Dishonored

[DANGERMAN]

Played about an hour and haven't got any of the Bioshock style powers yet, but it's done a pretty good job of teaching you some of the basics. The tutorials are hidden as gameplay elements (follow someone, play hide and seek etc), but a little on the nose for a while, once things start to kick off though it does a better job of setting things up so that if you want to do a stealth kill then you'll get an easy chance, if you want to do a drop attack then there's a convenient pipe above a guard.

Or you could just walk up and stab people, whatever

annoyingly on the pc it's got the same quirk Witcher 2 did, that it's 2 handed attacks mapped to the opposite mouse button, so the sword in your right hand is mapped to the left mouse button, while the gun in your left... Not a big deal but I did alert a few guards by dropping down and shooting a guard in the head instead of a nice quiet throat slit

[wholehole]

Played much the same amount as you DM, still wrapped up in the tutorial and just arrived at the pub. I mentioned in another thread that the game didn't demo well for me, but this has blown me away so far and I haven't even had a sniff of any supernatural powers.

The amazing thing is that the game still holds up without all of that stuff. I'd be quite happy continuing with what I have tbh; just a sword, crossbow and a few different types of bolts. Letting me teleport, possess people and animals and various other abilities seems a bit overkill but I won't complain once I have access to them.

Dunwall looks incredible with just the right amount of City 17, and even a touch of Rapture in the interiors, sprinkled onto an olde England style. Character models look great being with just enough caricature to fit in with the world they inhabit.

I was a bit worried about how the stealth would work with no real indication of how concealed you are in any given situation but that's probably because I've been spoiled with light meters and palette swaps in the past. It's just common sense and line of sight mostly and seems to be relatively relaxed in it's rules. As long as you're in your stealth posture and hiding behind something you're usually okay, and if you stick to shadows (although you're unable to destroy lights here) you have quite a bit of leeway as to how you can sneak around. If a guard notices you the first state puts a half-filled icon above his head to show they're suspicious but they won't start searching until the second stage where the icon is filled white. Once the third stage hits and the icon turns red, it's time to start slicing and dicing.

As your bullets and arrows are limited to what you can scavenge, you'll need them in a pinch and you'll have to resort to melee combat most of the time. Your sword attacks work well and you're also able to parry which opens up enemies for a one-hit kill. It works well aside from the confusing choice of mouse buttons controlling opposite limbs (as DM mentioned, although these can be switched in the options).

Will update once I've had some time to mess with the abilities!

[DANGERMAN]

same as you wholehole that I was happy enough not having powers, but now I've got them the game has really kicked on. I've not finished the first assassination mission yet, I've been dicking around finding runes and bone charms, and thanks to that I can now leap higher so I scamper around and explore. I really like taking a second to look for an alternate route, it does feel like you'd be in trouble if you got spotted and wanted a quick out, but using the Dark Vision to spot the guards, then blinking up to a rooftop

I'm doing a decent job of not killing people so far, well sort of. I killed 3 guards trying to get a charm, then 2 thugs rescuing an old guy, then the guys that attack granny strange or whatever her name is. After that though it's been chokings and sneakings, which I think adds to it, because so far killing people has been easy

[Hendo]

Should I find the time, I think I'm gonna pick this up sometime soon, it seems right up my street.

[DANGERMAN]

if you don't kill then it really reminds me of Human Revolution, especially if you're using the agility/stealth powers rather than possessing everyone.

I've finished the first proper mission now, I accidentally stumbled on the main objective while rune hunting. I 'failed' a bunch of stuff that I could of done, which annoyed me a bit until I remembered this isn't Fallout, I wouldn't get anything other than hassle for attempting to do them so being efficient isn't a bad thing. I had to google the location of one of the runes, the information still wasn't enough, but I managed to find it in the end. I'm not sure how many of the powers are likely to be useful to me, so I might start getting the level 2 versions of the ones I've already got rather than the likes of blood thirsty

for Wholehole and Craymen (and I think Spatular is playing on pc too), if you are getting sick of the numerous logos when you boot the game it takes about 2 minutes to get rid of them

A Word of Warning! You’re going to want to back up both your saved game files and your config files before you start making adjustments, just in case anything goes belly-up. The config files are located here:

C:\Users\[Your User Name]\Documents\My Games\Dishonored\DishonoredGame\Config

Back up that file before you start messing with it; mess with it at your own risk.

