Chapter 3: Taking a look at Dishonored

So looking at the games I wrote down to check how they are set up. I looked around on the internet looking at what the community think is one of the best levels in these games. In the end you may think you made an amazing level and people are going to love it. However if the players don't like it or have struggled playing through it, your level isn't good. So starting with the Dishonored series I looked around on Reddit where I found a great posts. People discussing the best levels in the entire Dishonored series*. And also what are the worst levels.
So today I am taking a look at why they think some levels are great. And why other levels are just terrible. I will just be looking at the main series and not any of the DLC.

A lot of people are talking about House of Pleasure and Lady Boyle's last party as their favorite missions for the first Dishonored game.Unfortunately Lady Boyle's last party isn't much of a stealth mission if you try to do it for the ghost achievement. So we will only take a look at House of Pleasure from the first game. As for the second game I notice a lot of people talking about Clockwork Mansion and a Crack in the Slab. Now since a Crack in the Slab is more puzzle oriented and not so much on stealth I will not be taking a look at that one. However, I found a good video where they talked about how they made the level which you can watch if you are interested (link at the end of the post).
Taking a look at House of Pleasure of course there are multiple ways of completing this level as it is with any level in Dishonored. You can go for the chaotic way and murdering people or go for the ghost way and try to never be seen of let any body be discovered. Now we are looking at the ghost way of the level since we want to make an actual stealth mission. Starting with this mission the game already tries to see how focused you are by having a patrolling guard on the stairs you walk up. Now you can easily avoid this one by just waiting a second and crouching past him. Now if you do the ghost mode you will have to do some side objectives and on your way to that side objective there are 3 assassins waiting for you. You can easily take these out by using your blink ability and getting behind these assassins and put them to sleep. What Dishonored does well in this level is that they use their architecture very well. By making use of the pipes and small balconies next to the buildings you can easily get to the assassins. Now you still need to stay silent otherwise they will hear you, because the game uses hard materials like steel on their pipes and roofs. Making sure that you stay crouched during the course of the game or otherwise get heard by the guards. These pipes are what makes a huge part of the ghost mode work well. They give you the opportunity to get past guards below you without being seen and with one of the most important mechanic in the game, the blink, you can get up easily. Aside from the pipes the game makes use of a lot of windows you can pass through. Now you can also stay low on the ground and try to blink past guards and hiding behind bushes and vehicles. And inside buildings you have desks you can hide under to avoid a patrolling guard. That way you have multiple ways to approach a level and often there are multiple solutions to completing a level depending on how you enter certain buildings as an example. 


So what can we take back from this first level that Dishonored does well? 
Dishonored creates a level that can be completed in different ways. From a non-lethal way to a lethal way. 
They make sure you can use the surroundings to your advantage and opening up different paths you can take to approach a level. 
Have different places to hide and strategize your next move.


There is no need to rush through the levels. You can take your time and wait for the guards to move if you are going for that ghost achievement. Now this is also why some people get annoyed with the longer levels in the game. Now I won't be going into too much detail since the worst levels can differ a lot depending of people's preference on the level. I will just briefly talk about it. So one of the longer missions is called Flooded Districts. Whenever you are trying to go full stealth mode the longer levels demand a lot of focus and concentration for a longer period of time. In a series that I used to play called Valkyria Chronicles you come across the same sort of level where it is important to not be seen and stay in the tall grass. However Enemies can pop up from the grass surprising you and then you are game over. Because of this I had to do the same level a couple of times and eventually even look up a guide to what path to take since it was really hard and getting on my nerves. So you really want to balance out the level and making sure it is not too short nor too long. 
Now as for Clockwork Mansion it has a more intricate design with a lot of different layers to the level. This level has a lot more ways to complete it since the rooms in the mansion can change around. As well as the order in which you complete the two objectives. Now in the mansion there are new enemies that get introduced. These enemies aren't you ordinary guards, but they are robots that can see in front and behind them. So you have to be even more aware of your movement and path. Now since this level takes place in a mansion and not outside like House of Pleasure there aren't any pipes or roofs you can go up to and walk around on the sneak your way past enemies. However that doesn't stop them from giving you the opportunity to sneak around. They created a lot of bars which you can blink to and still give you the upper hand by staying above your enemies. And the game rewards you for exploring the mansion showing you different ways through the level. You can go through the mansion itself or getting yourself behind the walls of the rooms and into a secret pathway in between all the intricate rooms that try to kill you. 
So what do we take away from this Dishonored 2 level?
Still make sure the player has multiple ways to complete the level so that way they can suit it to their play style.
Even though this area is inside you can still play around with the building's structure for the player to blink to and walk around the enemies.
And give players the opportunity to hide. They need to be able to get away from enemies and hide when they were almost spotted. They don't want to restart a whole level just because they made one little mistake and had nowhere to go and hide.
So with these two levels looked at we can say that the environmental design of the level is one of the most important factors for a stealth game. And something you really need to work and play around with. It is important for the players to know where they can go and what places are actual routes to take for the level. You can't create pipes the player can walk over and then also have a set op pipes they can't walk over. Continuity is a huge factor. Now that we have taken a look at one series and you know my way of thinking about these levels. You can go ahead and check out some other games for yourself. In the next chapter we will go over making our first layout of the level. Now we are still not starting up any engines whatsoever. Because we are going to draw this layout on paper (or perhaps Photoshop depends on your own preference). 


*Sources used:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_JKT2rHg50) - a Crack in the Slab how it's made
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TASkUT_1sY) - House of Pleasure walkthrough - Ghost/Clean Hands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEJ800qspcs) - Clockwork Mansion walkthrough - Ghost/Clean Hands

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