A few of the thousands of games I’ve played have such vivid and memorable worlds that I can immediately think of them. The animated Holy Land of the 2007s Assassin’s CreedThe industrial Midgar of the 1997s Final Fantasy VII (and the robust 2020 version), the vast Tamriel of 2011 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. These are different places filled with iconic architecture and landscapes, settings that I always love to get lost in for hours. But none come close to Dunwall’s 2012 atmospheric consistency. dishonourable, whaling town So rich in detail, so environmentally and thematically intertwined, it gives me goosebumps. An unforgettable backdrop of sneaking and stabbing that remains in my mind after all these years.
Developed by Arkane Studios and released in October 2012 (10 years old this month), dishonourable is a stealth action-adventure game where you play as master-protect-return-master-assassin. Corvo Attano. Framed for a murder you didn’t commit, you find yourself locked up and awaiting execution, primarily because you don’t have the power or strength to prevent it. brutal-esque Coldridge Prison. However, just before you get confused, you break out of your prison cell (with the help of some dark organization) and are cast by a mysterious supernatural entity known as a magician. Foreign to avenge him and prevent him from taking over a hostile government by cruel dickheads who shouldn’t be in power. it occurs dishonourable‘s narrative milestone sends you on a nine-mission quest to assassinate the unsuspecting. But as challenging as the storytelling was, that wasn’t what appealed to me. It was a restless world and always has been.
Everything Is Threatening, Even Architecture
There is an uncomfortable juxtaposition between classes in Dunwall. The industrial city, devastated by a deadly and deadly epidemic caused by the rat plague, shows that the proletariat suffered much more than the aristocracy for obvious reasons. Money goes far. But while the wealthy think they can escape death, Corvo and Dunwall have something else. Aspect late empress Jessamine Kaldwin He said at the beginning of the game that everyone is trapped in the cursed city because of the virus, doomed to die either by an infection in the body or a knife in the heart. This is a tragedy deliberately facilitated by callous government officials who, despite using resources (other than Kaldwin himself) to fight the crisis, are very reluctant to deal with it. And you feel the weight of this inhuman decision all over Dunwall, for the sickness of all and the callous indifference of the powerful inevitably lead to corpse-strewn alleys. The soullessness of those in power is frightening, especially when they hold your life in their selfish hands. At least those who oppressed Dunwall suffer the same fate, as most walled cities were devastated by the enforced blockade by the religious monarchy.
And those walls… Equally oppressive and intimidating. It’s not claustrophobic…