Unlike most big-budget, contemporary adventure games, Dishonored is set in a strange world—a unique combination of Victorian and modern-day England, with characters that look like they escaped from an Edward Gorey illustration. The focus isn’t on shooting. Instead, it’s about creative, strategic thinking in the vein of games like Deus Ex, Thief and BioShock, and includes many of the best aspects of each.

You play as Corvo, a royal bodyguard framed for murder in the whaling city of Dunwall. In order to prove your innocence and/or exact revenge, you must traverse the city’s open, elaborately imagined environments. A series of powers are made available, which allow you to deal with almost any situation in a multitude of different ways: the Blink power, for instance, lets you perform short-range teleportation. You can also combine them to create new effects. For example, it’s possible to stop time and knock a bunch of junk off of a table to get a guard’s attention, and then book it in the other direction to make your escape. Alternatively, you might choose to summon a swarm of rats to attack a guard, and then possess one of said rats and escape in the ensuing chaos. There are guns, but they’re far from the only road to success.

There are narrative missteps here and there, and the game can be a bit overwhelming for those looking for a straight-ahead action experience. But Dishonored is an incredibly ambitious game, and is clearly one of the year’s deepest, most life-engulfing titles.

Hint: Don’t forget about your lean mechanic—leaning around corners allows Corvo to see (as well as aim) without risk of being seen.

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by Devin Santos