Dishonored

Dishonored takes the player to the city of Dunwall, a whale-oil-powered port being devoured by a plague epidemic and a police regime. The main character, Corvo Attano, is the empress's personal bodyguard accused of her murder; after escaping prison, he receives supernatural abilities from a mysterious being and goes after the people who orchestrated the conspiracy. Crucially, the game never dictates how to reach a goal, instead offering densely interconnected levels full of windows, rooftops, sewers, and service corridors.

Gameplay rests on a combination of talent and tools. A short teleport lets you vanish between ledges, dark vision reveals through walls, and other abilities stop time or summon rats. Alongside these there's a sword, a crossbow with sleep and incendiary bolts, and traps that can be turned against an enemy. Runes and bone charms hidden throughout the levels expand abilities and passive perks, so two playthroughs by the same person can differ right from character building. Every target also has an alternative, non-lethal solution hidden somewhere in the side content, and the game tracks how much blood you leave behind; higher chaos means more rats, more infected, and a darker ending.

Artistically, this is one of the most distinctive worlds of the generation. Hand-painted textures, distorted character proportions, and an oil-driven Victorian technology create an environment that doesn't age because it never bet on photorealism. Levels like the masquerade ball rank among the high points of environment design for the whole generation. Sound works with a constant hum of machinery and guard conversations that reveal more than they should. Contemporary reception was very strong, and the game is still cited today as an example of a successful immersive sim. A pair of story expansions later followed, telling a side story from a completely different perspective. Today it ranks among the best-aging titles on the Xbox 360 and is worth going through more than once with a different approach.