@Urouge:
So you're holding it to a different standard based on the publisher.
Not at all. I only cited those games because you mentioned Skyrim.
After all, Bethesda only published it, they didn't develop it, so I wasn't expecting another Skyrim. But then again they only published New Vegas, which did live up to Bethesda's name, which Doshonored was marketed with, and, of course, with that name comes an assumption, and all the previews and reviews fed into that assumption, and so when I got my hands on it, the game I was playing was drastically different from what I thought I was buying. And it would have been fine if the game had encouraged more replayability within itself, but I felt like the world was just there to oogle at and had no real depth, and the limited open world hurt it, in my opinion.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
@DarthAsthma:
The game was never painted as an rpg to begin with.
Except it kind of was. Not your normal RPG, mind you, but so much was made of all the different ways you could play the game. About how everything was open to player choice. But nothing about the game made me want to try different play styles.
As for the game itself I don't get the complaint that dishonored was a linear game. The game's special future is non linearity in the way you can approach mission objectives. Also linearity isn't really a real negative if you can't explain why. The uncharted games are linear as hell and yet their pretty awesome for different reasons.
I don't really get where this is coming from, as I haven't heard this complaint. After all, it's somewhere in between Linear and open world. And it's not really a complaint I share. After all, I love linear games just as much as an open world one.
My problem with Dishonored is that it's in between and doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. I the entire world was always open I would have definitely spent more time invested in it, or if it had been more linear and they had focused on adding more depth to the main game.
And, you know, I'm really glad you mention Bioshock, as that one of my all time favorite games (right up there with Zelda–OoY, MM, WW, SS take you pick I lump them all together-- and Silent Hill 2) and it really had the same deal going on, where specific parts of the world would open up to you at the time allowing for an open world experience, but the game was still very much linear. Bioshock knew what it wanted to be from the start, and it delivered one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had, and it blew my mind, though the two aren't mutually exclusive.
That's really the crux of my disappointment, to me it feels like Dishonored doesn't know what it wants to be, thus I was expecting something different than what I got.
Do I think it's the worse game of the year? No. Do I think it would have been as much of a critical darling had Bethesda not published it? No. Do I think it would be nominated for GotY had Bethesda not published it? No.
In the end, this is all opinion, so would you kindly just let me opinion echo out and then die so we can end this argument?