A view of a mission in which you attend a masquerade, having no idea who your masked target is. Sounds like great fun!
Also, it appears that there's an enemy who can nullify your magical abilities. In a game whose developers adamantly admire game-breaking powers, it's very nice to know that there is balance like that.
Reporters who played through the level had some pretty interesting things to say too.
“It was one of the best missions I’ve played in any game. It combined the sophisticated murder-planning I love in Hitman with the old-school stealth of Thief, and the unpredictable, systems-driven combat of BioShock. Going back and exploring all the paths I didn’t take, the city blocks of explorable space I missed, gave me a taste of its extraordinary scope.”
In addition to Sir Francis, a number of journalists previewed the mission while attending QuakeCon 2012. Read detailed impressions at these sites::
Shacknews – “When I was finally done, I had played through the mission three times, and each playthrough was completely different. And in talking to others who gave it a try, I found that their tactics were even different from mine.”
Kotaku - “…Dishonored allows for an incredible depth of possibilities, the interacting systems facilitating your ability to create new and unknown things out of the familiar, and I can’t wait to find out what they are.”
The Verge - “Like a catchy album, this latest Dishonored demo has gotten inexorably stuck in my head.”
Gamespot - “After playing through Lady Boyle’s Last Party I’m even more excited for Dishonored than I was after E3. I’m also curious to see if and how the team at Arkane manages to keep the game from getting dull for those of us who are excited at the idea of completing the game without ever killing anyone.”
Destructoid - “Arkane isn’t like most developers and
Dishonored isn’t like most games. It will be an uphill battle convincing the mainstream that the game becomes approachable in time, but for us core gamers, we are in for a rare treat that blends action and stealth in a way we’ve never seen before.”
IGN – “Dishonored is so exciting to me not only because it rewards creative gameplay, but because so much care was clearly taken to build a place with enough layers and moving pieces to give it a curious plausibility, to make it seem like every time you push it pushes right back.”
Gaming Angels – “I honestly believed that I would treat
Dishonored like I did
Deus Ex, and give up on the stealth completely, but this preview really gave me a great taste of how much fun and brilliantly creative stealth can be. ”
OXM Online - “Turns out our black-equals-evil strategy works, as the two innocent sisters are spared while their corrupt government-funding sibling lie in an undignified heap. When we later boast of our successful, if lucky, play-through to Smith, he takes us down a few pegs, reminding ‘the mission is dynamic and always changes.’ In other words, the lady in black won’t always be the one deserving of Corvo’s blade. We look forward to re-tackling this mission — particularly using an especially inspired non-lethal method Smith shares with us, but we won’t spoil here — when
Dishonored launches this October.”
