E3 2012: Dishonored Preview

Last August I brought you our first preview of Dishonored, Arkane Studios’ first original title in over five years.  You can read my extensive preview here but, for those who don’t want to, allow me to surmise my feelings as I left QuakeCon 2011: I was incredibly excited.  Stealth- based games like Dishonored have been lacking in both quantity and stealth elements for several years now, the only significant title of the past three years coming to mind being Splinter Cell Conviction.  For this year’s E3 Bethesda decided to properly unveil the game to the press and, judging by both the presentation and the live demo we got to play, the game is looking even more impressive than it did last year.

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Feed Him to the Hungry Rats for Dinner
Sitting down in a room of thirty other gamers and journalists in the Bethesda booth, creative director Harvey Smith and introduced the demo by stating that we would see the same level played twice: once from a stealth-focused perspective and the other being a balls-to-the-wall, kill everyone approach.  To get an appreciation for the stealthly nature of the game we were shown the most subtle approach first.  Trust me when I say that what we saw delivered on what was spoken.

Today’s demo took place at the Golden Cat, a bathhouse in Dunwall that is also the site of a house of ill repute.  You are tasked with eliminating the Pendleton brothers, twins that are part of the overall conspiracy that both murdered Dunwall’s Emperess and framed Corvo for the act.  For the purposes of the demo the player was given the full array of Corvo Atano’s powers that will be featured when the game ships.

Starting out the level, Corvo descended to the streets (each level has multiple entry points, in this case we started out from a rooftop entrance) and nears the water’s edge adjacent to the Golden Cat.  Using his possession ability, Corvo took control of a fish and swam into a broken pipe going into the building. He emerges from his pescadilliac possession in one of the women’s changing rooms.  Barely sneaking past two entering whores, the player enters the main lobby of the Golden Cat with the objective of finding the Madame of the establishment in order to get a master key and thus move through the building unimpeded by pesky doors and the like.  Sneaking upstairs, Corvo finds her on the other side of a door after peaking through a keyhole.  Waiting for her to leave, the player follows her to a secluded room where he pickpockets her, the Madame never being the wiser.

Dishonored’s stealth gameplay, more than anything, seems strongly to be a cross between classic Metal Gear Solid and that of Splinter Cell Conviction, two titles that are widely different and yet, for this title, seem to match harmoniously.  Enemies utilize a cone of vision that Corvo can detect using his Dark Vision power.  If the player enters that cone of vision a circle appears on screen indicating how well they see you and from what direction you are seen.  Once the indicator turns red the player has been fully recognized as an intruder and the NPC reacts accordingly.  It’s an odd combination at first but, as demonstrated in Dishonored, works very well together.

After returning to the lobby area Corvo overhears a conversation between a “relaxing” guard and his mistress which reveals the location of one of the Pendleton brothers: the basement sauna.  Descending unnoticed, the player eventually locates the target in a steam room along with one of the mistresses.  As if reading my mind that a blade would be too simple for the target, the player instead turns a valve controlling one of the steam pipes, scalding both of the victims to death.

With only one target left, Corvo ascends once again, sneaking past guards and wandering prostitutes alike.  Corvo eventually locates his target in the penthouse room of the Golden Cat, the unsuspecting brother chatting it up with one of the ladies of the evening.  Instead of barging in through the front door the player instead opts for the balcony.  Climbing along the rooftop and utilizing the Blink ability which teleports the player a short distance, he reaches the balcony of the room with ease.  Corvo then uses his possession ability once again to take control of the last remaining Pendleton, guiding him to the balcony itself.  Withdrawing from the brother, the player selects Corvo’s Windblast power and, in a move seen countless times in Skyrim videos across Youtube, blasts the target over the edge and into the water below, eliciting a laugh from all in attendance.  The last target eliminated, Smith ends the demo.

Restarting from the same position as when the stealth portion began, the player begins his more murderous approach.  Corvo descends to the streets and attacks one of the guards outside the Golden Cat.  The game’s melee-focused combat system is quite simplistic, acting similar to that of the attack, parry, counter system utilized in Skyrim and, more appropriately, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.  Corvo makes quick work of the guards and proceeds into the establishment.

It is here that a murderous onslaught began.  Our demonstrator begins killing everyone in sight, guards and prostitutes alike, using all the tricks at his disposal.  Corvo’s primary weapon in all of this is his blade which is dedicated to his right hand while his various tools of the trade as well as his magic powers are focused on the left hand.  All manner of weapons, including his pistol are demonstrated, with items such the crossbow and the Plague of Rats power which gruesomely devours your unfortunate victims before your eyes.  One particular weapon, a mine, deploys a band of razor wire that shreds enemies to pieces in a smile-inducing display of blood and muscle.  No one is a match for the player but, again, since the demonstration gave you Corvo’s full arsenal of weapons and powers at their peak abilities, this is more than likely a scenario that most players won’t experience.

