Thursday, October 25, 2012

Dishonored Story Playthrough: Mission 1 - Prison Escape: Sewer Escape

Mission 1 – Prison Escape:  Sewer Escape

Playstyle #1 – Whatever

    I find my way up the steps and…on my god!  Those rats just devoured two people to their bones in less than 10 seconds.  I knew the plague was coming from the rats, but, wow.  They were like piranhas just now.  I don’t want to encounter…well, there’s some rats gunning for me right now; great.  I dive into the water to escape, but, man; the sewer water?  I’ll have the plague for sure now.

     I come upon some coins, then read the letter next to it.  At first, I think I might have stolen from someone just trying to survive in this harsh world.  It’s a good thing he already died of the plague, as I couldn’t give the money back to him; I have a mental disease known as kleptomania that prevents me from giving people back their money.

     There are some tripwires (why are these here?) and I eventually find the stash of items and clothes left by my new allies after searching for it everywhere even though it was right in front of me the last ten minutes.  I immediately start a liking to the crossbow, and am able to take one guard out from many stories in the air.  However, while traveling, I see 2 guards, and when they turn the corner and I try to follow, a 3rd guard is already walking toward me and spots me immediately.  Having no choice, I have to fight all 3 of them.  I’m surprised that the last guy didn’t run away after I killed him; he was the one telling his friend that I knocked unconscious earlier that running into and fighting me one-on-on was not a bright idea.  He should have heeded his own advice.

     I look at the blood of the people I used to work with.  What have I done?  Is this how I am to survive, killing those that are just doing their job?  Was there any way I could have avoided thi…hey, a pipe on the ceiling.   I could have walked over the guards undetected this whole time.  Damn you hindsight!  If only I could go back to the time before this happened with a push of a button, but that is just a fool’s dream.
 
     I then have to get around more rats by feeding them corpses.  I overhear the guards dumping the bodies illegally because they fear the plague.  I just realized something horrifying.  The Lord Regent says anyone with plague symptom should turn themselves in, and turn others you know that have it in.  But, the Spymaster didn’t believe in that, he just wanted to kill everyone with the plague to save the city (I overheard his conversation 6 months ago when I first returned; it’s not something you forget).  I understand his plan; The Lord Regent is tricking people into turning themselves in so he can kill them; he’s trying to kill off the plague, literally.  I vow to kill him as soon as I can.
   
     I meet a man outside the sewers near a boat who informs me he is here to help me escape.  I get in his boat and reflect on the number of people I’ve killed, the number of people I’ve knocked unconscious, and count the gold I’ve stolen for no reason whatsoever.

Continue To "Mission 1.5 - Listen To People's Inner Secret & Steal Their Stuff

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Thursday, October 18, 2012

Dishonored Story Playthrough: Mission 1 - Prison Escape ( Part 1 of 2): My Fellow Guards

Mission 1 – Prison Escape:  My Fellow Guards
Playstyle #1 – Whatever
     After living in a stupor for 6 months, I am approached by the Spymaster (now calling himself the Lord Regent, and ruling in the Empress’ place) and Overseer Campbell.  They tell me they killed the Empress and set me up to take the fall because the Empress was weak in asking for help.  Hello?  It was a plague?  What kind of twisted pride do you have?  At least Campell is a religious bigot so I understand his reasoning.  I’m pretty sure the Spymaster only wants power, and is just acting so he can have the High Overseer on his side.
     While in prison, I caught up with the popular Thief trilogy books that were popular before I left.  I must say I find a lot of that world in mine.  They have a religious group called “Hammerites”, and though not as violent as our Overseer brethren, seem all too familiar.  I dream of taking my revenge, scaling up rooftops, and killing religious fanatics. 
     The day before my execution, I receive a letter that comes with a key to my cell, and tells me they have hidden a bomb in the interrogation room, that I should retrieve it and use it on a certain door.  Not caring at the moment who it is, I bust out and start crushing people in the neck, which somehow knocks them unconscious.  At one point, I imagine how I’m going to sneak by the guard, but every time I imagine doing it, he always spots me.  Frustrated, I run up behind him and chop off his head; I didn’t realize the anger of being imprisoned for so long would get to me like that.
     I find my sword and a gun, then begin knocking more people unconscious; these are the same guards that worked for the Empress, after all. 
     I then overhear a prison guard state that he’s still in favor of the Empress.  Shit.  I don’t want to have to kill this guy; I’d better be extra careful and find another way around.  Eventually, I make it to the bomb, and the wall, and try to imagine how the guards outside will react since I know where they are (I did work here after all).  I assume they are right near the steps and come up to get me.  When I blow up the wall for real, I run down the stairs to kill them, only to find they are not there, and are now behind a wall where I can’t reach them; shooting at me.  I thought I knew where all the guards were supposed to be stationed?
     I head for the sewers, and overhear how hard it will be to find me once I’m in there.  Thanks for the tip.