To adjust the files, you’ll need to open them in a text editor, preferably something like Notepad. Another general tip: Notepad only searches in one direction at a time with its “Find” feature, so if you can’t find a line, make sure you try searching “Up” as well as “Down.”

Disable Startup Movies

First off, you can get rid of the corporate logos when you boot up the game pretty quickly.

Open DishonoredEngine.ini and find the following line using the “Find” function:

bForceNoStartupMovies

Set the value to “TRUE” and the game will automatically skip the movies. The line should look like this:

bForceNoStartupMovies=TRUE

[spatular]

just finished the first proper mission too, really enjoyed it. wasn't convinced at the start but really got into it. it reminds me of dues ex HR too, in the multiple ways to do stuff. but the stealth plays a bit differently imo, the guards in this are really observant - looking around while they walk and in hidy holes and stuff. so getting the ability to see their field of vision and through walls early on seems pretty important for stealth, whereas stuff like that was available in HR i didn't feel it was as crucial for playing stealthy because the guards follow more of a set path and and didn't do unusual stuff. it's like the stealth in this is a bit more realistic so at first i was really struggling with the sneaking - i'd keep getting seen and having to sword everyone in the face, but now i'm getting into it a bit more and have managed some cool sneaking.

[Craymen Edge]

for Wholehole and Craymen (and I think Spatular is playing on pc too), if you are getting sick of the numerous logos when you boot the game it takes about 2 minutes to get rid of them

Yep, I found that one the other day, it's great to be able to boot the game and be into the action in seconds.

It's a pain copy & pasting on my phone, so I might update with detail later, but they're easy to find: I've also got config tweaks going on for a wider FOV, a key to toggle the HUD on/off, and tweaks to stop corpses disappearing.

I've only played through the opening really, because XCOM is so bloody addictive - I've just escaped through the sewers, found my weapons, and got on the boat. But damn, it's good.

I turned off objective markers quite early as I think they lead you too much. I like it a lot better this way.

[wholehole]

I thought I'd been the world's worst assassin and not actually killed anyone but I always get at least one or two kills at the end of each mission. Bit weird, although I'm wondering if it's because I've hidden them on a roof or balcony and they've fallen off. The main thing I wish they'd put in the game is some kind of knockout counter for the combat as an option for players going down the no kill route. It just means that if I get into combat and can't escape I have to reload the game and try again.

Spending my time collecting all of the runes and charms in the vicinity and all of the side missions leading to the non-lethal alternatives. The alternatives have been pretty awful, I suspect the targets wish I'd actually killed them. It's cool that the game gives you a "fate worse than death" option.

I've powered up Blink and Agility so far, which are the two powers I'm using the most. Dark vision is useful in the more open areas, but a bit difficult indoors when you're not sure of the layout. There's been times where I thought there was a guard nearby and he's ended being behind another wall. Mostly I just prefer to stay up high and lean around corners. Not really felt the need to use Possession or Stop Time, as they don't last very long and there's usually safer routes to take higher up. Hopefully they'll be more useful later in the game, but I guess it depends on your playstyle. The other powers are geared more towards killing so I'm having to ignore them for now. The power that turns unaware enemies into ash when stealth killed sounds pretty cool though.

Thanks for that tweak DM, very useful. would also be interested in your tweaks Craymen as the FOV is ridiculously tight in this game, even at it's in-game max.

[wholehole]

Just seen this on Kotaku. Crank the volume and play

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EblDbVUGx-Y?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Craymen Edge]

To change the FOV and toggle HUD On/Off

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/116s5s/how_to_change_fov_in_dishonored/

How to change FOV

Go to: Documents\My Games\Dishonored\DishonoredGame\Config

Open: DishonoredInput.ini

Add this line: "m_PCBindings=(Name="F4",Command="FOV 110")" after this line "m_PCBindings=(Name="Zero",Command="GBA_Shortcut_9")". Don't forget to save the file.

Launch your game and press F4.

Goodbye headache !

Comparison

How to Hide/display HUD

Add this line: m_PCBindings=(Name="F6",Command="ShowHUD true")

Press F6 to hide or display HUD.