Weigh Hey, and Up She Rises
After the hands-off demo was shown to us, the press was allowed to actually experience the game hands-on, something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I first registered for E3 this year.  The demo was different from the one we were shown, showing a far smaller slice of the game.  Tasked with kidnapping the Imperial physician that conducted the autopsy of the Empress, I began the level once again on the rooftops.  Knowing the target’s whereabouts I swiftly and silently used Corvo’s Blink power, bounding from rooftop to rooftop and bypassing all the patrolling guards on the street.  I eventually arrived at the doctor’s rooftop laboratory and, sneaking up on him quietly, I knocked him out.

As I was about to leave I found a woman trapped in a cage just across the room.  Feeling for her I filched the key from the doctor’s body and freed her.  This action ties into the game’s world chaos system which, while not immediately having an impact on the game itself, will eventually culminate with world-altering results later on in the game.  For now, it may have little impact but, for me as I tend to play very moral characters, it was a pleasing act of kindness in the cruel, cruel world that is Dunwall.

 Taking the doctor’s body with me, I once again began to traverse the rooftops using the Blink ability.  With my extraction point in sight I came across a group of citizens imprisoned along the roadside.  I decided to help then and dropped the physician off right next to the exit before returning to the prisoners.  On the wall adjacent to the cage I found the security controls and both deactivated the electrified cage and freed the citizens but not before being spotted by the patrolling guards.  It was here that I was glad for once that no one was filming the game as, given I had only a handful of minutes of experience at the game already, I was doing a terrible job of fighting off the guards.  I eventually was able to eliminate them all but not before a few of the citizens were killed in the process.  I returned to the doctor’s body and took him to my contact, ending the demo.

I, however, wasn’t satisfied.  With nary an appointment ahead of me I went began the demo again, this time determined to do better.  I successfully knocked out the doctor once again, this time utilizing Corvo’s crossbow that was equipped with sleeping darts.  I took his body out of the laboratory but stopped short of jumping across the rooftops.  Below me, patrolling was a Tall Boy, a stilted soldier equipped with a explosive set of bow and arrows.  The Tall Boy is easily one of the most imposing enemies in the game and is Dishonored’s take on the Strider from Half-Life 2.  Selecting the Possession power I took control of the victim and marched down the street straight toward the prisoners as well as the pesky guards who gave me problems just a few moments ago.  Using the Tall Boy’s weapons I quickly dispatched with the soldiers before exiting the victim.  I quickly killed the Tall Boy using a sticky grenade so as to prevent experiencing what I had just done to the decimated soldiers at my feet.  Freeing the prisoners, this time with nary a scratch on them, I retrieved the doctor and once again completed the demo.

Early in the Morning
Dishonored was an exciting reveal for me last year and was a wonderful experience to have on the first full day of E3 2012.  The stealth elements at this point seem very well done and the abilities at Corvo’s disposal make him a powerful opponent to the waves of guards and enemies of the game.  Arkane brought us word shortly before E3 began that players can even do a pacifistic runthrough of the game, allowing you to complete Dishonored without actually killing anyone.  Considering that I can recall a stealth action game allowing this since the last Metal Gear Solid title, my excitement is further heightened by the news.

With all the enticing titles being pushed into 2013 Arkane Studios’ latest will happily not be boarding the delay train and will instead arrive during the second week of October in North America in Europe.  Stay tuned for our review.

E3 2012: Hitman Absolution Preview

Last year, after almost half a decade of fans begging and screaming for a new entry into the Hitman franchise, developer IO Interactive finally relented to our demands, announcing the fifth title in the series dubbed Absolution.  The news of a new Hitman title was wonderful to hear, especially in the wake of the less than stellar Kane and Lynch games that had been released between the 2005 hit Blood Money and then this title.  What was demonstrated last year though was decidedly a title that, while intriguing, wasn’t a true Hitman experience.  Instead of a sandbox, exploration-based stealth game what we saw was a strongly scripted, linear level that evoked the feel of Splinter Cell Conviction.  It looked great, to be sure, but with no demonstration of traditional Hitman levels being present and only the promise of what we know and love being in the game, many of us were a bit put off.

Since E3 2011 publisher SquareEnix has been building a market campaign designed specifically to show just what is new and different with this latest title and it wasn’t until this year’s E3 that IO Interactive finally live up to their promise.  And, despite all the shooty, naughty nun, murder-focused trailers we’ve been receiving over the past year, I’m proud to declare that every Hitman aficionado will have something to smile about come this November.

