Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic

Chief among these is the “blink” system, which lets you instantly turn from one point to another in a way that now reminds me of similar nausea-preventing movement systems seen in many virtual reality games. Here, being able to move from one hidden corner to another without the risk of being spotted revolutionizes stealth gameplay.

Climbing onto a nearby rooftop or towering over an unsuspecting enemy in the blink of an eye is incredibly gratifying, making you feel less like a creeping killer and more like an actual superhero. The same goes for “Dark Vision” which lets you see enemies and allies through walls, an ability that’s even more essential in a game without any kind of mini-map to help you know the lie of the lay of the land.

The opposite of elegant, super-powerful stealth combat rejected May feel a little slow and disorganized. This is made worse due to the game’s “chaos system”, which sends endless waves of enemies turning each violent battle into a war of attrition against an almost overwhelming force.

It’s generally a better idea to keep blinking for safety until they quickly stop chasing. Or, even better, avoid combat altogether by staying in the shadows, only coming out when you can cleanly and quietly kill your next assassination target.

In shorter games, the assassination-focused gameplay can run the risk of feeling too repetitive. But rejectedIts structure encourages different paths to the same end goal in each mission, ranging from magically aided espionage to social manipulation and eavesdropping to actually taking a moral stance in a long-running feud.

Add side quests that provide plenty of opportunities for creative problem solving, and you have a game that encourages multiple playthroughs to explore all the different ways you can succeed. That should be reason enough to watch it again rejectedOr to dive in for the first time if you missed it during its debut.

Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links in this post through affiliate programs.