Look to the ground and you'll see flesh-eating rats scuttling around your toes. Look up to the sky and you'll find the sun's haze blocked out by a hostile police officer, towering over you on robotic stilts.
It doesn't matter where you cast your eyes in Dishonored's Neo-Victorian settlement of Dunwall - you'll find only oppression, gloom and pestilence.
Already, the Steampunk-stylised Dunwall is shaping up to join City 17 and Rapture as one of the great dystopian gameworlds - and if the latest footage to roll off the Bethesda production line is to be believed, it's going to be a lot more fun a place around in than your usual police state.
With that in mind, let's dissect the latest trailer before the robo-police arrest us for loitering.
The four-minute trailer begins with a shot of Dishonored's protagonist Corvo looking a bit glum in a dark, dank prison cell. And glum he might well look, because he's been framed for the murder of the Empress he was once employed to protect. Bad times.
Things begin to look up when he's visited by a mysterious individual known only as 'The Outsider'. Part angel, part devil, The Outsider's exact motives are unknown but on this occasion he comes up with the goods by giving Corvo the supernatural equivalent of a hacksaw in a cake. "Consider it a gift", he quips as he brands a strange emblem into Corvo's wrists. While it permanently excludes him from a job in HMV, it does grant him the command of magic, which will make escaping his cell a cinch. A worthy trade-off.
Cut to: an establishing shot of Dunwall. This was at one time a peaceful and prosperous maritime city, which grew rich off the back of its whaling industry (whale oil is the main source of fuel in Dishonored's world). However, things changed when a plague of oversized rats arrived on the scene and decimated the population. The camera pans down to reveal several of the blighters gnawing on a corpse sprawled in the middle of the street. Grim.
In an attempt to curb the rodent population's growth, Dunwall's government grew paranoid and oppressive and began controlling its citizen's movements through sheer police brutality. This here is one of the ruling classes' most effective crowd control mechanisms - a 'Tall Boy'. It's effectively an armed officer in an enormous exoskeleton.
Whilst the trailer looked good, and acted as a grand set up for what the game entails, does any of it use the in-game engine? Also, this is a Bethesda game! I'll be holding back on purchasing until they resolve the inevitable problems that the initial release will have.
Had a look at the trailer. Seems CVG were wrong thinking the image of what they thought was a Nord meant Skyrim DLC
Quite honestly I am not "getting" this game's draw. Never liked the whole big hands little body design of Fable and the art director of HL2 doesn't seem to be showing much variation.
Comments
4 comments so far...
flyfletch on 20 Apr '12 said:
This game looks amazing!! Im really looking forward to it
alph3 on 20 Apr '12 said:
Whilst the trailer looked good, and acted as a grand set up for what the game entails, does any of it use the in-game engine?
Also, this is a Bethesda game! I'll be holding back on purchasing until they resolve the inevitable problems that the initial release will have.
TheCrimsonFenix on 20 Apr '12 said:
Had a look at the trailer. Seems CVG were wrong thinking the image of what they thought was a Nord meant Skyrim DLC
Quite honestly I am not "getting" this game's draw. Never liked the whole big hands little body design of Fable and the art director of HL2 doesn't seem to be showing much variation.
I just do not like pre-rendered trailers either
JOHNKARA on 20 Apr '12 said:
This game has officially hit #1 on my "MUST BUY" list, followed by The Last of Us, Tomb Raider, Max Payne 3, BioShock Infinite and Sniper Elite V2.
Where is any mention of The Last Guardian, and what happened to a game called "The Agent" that Rockstar announced a few centuries back?