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Real Men do it with Garrote Wire
E3’s hands-off demo took place much later in the game, sometime after Agent 47 has a falling out with the International Contracts Agency and is now on the run.  This is made evident by the assassin having had his trademark barcode tattoo removed from the back of his head but more so than that he seems even more cautious than before.  His crusade against his former employers at the ICA has brought him to the small South Dakotan town of Hope, a scene that feels just like any other small town you can drive through in the United States, albeit from a very outdated perspective.  Agent 47’s targets are members of a greaser gang called the Cougars that holds control of Hope, the leader of which, Lenny, is about as dumb as a post save for his knowledge of a woman named Victoria whom 47 needs to find.  Before you can interrogate him however several of his cronies need to be dealt with first, a task our demonstrator went right to.

Sneaking in through the backdoor of a small convenience store, one of the gang members is chatting up the female clerk as 47 hides behind cover.  The target finally leaves, heading upstairs behind the counter, the giddy clerk all too oblivious of our favorite bald assassin.  To distract her, 47 activates a radio on the counter behind him which draws the woman out, allowing him a slim window to sneak by and head upstairs.  Spying the target looking out the window and talking on his cell, 47 sneaks up quietly and suffocates the man with his trademark piano wire.  After hiding the body in a closet we head back down the stairs only to find that the clerk has returned to the counter and is blocking 47’s progress.  Rather than kill the innocent woman was saw the assassin withdraw his trusty Sliver Baller pistol, complete with suppressor, and fire on the car just outside the front of the store.  With the car alarm blaring and the clerk investigating the player easily slip out the door from whence he came, scott free.

Much like its predecessor Blood Money, Hitman Absolution builds on the 2005 hit’s grading system but this time in a far more real-time focus.  Rather than forcing the player to play through the entire level before knowing the results of their run a corner of the screen’s HUD indicates the player’s current skill status, grading the player based on kills, the method thereof, whether you were detected, etcetera.  The IO Interactive rep for today’s demo clearly wants to show off the potential of what the new Glacier engine is capable of though so we weren’t in for a showing of what I Silent Assassin run would look like, especially as we started after the next target.

Across the street in an autoshop lies the next Cougar but unfortunately the place is covered with police officers.  Sneaking behind some tires 47 enters the shop quietly, making his way upstairs toward the victim.  After sneaking around for a bit though 47 is spotted by an officer.  Before he can react though 47 shanks to man, his lifeless body hitting the ground with a loud thud.  Our demonstrator decides to not hide the body and continues upstairs, eventually finding the Cougar member.  47’s next kill is a little more brutal, running the man straight through with a screwdriver.  Finding some C4 and certain that the cops will eventually find their now deceased fellow officer our player decides to make the deaths an accident, dragging the target’s body outside behind a leaky gas pump.  Sneaking back through the shop the player hides behind a stack of old tires as an officer is blocking his escape route.  Equipping the C4, the player tosses it next to the gas pump, causing a loud enough thump to draw the cop’s attention away.  Slipping by, the cop has no time to react as the player hits the trigger, causing a huge explosion that kills everyone in the vicinity.  As more officers converge on the scene none of them take notice of the conspicuously well-dressed bald man walking away from the fiery scene.  Two down, three to go.

The Streets of Hope
The next target is located behind the autoshop.  Maneuvering behind an adjacent building, 47 slips behind a fence, entering a large yard.  47 is now trespassing and will be caught if seen so the player needs a disguise to walk around freely.  Before he can do anything about that though a dog locked behind a fence begins barking at him.  47 quickly hides in an outhouse as a mechanic comes over to investigate.  As soon as the mechanic gets within range and turns his back the player comes out, grabs the man and knocks him unconscious.  47 changes into the man’s outfit and, to avoid suspicion at their missing colleague, the player finds and tosses a bone into the dog’s pen, silencing it.

Now properly attired for this part of the level our demonstrator took us further into the year.  Using 47’s new Instinct ability, the player averts the suspicion of a mechanic who didn’t recognize the strange, new bald man with a bloody bandage on the back of his head.  Instinct also allows the player to see AI patrol patterns and NPC’s predicted movements in a certain area, albeit for only a short time.  In the next section of the yard the player comes across a group of mechanics all sitting around along with the third target.  The door is guarded by some well-armed thugs and it’s clear that no one dressed as a mechanic is going to get inside. 

