Dishonored is about a supernatural assassin on either a vengeful rampage or a surgical series of subtle eliminations, otherwise known as the epitome of “cool.” The game establishes itself on the notion of giving the player a vast number of ways to approach any given problem, and the means to combine those abilities fluidly, resulting in a unique play-style for each player.

It takes place in a steampunk island city called Dunwall, where the player, inhabiting the role of Corvo Attano, personal bodyguard of the Empress Jessamine Kaldwin and her daughter Emily, currently resides. The game picks up after Corvo’s trips to the other island cities pleading for aid against a plague that is corrupting Dunwall’s population. Just minutes after the game starts, Jessamine is murdered, her daughter kidnapped, a new Lord Regent appointed, and Corvo framed and imprisoned.

Needless to say, the dude’s a little miffed.

The story’s fun and occasionally interesting, but it isn’t a selling point. It tells a nice revenge tale with Emily being in danger as your primary motivation for stabbing the entire army. She’s voiced by Chloe Grace Moretz, who does add a considerable amount to the role, but she feels flat, and falls short of truly great child characters like Clementine in The Walking Dead: The Game.

Speaking of the voice acting, there is an incredible amount of talent in this game’s cast. John Slattery plays Admiral Havelock, your primary ally in the Loyalist Conspiracy, and does a magnificent job with the decent dialogue he was given. The local shopkeeper and inventor, Piero Joplin, is voiced by Brad Dourif, who only really shines during his audiographs (the steampunk equivalent of an audio log in something like Borderlands).

The only real problem I have with the story is that it (intentionally or not) tricks you in regards to its length, and not just once. As the end approached, I imagined a multitude of missions lying ahead of me. As Corvo, I felt that my work would be unfinished. Those responsible had not fully paid for what they had done. My job was not complete.

The game, however, told me otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, Dishonored isn’t a short game, but it’s also not a particularly long one. The problem isn’t that I wanted more because there wasn’t enough, it’s that I wanted more because it felt like there should been more and I just wanted everything to keep going.

The flaw with Dishonored’s narrative might be that the gameplay is TOO engaging, that its world might be TOO bleakly beautiful and unique. The game is so great in most ways that its length is criminal, despite being above average for the medium in general.

Mechanically, the game is all about giving you a ton of cool, simple powers that you can combine fluidly for emergent combat and maneuverability. Corvo has a number of gadgets supplied to him by Piero, as well as magic powers that he acquires due to a mark on his hand given to him by a god/devil character known as the Outsider.

The Outsider’s role in the plot is left ambiguous for the most part, so I won’t go into detail, but he initially gives Corvo the Blink ability, allowing him to teleport a short distance, an invaluable tool in Corvo’s arsenal. There are many other abilities, but the fun is in their discovery.

In addition, the game gives you physical items, like spike traps, grenades, and a crossbow with a few variations of bolt type. Given the variety and abundance of tools the game grants the player, you can use each in whatever way you see fit to make your way through Corvo’s assignments as you like.

Because of this, the game keeps track of your choices and builds itself around the idea of choice and consequence as a result of all of the emergent possibilities inherent in its gameplay. Killing all of the guards and civilians in a level will raise your Chaos level, meaning that more swarms of rats will populate the level (as a result of there being more bodies for them to gnaw on), more wanted posters with Corvo’s mask plastered on them, and an entirely different final level and ending.

I personally find it a much better motivator for multiple playthroughs than having a number of dialogue options.

Dialogue choices feel like momentary things, ways for you to express yourself and place yourself into a character, despite how large their consequences may be down the line. They feel natural, not like something you can do again just to see how differently things turn out.

The Chaos level in Dishonored, however, makes more sense to me. I don’t make spur of moment choices on whether or not I want to see blood come out of that guard’s neck. I went in knowing how I would play, and that it would lead me to a certain conclusion to the game.

The art design was headed by Victor Antonov, who also designed City 17 in Half-Life 2, and his influence shows here. Dunwall feels like a predecessor to City 17, a mixture of science fiction and Eastern European architecture that meshes well but is still unique.

Every location provides a different visual feast, which encourages thorough exploration outside of simple mechanical gain. Runes for leveling up certain spells or attributes and Bone Charms for bonuses are all fine reasons to look in every corner, but it’s also just a joy to see how Dunwall ticks, how all of its factions operate, and whether every path leads to something cool.

Bottom line is Dishonored rocks. I wanted more and more, but not for lack of content. I wanted to spend more time with the characters, my sweet blade, and the amazingly helpful Blink. It’s a game I foresee myself playing many times, which is something I don’t do often. It’s a quality effort, and an excellent new IP.