Player choice is paramount in this new shooter from Arkane Studios. You play as Corvo, a royal protector framed for the murder of the Empress. Once freed, you are set loose in the city of Dunwall with an arsenal of supernatural powers and one objective: clear your name. Leave a swathe of bodies in your wake or sneak around every opponent, the choice is yours. In fact, a zero-kill play-through is entirely possible.
Of course, I speak not from experience. When I played heads rolled. Blood spattered walls. Streets were lined with felled opponents. For me, the temptation to wreak havoc with Corvo’s extraordinary skills was just too strong. Armed with a sword in one hand, and the ability to freeze time in the other, guards dropped like flies. Why bother sneaking when you can fling the hapless fools to their doom? Or summon a swarm of rats to devour them where they stand? There are a myriad of methods to try out in the pursuit of justice, each more fun than the last.
The real star of the game is the city of Dunwall itself. A twisted facsimile of Victorian London, plague rats swarm the streets and whaling ships clutter the waterways. There’s a softness to the way the light falls and a particular caricaturing of its denizens that turns Dunwall into a living painting. At times this serves up unexpected moments of beauty, while at others the disease and corruption of the city take centre stage. Like the wealth of choice available to the player, the world of Dishonored itself has a dualistic personality.