The Dishonored games are sparks of brilliance. There are two mainline games and one smaller spin-off, but all are contained within a gorgeous world that feels like a mash-up of steampunk and gothic England.
Dishonored and its follow-up Dishonored 2 come from Arkane Studios under Bethesda and are generally considered some of the best games of the last ten years. This is due to the genius mix of stealth and action gameplay used in levels that have multiple ways of completing them.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is an equally brilliant spin-off set in the same universe
While Dishonored is a linear game, dropping you into each level with a definitive starting and ending point, each enclosed level is its own sandbox. You can go all out and use weapons and special abilities to cause chaos; or you can rely on stealth and teleporting special abilities to move around unseen.
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There are many paths, items to interact with, enemies to distract or fight. Speak to anyone who has played these wonderful games and everyone will likely have tackled the game in different ways. It's a lot like Assassin's Creed in the way a mission can sprawl outwards in different ways, or Hitman when you have to think on the fly and change tactics.
Beyond the excellent gameplay the world is bursting with great characters that feel like caricatures of Gothic England residents - they're bulbous, awkward looking, often ugly, mirroring the ugliness inside them. And these people live in a world filled with oppression, a broken-down society living surrounded by Steampunk aesthetics, automatons and poverty.
It's easy to get lost in this trilogy of games, playing and replaying levels until you ace it in the way you wanted. Getting caught when trying to stealth, for example. With several ways to complete the game, each iteration has countless hours of brilliance just waiting for you.
Featured Image Credit: Sony/BethesdaTopics: Assassins Creed, Assassins Creed Valhalla, Bioshock, PlayStation, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Playstation Plus