Bethesda has released two videos for Dishonored that were shown behind closed doors at E3. In the videos below, Co-Creative Directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith provide the players with two very distinct playthroughs of Dishonored.
Now, before you take a look at this 14-minute clip (more than 20-minutes if you combine the two videos), keep in mind that there will be spoilers within. So proceed at your own discretion.
In the first video of this "Goldent Cat" mission playthrough, the player uses stealth to take out the Pendleton Brothers who are corrupt members of the parliament.
Interestingly enough, the co-directors state that there are eight to nine ways to infiltrate the building. We get to see the player use his "Blink" ability to teleport from one area to another in this particular sequence.
What's particularly interesting here is it seems Arkane Studios has built a "play-it-your-way" action-adventure game. You want to knock that guard out instead of silently sneaking past him? Go right ahead. If you want, you can also take your time to loot the area first. It's all up to you.
One good example of this is how the player deals with Morgan Pendleton. In the stealth video, the player cranks the heat up in the bath area to make it look like Morgan died by accident.
The developers also reveal that not every "target" needs to be killed. It's up to the player if they want to tackle it in a non-lethal way. For example. the Pendleton Brothers can be kidnapped, shaved and make to work in their own slavery mines. This can be done in a side-mission. Colantonio explicitly reveals that this sort of mechanic can be done in every mission.
Now, here's the second shorter, but grittier playthrough. In this video, expect a lot more killing and the powers of the game's protagonist — Corvo Atano — are much more agressive and brutal.
One thing that I especially like is since this is a First-Person Action game compared to a First-Person Shooter, kills are much more intimate since the player's main weapon is a knife. Don't get me wrong, there's guns in the game too, but the knife kills are way more satisfying to watch.
While this method might seem the easier road of the two, Smith reveals that there are repurcussions in going with the "balls-out" route. Aside from it being more resources-consuming, the developers also reveal that they track how many "innocents" the player kills and this affects the game's story somewhat near the end.
After seeing these clips, I can't help but think of Dishonored as a more versatile BioShock. Mind you, that's a rather high compliment, I know — but based on what we've seen so far, it's more than an appropriate reaction.
Did you like what you've seen so far? If given a choice, would you rather use stealth or make Atano one hell of a bad-ass in taking down goons?
You can choose which path to take when Dishonored ships this October 9 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