I personally have my FOV set to 100, and although I already have the objective markers off and the health/mana gauges set to only come on contextually, it's nice to be able to turn the hud off completely sometimes and admire the view.

To stop bodies disappearing:

Apparently sleeping & dead bodies max out at 5, so any more than that and old ones start disappearing.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/205100/discussions/0/864948299995594180/

1. Locate the DefaultAI.ini file in Steam\steamapps\common\Dishonored\DishonoredGame\Config\

2. Create a backup copy e.g DefaultAIBackup.ini

3. Open the original file using notepad.

4. Change lines 4 and 5 from:

m_CorpseAbsoluteMaximumCount=10 m_CorpseIdealMaximumCount=5

to

m_CorpseAbsoluteMaximumCount=100 m_CorpseIdealMaximumCount=50

5. Save DefaultAI.ini

[wholehole]

I wonder if any bodies above the default of 5 is what's causing them to count as dead at the mission review screen? I'll try changing it and see what happens.

[DANGERMAN]

yeah the body count seems a bit off. I apparently killed 1 person on my last mission, no idea who. Prior to that I think it was 12 and 12, again I couldn't tell you who the last 12 were, I didn't think I killed anyone (it might count the infected but even then, and as I understand it they aren't meant to count to the chaos)

[Craymen Edge]

The clockwork heart that helps you find runes (and tells you secrets about people and places) is amazing and hella creepy.

[spatular]

^ yeah that heart thing is pretty crazy, fits in well with the whale oil having special powers or something i guess.

you guys seem to be doing well on the humanitarian front. i'm not doing so well, trying to sneak past, and sometimes it works but invariably i'll get spotted and all the guards i've already snook past will come running over and i'll have to kill them, does make looting much easier mind. sometimes the guards routes seem random too and they find bodies i thought were out of the way. like wholehole says it'd be good to have some way of knocking them out even when spotted, guess the sleep darts could be used for that but you don't get enough really. my chaos rating is always high too - even on the last mission i did, my best yet with only 2 kills.

also did some killing using the lighting gate things, reprogramming it, getting some guards attention then running away leading them through the gate - it's reasonably well signposted that you can do that - but the last guy seeing the others disintegrated wouldn't go through the lighting gate just shouted and threw rocks at me from the other side (the rocks were disintegrated)...later he'd lost interest so i went back through to try and get him to follow me again - as i ran back with him following through the gate, he stopped and threw a rock witch triggered the gate and killed me!

[DANGERMAN]

I've heard so much about this being a short game, and maybe it is if you're killing everyone (or just blinking away from everyone), but I'm 16 hours in heading to what I think if (finally) the last encounter. I kind of like that it's tying things up, but at the same time dangling the end in front of you then revealing another third of the game is always a risky move.

I've taken to knocking people out, then blinking them up to a roof to hide them as the area I'm at there's precious few places to hide them on the ground. That and I'm sure it's started spawning more guards

I'm not sure how clear these will be, but I knocked a guy out and hid him in a pipe, and well let's just say his neck is going to sting when he wakes up

[wholehole]

I love the heart and how it provides story on tap without forcing it upon you. Some of the stuff it comes out with is creepy as shit, like when she states "I'm so cold." *shudders* I really hope they spend some time on how it came to be and some of the story behind it's owner. I don't want them to just say outright this-is-what-it-is, but some hint as to it's purpose would be cool.

I don't think it's been particularly short, but I can see how it could be. You can use your powers (blink and stop time especially) to circumvent most, if not all, of the games various mechanics. It's only really the exploration and side-objectives that add to the overall gameplay time. In one mission I managed to double-jump and blink to the top of a house and completely missed out the interior. I reloaded a save and it ended up taking me the best part of an hour navigating through without being seen or killing anyone.

[DANGERMAN]

the Cat House (or whatever it's called) I kind of raced through. I'm sure you're supposed to inch your way through, but if you want to ten you can just use the rooftops, blink around, kill (or not) who you're meant to, then head off. Credit to the game though for allowing that, there's no reason why Corvo wouldn't be able to find a quicker route given his powers

[AndyKurosaki]

I've had about 30 kills a level. Generally because some fucker kicks off, the red mist kicks in and I shoot/stab the lot of them :-)

[spatular]

shall we gather for whiskey and cigars tonight?

[DANGERMAN]

Indeed, I believe so