Well, i actually replayed the game in the last 2 weeks. Fully. I’m as surprised as you are. I just wanted to try it out again for a few minutes, dip into the world again as a beautiful memory, and to my surprise I found it almost as wonderful the second pass through as the first time. All the while I was tormenting myself with guilt, asking myself why i’m not playing some new game, of the many big games I haven’t yet gotten around to play, to experience new artwork, yet I was having so much enjoyment at every moment when I was near the choice Dishonored won again. So one could honestly ask… why? Here’s my answers:
- the artwork is still beautiful
- because of the many micro choices, paths to take and ways to solve little obstacles with either powers or different world traversals whenever I asked my mind as to what would happen next, a question which usually suffices from me re-watching a movie or re-reading a book, my mind would not give back an answer, and thus it always felt fresh. The long story, the twists and the addon content also helped in thus delightfully confusing my memory allowing me to relive a wonderful experience
- there were actually bigger level choices to make which gave a certain freshness both to results and to styles of play
- unlike a movie in a game I was constantly choosing my own camera angles, avoiding the familiar and thus creating a new sequence of events and just as importantly new angles, which was important because:
- the artwork in general is so good and original that i felt i had a lot to learn and memorize by simply seeing them from a new angle and with a fresh perspective.
On second pass I wasn’t that excited about the Knife of Dunwall content, as it felt a bit more of the same (though what a beautiful same!), but with the 2nd addon Brigmore Witches content I was again impressed and delighted, the brave artwork directions, particularly the haunted mansion location as well as the gameplay tweaks in the mechanics (the high float, and the delightful Fallout-esque very tempting artifacts which were incredibly powerful but with a huge down side too).
Overall I still warmly recommending this game for it’s original artwork, interesting story and most importantly a very original and interesting world universe setting.
