14 DAY TRIAL // Dishonored, the recently released stealth game from Arkane Studios, does quite a few things right. From the gritty steampunk-inspired city of Dunwall to the impressive level design that emphasizes choice and exploration.
Sadly, one of the main drawbacks is the A.I. system, which can sometimes be too observant of your moves and sometimes won’t even notice when you sneak in front of them.
Stealth in Dishonored is based on fields of view, so, theoretically, as long as you stay in cover and move when enemies aren’t looking in your general direction, you should be safe.
Practically, while the mechanic generally behaves well, there are quite a few exceptions and situations where the A.I. can be too smart or too dumb.
First, let’s talk about moments when your enemies can spot you despite not even looking in your general direction. These things have happened quite a lot in my playthrough and even when I had the Dark Vision supernatural ability, which allowed me to see through walls and observe other people’s fields of view, I was still spotted, despite the fact that my enemies weren’t even looking in my general direction.
Before you ask, I always crouched and my noise output was at a minimum, so they couldn’t have heard me sneaking around.
However, for all the moments when enemies noticed me, there were also quite a few sequences where they were completely oblivious, patrolling around me or entering the same building without noticing me.
I even got scared one time, as I was listening to an audio log and turned my view to a door through which a guard and his dog entered. Despite the fact that I was in their field of view, they didn’t notice and I had plenty of time to hide before they actually started moving in my general direction.
While these moments of erratic A.I. behavior are quite annoying, most of the times the enemies and NPCs in Dishonored behave well.