Dishonored

In Dishonored, disgraced Royal Protector Corvo Attano returns to plague-stricken Dunwall after Empress Jessamine Kaldwin is murdered and her daughter Emily is taken. Framed and imprisoned, he escapes into a city ruled by a usurper, using stealth, weapons and Void-given powers to pursue the conspirators and shape the Empire’s future.

Dishonored is a first-person action-adventure set in Dunwall, a whaling city in the Empire of the Isles. Its industrial towers, narrow streets and elegant estates belong to a society under pressure: the Rat Plague has spread through the city, while the Lord Regent’s government tightens its control. Corvo Attano, the Empress’s Royal Protector, returns from a search for help abroad to find the court in crisis. Empress Jessamine Kaldwin is killed and her daughter Emily is abducted; Corvo is blamed, imprisoned and condemned. The campaign follows his escape and his work with a circle of Loyalists who hope to restore Emily and remove the usurper, Hiram Burrows. The central objective is clear, but the route through Dunwall and the consequences of each mission depend on what Corvo does along the way.

Each assignment sends Corvo into a distinct part of the city, from the sewers and guarded government spaces to the Boyle Estate, where a masked society gathering provides a very different kind of obstacle. Missions are built as spaces to inspect and cross rather than as a single corridor toward a marker. Guards patrol, civilians occupy rooms and streets, and overheard conversations, notes and environmental details can reveal useful context. Players can survey rooftops, windows, alleys and service passages before choosing an approach. A direct route may put Corvo in view of armed guards, while climbing, swimming, using a side entrance or waiting for a patrol to turn can open quieter paths. The levels also contain optional objectives and hidden items that reward looking beyond the immediate target, so exploration feeds both mission knowledge and character development.

Corvo combines conventional tools with supernatural abilities granted by the Outsider, a mysterious figure associated with the Void. Blink is the basic mobility power: it lets him teleport to a nearby visible location, making rooftops, ledges and gaps part of the route. Other powers serve different functions. Dark Vision exposes people and animals through walls so Corvo can time movement around patrols; Possession lets him inhabit animals or people to pass through spaces in another body; Bend Time can slow or stop events while he crosses a dangerous area. These abilities use the same spaces as ordinary movement, weapons and stealth, so the player can combine them. A guard can be bypassed with a teleport, distracted or incapacitated with a tool, confronted with a sword, or avoided by using an alternate entrance. Powers can also enable aggressive encounters, and their practical effect depends on how the player uses them.

Ranged weapons, close combat and equipment give Corvo options when a quiet route breaks down or when a player chooses to fight. His sword handles close encounters, while the crossbow and pistol let him attack from a distance; bolts and other equipment support different tactical situations. Traps, including spring razors, can be placed to affect enemies who enter their path. Dunwall’s security machinery adds another layer to infiltration: Arc Pylons and Walls of Light can make a route dangerous, and control panels or power sources create ways to interfere with the devices. Tallboys patrol on stilt-mounted frames and attack with incendiary arrows, changing how an exposed street or courtyard can be crossed. Sound and visibility matter during stealth, and being detected can turn an infiltration into combat rather than ending the mission. The player can respond by escaping, hiding, disabling threats or standing ground.

Character progression comes from finding Runes and Bone Charms as Corvo explores. Runes are spent to unlock and improve supernatural abilities, which asks the player to choose which powers fit a preferred approach instead of assuming every skill will be available immediately. Bone Charms provide smaller passive effects and can be equipped to adjust Corvo’s capabilities. The Outsider’s Heart helps point toward hidden Runes and Bone Charms, giving exploration a practical purpose as well as adding details about the people and places around him. This system connects the mission spaces to the campaign’s build choices: search an overlooked room and Corvo may gain a new power or a modest adjustment, then take that option into the next assignment. Weapons and tools are also supplied and developed through the story, while mission discoveries can expose alternate routes and non-lethal resolutions for major targets.

Dishonored tracks the level of chaos created by Corvo’s actions, with violence and deaths contributing to a more unsettled version of Dunwall. The result is not a simple score presented as a good-or-evil verdict; it affects the atmosphere and events that follow, including how characters respond and what later situations contain. Major targets can be dealt with lethally, but the game also offers non-lethal ways to remove them from power, often by uncovering information or exploiting the setting and the target’s position. That makes the objective more than reaching a person and winning a fight: players can investigate the surrounding area to find a resolution that changes what happens to that target. The choices made during each assignment carry into the larger campaign, giving stealth, combat and exploration consequences beyond the immediate encounter.

Between missions, Corvo returns to the Hound Pits Pub, the Loyalists’ base of operations. The hub brings him back into contact with figures such as Admiral Farley Havelock and inventor Piero Joplin, who support the effort against Burrows and provide access to equipment and information. It also offers a quieter view of the campaign’s changing relationships and condition of the city before the next operation begins. The original Dishonored follows Corvo’s campaign in Dunwall; its later story expansions, including The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches, are separate add-ons rather than chapters of this base-game account. The main game’s rhythm therefore moves from planning and exploration inside a mission to a return to the Loyalist hideout, then onward to another target and another part of the city.