It is at this point that our demo player decides to show off another one of 47’s new abilities: Point Shooting.  Using the same power guage as Instinct, Point Shooting allows you to mark targets in an area and, with the press of a button, execute them all with your chosen weapon.  The ability is much like what John Marston utilizes in Red Dead Redemption, slowing down time to mark your targets and returning to real time as 47 begins dispensing death in the form of lead.  The player marks all the targets in the vicinity and kills them all silently with 47’s silenced Silver Baller.

Only two targets remain as 47 activates his Instinct ability again and spies the fourth Cougar who is making his way downstairs, coming outside through the door that the thugs were guarding.  With little time to react the player simply chooses to shoot the target in the head, preventing him from raising the alarm.  With the four lieutenants dead all that remains of the Cougar gang is head honcho Lenny himself and, what do you know, judging from the Instinct vision it appears that he’s in a barber’s chair about to get a shave.  It’s almost too good an opportunity to not take advantage of.

Climbing up the edge of a building, 47 slips through a window and surprises a barber, knocking him out cold.  Once again the player trades disguises, going from a greasy mechanic to that of a clean cut hairdresser.  Equipping the victim’s razor blade 47 descends the stairs into the barber shop proper where Lenny unwittingly awaits in his chair.  As he comments on the new barber and his very “hands on” approach to giving a clean shave the music rises and the demo ends.

The World’s Deadliest Assassin
Ever since last year’s debut of Agent 47’s latest adventure fans have been skeptical as to whether Absolution would be a well and proper Hitman title.  Despite having one of the most improper marketing campaigns in recent memory though IO Interactive is assembling a game that series fans will be proud to own when it arrives this November.  With a mix of classic sandbox level design, new character abilities and story-driven transition levels, there is absolutely a lot to like and look forward to in the next Hitman.

E3 2012 Floor Footage Video Dump

Other than suffering from terrible foot, leg and back pain from carrying a 25lb pack on my back for four days straight I had a blast at E3.  I shot a considerable amount more of footage while on the show floor than what I did last year thanks to some extra batteries I packed and while I wasn't able to capture a bunch of games I really wanted to play I did get a good selection.

Here now is my video dump from my Youtube channel.  Look for my articles to start being churned out next week.

Oh, and the picture above is of me with Dean "Rocket" Hall, the creator of the popular (and very fun) Day Z mod for ARMA II.  I brought him a token of appreciation in the form of one of the most sought-after items in the game: beans.  If you play Day Z don't expect the same curtosy to be extended to you.  Ever.

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State of the Slacker: Plans and Review Schedule for 2012

We're just about through with January and I'm still coming to grips with what kind of a year 2012 is going to be.  Sure, 2011 was huge, but the amount of games on the horizon will be an exciting yet financially devestating year for everyone.  As such, I've begun to compile my purchase/review list for the year and the results, as you will see shortly, may require me to get a new shelf to hold my games.

This past year has been an interesting one for me.  A week after going to E3 2011 I had to move out of my apartment but, due to financial difficulties and a higher-than-a-kite rental market here in Austin, I was forced to move in with my father.  I got the raise I was hoping for in August and was just about to move out when a friend of mine contacted me looking for a roommate.  We've known eachother since elementary school so I thought 'yea, what the hell.'  We had to wait until January to move but we've finally settled on a new place.  We move in during the first half of March so now that I have my living situation figured out I can start to plan my 2012 activities.

This year I plan on attending E3, Quakecon, PAX East and PAX Prime.  For E3 and Quakecon I will most likely be representing Hooked Gamers while both PAX events will be done for 4Player Podcast.  I'm still working out the details of these various events but, barring an act of holy spite, I'm going to all of these.

As for my review plans for 2012: I have ambitious plans.  Last Fall I almost succeeded in review every title I bought save for Dead Island and Battlefield 3.  This year I plan on reviewing double the number of games I did in 2011.  This is no small order of action considering what I plan to purchase this year.

The following list contains my entire purchase/rent list for the year.  Titles that will be reviewed for certain are in bold while the rest are subject to time and availability.

February

• The Darkness II
  
• Syndicate
  
• SSX
• Asura's Wrath

March

• Mass Effect 3
• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

April

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (leftover review from not playing it in 2011)

May

• Sniper Elite V2
• Ghost Recon Future Soldier

July

• Darksiders II

TBA Release Dates

• Bioshock Infinite
• Prey 2
• Tomb Raider
• Hitman Absolution
• Metro: Last Light
• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• Far Cry 3
• Medal of Honor 2
• Resident Evil 6

All of the games you see above, as well as ones not mentioned that are subject to announcement, will be played and reviewed this year.  I hope to stay true to this list but you never know...

That's what I've got lined-up so far.  I'll probably post an update as the months roll on.  In the mean time keep an eye out on the blog for my review as well as my random thoughts.