T w e n t y S i d e d

Well, that was fun. Thanks to everyone who joined in.

I found myself feeling WAY less negative than I anticipated. Even watching the game with the sound turned down and missing most of the story, I found quite a bit of stuff that I liked. I might get this once it’s patched up after release.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

After playing the most recent Hitman, I find myself feeling kind of disappointed with stealth games like this. When I clear a room, I know I can basically walk away and forget about it. If you come back to the room later you can feel safe, like you’ve “claimed” this territory. I don’t need to hide bodies, because almost nobody moves. Everyone sticks to a short little patrol. In Hitman there are people with long patrol loops that thread throughout the facility. This means you always have to be paranoid about leaving bodies behind, and you can’t ever relax. Sure, I took out the guards in this room a few minutes ago, but maybe someone else will show up at any moment.

You don’t need a lot of those traveling types. It only takes one or two to give you the feeling of paranoia and caution.

Side note: We were going to stream Mass Effect Andromeda this afternoon, but the game is just a black screen for Josh. This is apparently a common problem, and while there are many suggestions we haven’t found anything that works. So you might get a stream later today, or you might not.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

The Omar! I couldn’t remember the name of the blue-suit guys from Invisible War during the show, but that’s only because their name was dumb. It’s the Omar.

I’ve apparently forgotten 99% of my Dishonored playthrough (and watching the subsequent Spoiler Warning one) but I guess I remember the prison level really well.

I hadn’t noticed the similarities, but Chris is right: The world of Dishonored maps really well to Thief in a lot of ways. Daud’s assassins are a secretive group of stealthy manipulators like the Keepers. The Overseers seem to be majoring in fanatical religious authoritarian governance and minoring in steamworks technology, just like Thief’s Hammerites. Delilah has kind of this Pagan thing going on with her nature magic. Our lead character skulks around in the shadows knocking guys out. (Or shanking them, if he’s rubbish.)

Then again, this might be a byproduct of the setting. Once you create a world that’s just entering the industrial revolution, it’s pretty hard to NOT depict a tug of war between technology and nature, religion and freedom, rich and poor. These were all hallmarks of the Victorian Era and were a natural part of a society going through rapid change due to technology. A quasi-Victorian setting without pervasive class warfare might feel kind of toothless and inauthentic.

Sure, you CAN make up a world where this isn’t the case. But you’d need to spend a little more time and exposition on worldbuilding. If you’re just using the setting for aesthetic reasons, then there’s no reason mess with expectations. Throw in a few hints of religious fanatics, poverty, and civil unrest, and the user can extrapolate the rest of the world from the standard set of tropes.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.