" No real reason for that, it just happens. Maybe it's because I've been staring at the title looking for the missing "U." Localization of video games is big business but apparently Bethesda Softworks and Arkane couldn't be bothered to slip in a "U" for Canadian and British gamers. Or possibly the "U" escaped at some point and wound up at Nintendo.

The Rat Plague is pretty cool. At first, I thought maybe this was like The Plague in the traditional sense but this is actually a rat plague in the Biblical sense. I'm looking forward to how that part of the game pans out -- a squeaky third faction.

I can't figure out if Arkane was going for Steampunk or Whale Oil Punk or Medieval redux or American Civil War or what with the design of the characters and setting, but I'm certainly enjoying the look of the game. For some reason these clashing styles are blended together to make something interesting to watch and look at.