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Friday, October 12, 2012

Dishonored Story Playthrough: Mission 0 - Meet The Empress



The point of this blog will be to write about my experiences playing through Dishonored, and what I do in the game, talking as if I am the character Corvo you play as, while also mentioning game mechanics like they actually exist.  I will play through it with 4 completely different play styles, making comments on each.  The styles are as follows:

1)      Explore - explore everything, even stuff you weren’t meant to, and experiment; sneak, knock unconscious, or kill depending on my mood or what the characters say or do to me. 
2)      Kill Everyone – My quest to kill everyone, that includes every main character, every NCP, and all creatures (except rats--in Thief it was spiders).  BONUS:  The dead cannot be moved and must be left where they fell.
3)      Knock Everyone Unconscious.
4)      Ghost – Go through an entire game without touching a single enemy or being seen; don’t kill them, or knock them unconscious.
 
The blog will only cover Play Style #1 – Explore for the first few months, as I don’t plan to play the game that obsessively (yet).  Also, I frequently search out everything, meaning it takes me twice as long to finish a game than a normal person.  Frequent comparisons to Thief:  The Dark Project, Thief 2:  the Metal Age, & Thief:  Deadly Shadows will appear frequently .  Also, this will never be a review.

Mission 0 – Meet The Empress

Play Style #1 – Whatever

     When I woke, I found myself upon a boat.  I have just finished traveling to the other 3 majors cities within this country of ours, and am returning to Dunwall (even though I was born in one of the other 3, though my mind is weary from the travels to even remember my hometown).    My companion for the last 4 months hopes that a cure for the plague has been found while we were gone, but I’m not going to hold my breath. 

     Our boat is ushered into a small alley that is quickly closed off.  Water pours from the side walls like little waterfalls and our boat rises 5 stories into the Empresses’ castle’s boating dock.  I grow impatient and jump into the waters below (and just realized that I am holding my breath), just happy to be home in my natural clean waters, but I almost say under too long.  How stupid would I appear if I died the day I returned?  I start talking to the workers and learn that Sokolov has installed new pumps to make this boat dock work better.  After about 5 conversations, each of the workers grow bored with me and start tuning me out, as nothing I do will make them talk to me anymore.  I have truly returned to a less caring city than the one I left.

I look at the world below as I stand on the edge, wondering what it would be like to jump into the jagged cliffs below; maybe there is a loose platform down there that won’t kill me head on.  Sure, I’d be trapped down there, but I’d show the creator a thing or two.  I guess I’ll try to jump in another life.
    
     Ahead I see from free-floating text in the sky that the Empress is 60 feet away from me.  What powers did I obtain while I was away?  Luckily, I just close my eyes and meditate hard enough; expunging these stupid powers.

     I run into Lady Emily on the way.  She is like a daughter to me, even though the Empress and I share no romantic feelings .  She wants to play, but I’ve just returned home with grave news, and her mother has been waiting for this news for months. 

     On the way to the Empress, I run into world famous inventor Anton Sokolov (responsible for making an elixir that prevents you from getting the plague and stopping it; maybe) painting a portrait of High Overseer Campbell (the leader of the religion in Dunwall) .  If this were a novel, I’d say I was being introduced to all the major characters in my story, but that type of thinking it jettisoned as I steal the bottle from the table, upsetting Solvolk because he doesn’t have it for reference anymore.  Surely no novel would include such antics.

     I talk to the High Overseer and learn he believes that the disease was brought about by a lack of faith in the country, and that faith is all that is needed to overcome the plague.  Right.  At least Sokolov slips in some words to let me know he isn’t a fan of Campbell, either.

     On the way to Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, I talk to every person I see as much as possible, even the maid; come on, I haven’t seen many of them for months.  I then circle underneath the stairs, gaze at the beauty of the city, look in bushes for hidden treasure, and see the remnants of what looks like a few miles long bridge foundation (sans bridge) stretching into the city.  What happened to that bridge?  Why is our castle away from the city and not part of it?

     On the way to the Empress, I run into the Spymaster; every time I hear him talk he sounds like he’s above everyone.  I tell the princess the sad truth that our mission; it was a failure and the other cities will quarantine us and stop their trading to make sure they don’t get the plague.   She is thinking about the next step, when, out of nowhere, she spots people running toward us from the rooftops.  I fight off some of them, but then others magically appear, and another holds me in the sky with his magic.  The Empress is killed and tells me to watch over Emily, but she has been kidnapped.  Again, others appear out of nowhere, only its the Spymaster and 2 guards, accusing me of killing the Empress and kidnapping Emily (even though I can’t kidnap someone when I am still present). 

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