ThereвЂ™s nothing stopping you from turning every NPC into ragu, but the game will punish your actions with more enemies and a worse ending. Many will remember the gameвЂ™s вЂњchaos system,вЂќ which changed the gameworld and story based on the playerвЂ™s in-game actions. ItвЂ™s a great, if a little unsubtle twist thatвЂ™s directly in line with what Dishonored has to say.Дishonored is a game about power, and it has a low opinion of anyone who abuses their power, including the player. ThereвЂ™s no circumventing the poisoning, Corvo is another aloof goon afterall, but the betrayal is still satisfying even if you predict it. Sure enough, your former allies spike your drink and dump you in DunwallвЂ™s Flooded District. Dishonored wants you to be suspicious and see right through these assholes, especially since they personally benefit from your hits. Assisting you on your revenge against the conspiracy to frame is a second group of conspirators supposedly aiming to bring the empressвЂ™s daughter, Emily Kaldwin, back into power. You can summon a swarm to attack enemies or eat a body.ДishonoredвЂ™s endgame twist rewards players who have been keeping up with its outward disdain for authority. That rats themselves are innocent, and oftentimes helpful. Burrows only decided to have the empress killed and take power as a means to cover up his own fuck-up.ДunwallвЂ™s elites chose a bafflingly stupid solution to a complex issue, and itвЂ™s the ordinary people who suffer for it. Why? Because he thought it would curb the poverty level. In the вЂњReturn to Dunwall TowerвЂќ chapter, itвЂ™s revealed that DunwallвЂ™s rat plague was caused by Royal Spymaster turnered Lord Regent Hiram Burrows, who shipped the infected rats over from a far-flung continent. In terms of commentary, Dishonored is more Spitting Image than Bioshock, leaning heavily into absurd yet still plausible situations in its satire. Politicians, the military, religious leaders, aristocrats вЂњfuck em, theyвЂ™re all the pricksвЂќ the game says before gleefully tasking you with burning it all down. Dishonored despises anyone with any kind of authority whatsoever. Wait, is Dishonored anti-cop? No, not at all. YouвЂ™ll see things like cops harassing women, and cops being cruel to animals, and cops getting drunk on the job, and cops putting on stilts and firing explosive arrows into crowds of people, and вЂ“

The stealth gameplay is top-notch, but staying restrained also lets you observe ArkaneвЂ™s excellent worldbuilding. YouвЂ™re welcome to Michael Myers your way through things, but like a good rack of ribs, itвЂ™s best to take the low and slow approach to the gameвЂ™s nine wide-open missions. Since heвЂ™s an early 2010s silent protagonist, Corvo doesnвЂ™t so much as flinch when heвЂ™s blamed for the murder and dumped in prison.ДЇrom there, Dishonored is your oyster. Kaldwin has about a minute of screen time before a group of steampunk cybergoths stab her through the gut in the gameвЂ™s prologue. And rats kick ass.Дishonored puts players behind the spooky skull mask of Corvo Attano, the Royal Protector of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin.

ItвЂ™s a real shame, since DishonoredвЂ™s social commentary was already biting when it was released ten years ago.ДЄlso itвЂ™s filled with rats.

Going forward, it will be nigh impossible to play the game without the pandemic in the back of our collective minds. You know, some light escapism from our current reality.ДishonoredвЂ™s parallels to 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic are clear, and have already been written about by people much smarter than us. City authorities either fail to successfully contain the plague or simply deny it outright out of fear or personal gain, all while the corpses continue to pile higher. Players enter the gothic industrial city, which provides the setting ArkaneвЂ™s masterful 2012 immersive sim, during the height of a plague. Ten years later, walking through the streets of DishonoredвЂ™s Dunwall feels like a deja-vu-ridden fever dream.

Bioshock power to the people