I like stealth. It’s that feeling that you get from sneaking past a squadron of guards, listening to them drivel about this and that, only to complete your objective and disappear before they’re any the wiser. It’s just so much more satisfying than rushing in with guns blazing, or swords drawn, or what have you. Fortunately, Arkane’s Dishonored allows both.

Dishonored is by no means a new game. It was released in 2012, yet I find myself still playing it even now, for a mix of reasons actually.

In Dishonored, you play as Corvo Attano, Royal Protector to the Empress. The game is set in what at first glance could only be Victorian London, yet look past that and you find yourself deep in a world steeped in blood and whale oil. The city of Dunwall is a dream to any steampunk fanatic; as you can guess, the maps exclusively use muted tones of slate, earth and brick red, all topped off with the usual complement of charcoal grey, which lends a very dark, gritty feel to any of its environments, be it a silent alleyway or a decaying nobleman’s mansion.

And the entire ensemble is topped off by everybody’s favourite, a rat plague, in which victims gradually decay into shambling corpses, bleeding from the eyes and swarmed by biting flies. This plague is the main reason for the empire’s fragile state, and now even the rich are suffering. The city is dying, and in Dishonored, you walk (almost) unscathed through it all: an observer as the world topples down.

The game opens with a short sequence introducing some of the main themes and characters: Corvo, the silent protagonist, is held in high regard by those who encounter him, and the guards, who in a matter of minutes would soon be crying for his blood, greet you with a curt nod and call you sir. Within moments, you meet one of the main villains: Hiram Burrows, the Royal Spymaster. Stick thin and bald as a vulture, the Spymaster couldn’t be any more obviously villainous unless he was perhaps sporting a corresponding tee shirt- or at least a cap.

After a little exposition, surprise surprise, the Empress is killed by a mysterious group of masked Assassins, and everything goes head over heels. I suppose this is where the whole ‘silent protagonist’ malarkey serves to be a real crux; if Corvo was cured of his stage-fright he could’ve perhaps said something along the lines of ‘I didn’t do it’, or even perhaps diverted their attention to the discarded swords or bloodstains that littered the lovely little white marble gazebo. But no, instead you’re knocked out and taken straight to prison without as much as passing go, or collecting two hundred pounds.

From there, Corvo descends into the typical revenge spree, but can choose two routes – the first, to unleash the dogs of war and shoot, slice or otherwise obliterate anything vaguely guard-shaped that he comes across, or he can adopt the more stealthy approach, leaving throats intact and heads relatively firm atop the shoulders of the city watch and exchanging them for cutsie knock-out cuddles or sleep-darts, which are in limited supply. It does somewhat dampen the arsenal at the player’s disposal, but playing it stealthily allows for a little more length to each mission – else you run the risk of finishing each within ten minutes and an armload of health and mana potions than you know what to do with.

What’s more, perhaps one of the best features in the game are the supernatural abilities bestowed upon you by black-eyed Johnny Depp The Outsider – a morally questionable deity revered by some and despised by others. You’re put through a dream-sequence after your escape from prison, in which Mr Floaty BlackEyes tells you that you’re special and gives you a little club-tattoo on the back of your hand, which grants you access to a whole bunch of supernatural powers.

The first power you receive is called ‘Blink’, and it allows you to teleport short distances instantly, which is a massive help when playing stealth or nonlethal runs. It helps add pacing to the game; where in most stealth games you’re restricted to crouching and moving at a speed only slightly faster than the guards, in Dishonored you can rather skillfully traverse a ledge, leap into the air and cross the distance between you and your new chokehold training-dummy in the blink (hehe) of an eye.

Aside from that, however, there are very few powers which actually aid you in your quest to cuddle the City Guard to sleep – there’s a slow time ability, which admittedly is quite cool. You can freeze bullets mid air, or simply wander amidst the pretty dust motes, slipping past your unwitting opposition. The passive speed and health boosts are useful, but from there – nothing. You can… erm… summon a swarm of rats… or… push people back with a blast of powerful wind…

Not exactly low-profile, Corvo.

While the limited nature of your non-lethal abilities can be frustrating at times, it often requires you to take alternate routes, which might present different challenges, or little details you might’ve missed. In fact, the numerous ways in which you can complete a level lends each new environment a very organic feel, almost akin to the nature of a sandbox game; one time playing through a mission I went via rooftops, blinking from building to building and admiring the beautiful river vista. Another, I decided to go through the very same crumbling buildings I’d been traipsing across in my last playthrough. The environments are certainly immersive, and as the plague consumes the city, you’re left with deserted areas: decaying warehouses and red brick buildings plastered with dead brand names. It’s almost as if you’ve stepped into the industrial revolution itself, had it gone in a slightly different direction.

One bad thing I will say about it, is that on my quest to clean hands, I was forced to linger in certain areas for longer than I would’ve liked, and this exposed me to the guard dialogue, which felt very, very repetitive at times. Each lower officer seemes to demand of the other whether he’d get his own squad after what happened last night’, or whether his partner officer would be up for gathering for whiskey and cigars the following eve. Indeed, the number of times I heard that line made me question Dunwall’s imports; it’s no wonder that the city’s starving and dying, because the state budget is being blown on expensive drinks and Cubans. The cigars, not the people.

Arkane have taken a rather risky move within Dishonored also – there’s a dichotomous moral choice aspect to the game as well. Of course, all the guards you deprive of their lives are innocent men (mostly) save for the few corrupt, and the more people you kill, the higher your ‘Chaos’ rating, which impacts how friendlies interact with you, as well as the final ending of the game. As with most moral choices within games, playing the game with the ‘kill everybody’ mentality leaves you with the shit ending, and avoiding violence and solving things without killing leaves you with the nice rainbows and smiles ending. It’s a bit of a trade-off, it has to be said though; while stealth is all good fun, I often found myself dashing off to slit a throat or two before quickloading, which tells me that obviously that despite the charms of stealth gameplay, nothing beats a little bit of good old-fashioned catharsis.

I think the problem with a lot of games which implement moral choice is that they often punish you for being evil. It’s like dangling a turkey-leg within arms reach of a starved dog and then hosing it when it tries to take a bite. Yes, Arkane Studios, obviously the dashing around is going to be just as – if not more – fun as the sneaking, so please make it as rewarding: perhaps implement another set of skills for one playstyle, which are powerful, but force you to commit to one style of play. For example the ability to spit fire, but only if you stomp on a baby. That means that those that want to play the evil playstyle can, without feeling as if they’ve disappointed Arkane, as if it’s some sort of father figure.

Overall though, would I recommend Dishonored? Yes. Very much so, actually. The plot is a little on the generic side, but the gameplay and the world-building make up for that in full, and then some. There’s room for improvement, sure. But as is in any game, the sequel will take care of that. Hopefully.